I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1282 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish Acquisition Review 
Boards in the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 1, 2017 
Mr. GARRETT (for himself and Mr. MCCAUL) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
A BILL 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish 
Acquisition Review Boards in the Department of Home-
land Security, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DHS Acquisition Re-
view Board Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title VIII of the 
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 391 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
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‘‘SEC. 836. ACQUISITION REVIEW BOARD. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish an 
Acquisition Review Board (in this section referred to as 
the ‘Board’) to— 
‘‘(1) strengthen accountability and uniformity 
within the Department acquisition review process; 
‘‘(2) review major acquisition programs; and 
‘‘(3) review the use of best practices. 
‘‘(b) COMPOSITION.—The Under Secretary for Man-
agement shall serve as chair of the Board. The Secretary 
shall also ensure participation by other relevant Depart-
ment officials, including at least two component heads or 
their designees, as permanent members of the Board. 
‘‘(c) MEETINGS.—The Board shall meet regularly for 
purposes of ensuring all acquisitions processes proceed in 
a timely fashion to achieve mission readiness. The Board 
shall convene at the Secretary’s discretion and at any 
time— 
‘‘(1) a major acquisition program— 
‘‘(A) requires authorization to proceed 
from one acquisition decision event to another 
throughout the acquisition life cycle; 
‘‘(B) is in breach of its approved require-
ments; or 
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‘‘(C) requires additional review, as deter-
mined by the Under Secretary for Management; 
or 
‘‘(2) a non-major acquisition program requires 
review, as determined by the Under Secretary for 
Management. 
‘‘(d) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The responsibilities of the 
Board are as follows: 
‘‘(1) Determine whether a proposed acquisition 
has met the requirements of key phases of the acqui-
sition life cycle framework and is able to proceed to 
the next phase and eventual full production and de-
ployment. 
‘‘(2) Oversee whether a proposed acquisition’s 
business strategy, resources, management, and ac-
countability is executable and is aligned to strategic 
initiatives. 
‘‘(3) Support the person with acquisition deci-
sion authority for an acquisition in determining the 
appropriate direction for such acquisition at key ac-
quisition decision events. 
‘‘(4) Conduct systematic reviews of acquisitions 
to ensure that such acquisitions are progressing in 
compliance with the approved documents for their 
current acquisition phases. 
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‘‘(5) Review the acquisition documents of each 
major acquisition program, including the acquisition 
program baseline and documentation reflecting con-
sideration of tradeoffs among cost, schedule, and 
performance objectives, to ensure the reliability of 
underlying data. 
‘‘(6) Ensure that practices are adopted and im-
plemented to require consideration of trade-offs 
among cost, schedule, and performance objectives as 
part of the process for developing requirements for 
major acquisition programs prior to the initiation of 
the second acquisition decision event, including, at a 
minimum, the following practices: 
‘‘(A) Department officials responsible for 
acquisition, budget, and cost estimating func-
tions are provided with the appropriate oppor-
tunity to develop estimates and raise cost and 
schedule matters before performance objectives 
are established for capabilities when feasible. 
‘‘(B) Full consideration is given to possible 
trade-offs among cost, schedule, and perform-
ance objectives for each alternative. 
‘‘(e) ACQUISITION PROGRAM BASELINE REPORT RE-
QUIREMENT.—If the person exercising acquisition decision 
authority over a major acquisition program approves such 
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program to proceed into the planning phase before such 
program has a Department-approved acquisition program 
baseline, the Under Secretary for Management shall cre-
ate and approve an acquisition program baseline report 
regarding such approval, and the Secretary shall— 
‘‘(1) within seven days after an acquisition deci-
sion memorandum is signed, notify in writing the 
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate of 
such decision; and 
‘‘(2) within 60 days after the acquisition deci-
sion memorandum is signed, submit to such commit-
tees a report stating the rationale for such decision 
and a plan of action to require an acquisition pro-
gram baseline for such program. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) ACQUISITION.—The term ‘acquisition’ has 
the meaning given such term in section 131 of title 
41, United States Code. 
‘‘(2) ACQUISITION DECISION AUTHORITY.—The 
term ‘acquisition decision authority’ means the au-
thority, held by the Secretary acting through the 
Deputy Secretary or Under Secretary for Manage-
ment to— 
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‘‘(A) ensure compliance with Federal law, 
the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and De-
partment acquisition management directives; 
‘‘(B) review (including approving, pausing, 
modifying, or cancelling) an acquisition pro-
gram through the life cycle of such program; 
‘‘(C) ensure that acquisition program man-
agers have the resources necessary to success-
fully execute an approved acquisition program; 
‘‘(D) ensure good acquisition program 
management of cost, schedule, risk, and system 
performance of the acquisition program at 
issue, including assessing acquisition program 
baseline breaches and directing any corrective 
action for such breaches; and 
‘‘(E) ensure that acquisition program man-
agers, on an ongoing basis, monitor cost, sched-
ule, and performance against established base-
lines and use tools to assess risks to an acquisi-
tion program at all phases of the life cycle of 
such program to avoid and mitigate acquisition 
program baseline breaches. 
‘‘(3) ACQUISITION DECISION EVENT.—The term 
‘acquisition decision event’, with respect to an acqui-
sition program, means a predetermined point within 
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