I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4969 
To improve the design and construction of diplomatic posts, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 7, 2018 
Mr. MCCAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To improve the design and construction of diplomatic posts, 
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 ‘‘Improving Embassy 
Design and Security Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. IMPROVING EMBASSY CONSTRUCTION. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that the decision by 
the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings 
Operations (‘‘OBO’’) to transition from Standard Em-
bassy Design to Design Excellence has in many cases— 
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(1) increased the cost of building new embassies 
and consulates; 
(2) delayed the move of thousands of staff from 
facilities that do not meet current security standards 
to new, secure facilities; 
(3) exacerbated certain deficiencies in the qual-
ity of the Bureau’s program management; 
(4) been a factor in reduced competition for 
capital construction projects; and 
(5) been a complicating factor in achieving the 
Department’s own security requirements. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the OBO should give appropriate consideration 
to Standard Embassy Design, in which each new embassy 
and consulate starts with a standard design and keeps 
customization to a minimum. 
(c) DELIVERY.— 
(1) DESIGN-BUILD
PROJECT
DELIVERY.—Ex-
cept in cases in which the Secretary of State deter-
mines that such would not be appropriate, the Sec-
retary shall make use of the design-build project de-
livery system at diplomatic posts that have not yet 
received design or construction contracts as of the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
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(2) STANDARD
DESIGN.—The Secretary of 
State shall give preference to the use of a standard 
design, together with design-build delivery under 
paragraph (1). 
(3) VERTICAL
STANDARD
DESIGN.—The Sec-
retary of State shall develop a vertical standard de-
sign that can be implemented according to the De-
partment of State’s requisite security and spatial 
needs for diplomatic posts that are to be situated on 
a smaller plot of land. 
(4) BRIDGING.—The Secretary of State shall 
make use of bridging to adapt the standard design 
under paragraph (2) with design-build project deliv-
ery under paragraph (1) at diplomatic posts that re-
quire a more customized design due to climatic, geo-
graphic, or functional requirements. 
(5) OTHER APPLICATION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State 
may make use of design-bid-build delivery with 
non-standard design in limited instances of par-
ticular diplomatic importance as determined by 
the Secretary. 
(B) LIMITATION.—The Secretary of State 
may not delegate the authority of the Secretary 
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under subparagraph (A) to make use of design- 
bid-build delivery with non-standard design. 
(d) CONSULTATION
REGARDING
NON-STANDARD 
DESIGNS.—The Secretary of State shall carry out any new 
diplomatic post project that is in the design phase or pre- 
design phase as of the date of the enactment of this Act 
and that utilizes bridging or non-standard design under 
subsection (c) only after notification to and consultation 
with the appropriate congressional committees. Such noti-
fication and consultation shall include provision to the ap-
propriate congressional committees, for each such project, 
of the following documentation: 
(1) A comparison of the estimated full lifecycle 
costs of the project at issue to the estimated full 
lifecycle costs of such project if such project were to 
use a standard design. 
(2) A comparison of the estimated completion 
date of such project to the estimated completion 
date of such project if such project were to use a 
standard design. 
(3) A comparison of the security of such com-
pleted project to the security of such completed 
project if such completed project were to use a 
standard design. 
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(4) A justification for the Secretary’s selection 
of a non-standard design over a standard design for 
such project. 
(e) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—Not later than 
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of State shall report to the appropriate congres-
sional committees regarding performance evaluation meas-
ures in line with GAO’s ‘‘Standards for Internal Control 
in the Federal Government’’ that will be applicable to the 
Bureau of Overseas Building Operations of the Depart-
ment of State. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate. 
(2) BRIDGING.—The term ‘‘bridging’’ means a 
delivery method for construction projects that is a 
hybrid of the traditional ‘‘design-bid-build’’ and the 
‘‘design-build’’ methods, whereby the Bureau of 
Overseas Building Operations of the Department of 
State first contracts with a design firm to develop a 
project-specific, partial design that a construction 
contractor and its design firm then complete, the ob-
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jective of which is to retain the best features of the 
design-bid-build and design-build methods for the 
project owner and eliminate those aspects of each 
such method that often cause problems for such 
owner. 
(3) DESIGN-BID-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-bid- 
build’’ means a method of project delivery in which 
a design entity is first contracted to provide a design 
and a construction entity is subsequently contracted 
to build the awarded design contract. 
(4) DESIGN-BUILD.—The term ‘‘design-build’’ 
means a method of project delivery in which one en-
tity, such as the design-build team, works under a 
single contract with the project owner to provide de-
sign and construction services. 
(5) NON-STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘non- 
standard design’’ means a new diplomatic post de-
sign that does not utilize a standardized design tem-
plate for the structural, spatial, and security require-
ments of such post. 
(6) STANDARD DESIGN.—The term ‘‘standard 
design’’ means a diplomatic post design that utilizes 
a standardized design template for the structural, 
spatial, and security requirements of such post. 
Æ 
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