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Title II — Acquisition Program Management Discipline

H.R. 4228 · 113th Congress · Jun 10, 2014 · Lineage

II Acquisition Program Management Discipline

Sec. 201 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:

“836. Acquisition Review Board

“(a) In general—The Secretary shall establish an Acquisition Review Board (in this section referred to as the “Board”) to strengthen accountability and uniformity within the Department acquisition review process, review major acquisition programs, and review the use of best practices.

“(b) Composition—The Deputy Secretary or Under Secretary for Management shall serve as chair of the Board. The Secretary shall also ensure participation by other relevant Department officials, including at least two Component heads or their designees, as permanent members of the Board.

“(c) Meetings—The Board shall meet every time a major acquisition program needs authorization to proceed from acquisition decision events through the acquisition life cycle and to consider any major acquisition program in breach as necessary. The Board may also be convened for non-major acquisitions that are deemed high-risk by the Executive Director referred to in section 709(b) of this Act. The Board shall also meet regularly for purposes of ensuring all acquisitions processes proceed in a timely fashion to achieve mission readiness.

“(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 acquisition life cycle framework and is able to proceed to the next phase and eventual full production and deployment.

“(2) Oversee executable business strategy, resources, management, accountability, and alignment to strategic initiatives.

“(3) Support the person with acquisition decision authority for an acquisition in determining the appropriate direction for the acquisition at key acquisition decision events.

“(4) Conduct systematic reviews of acquisitions to ensure that they are progressing in compliance with the approved documents for their current acquisition phase.

“(5) Validate the acquisition documents of each major acquisition program, including the acquisition program baseline, to ensure the reliability of underlying data.

“(6) Ensure that practices are adopted and implemented 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 capability development plan, second acquisition decision event, including, at a minimum, the following practices:

“(A) Department officials responsible for acquisition, budget, and cost estimating functions are provided with the appropriate opportunity to develop estimates and raise cost and schedule matters before performance objectives are established for capabilities when feasible.

“(B) Full consideration of possible trade-offs among cost, schedule, and performance objectives for each alternative is considered.

“(e) Acquisition program baseline report requirement—If the person exercising acquisition decision authority over a major acquisition program approves the program to proceed beyond the acquisition decision event requiring a capability development plan before it has a Department-approved acquisition program baseline, then the Under Secretary for Management shall create and approve an acquisition program baseline report on the decision, and the Secretary shall—

“(1) within seven days after an acquisition decision memorandum is signed, notify in writing the congressional homeland security committees of such decision; and

“(2) within 60 days after the acquisition decision memorandum is signed, submit a report to such committees stating the rationale for the decision and a plan of action to require an acquisition program baseline for the program.

“(f) Best practices defined—In this section, the term best practices has the meaning provided in section 4(b) of the DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act.”

(b)
Clerical amendment— The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et seq.) is further amended by adding after the item relating to section 835 the following new item:

Sec. 202 Requirements to reduce duplication in acquisition programs

(a)
In general— Subtitle D of title VIII of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 391 et seq.) is further amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“837. Requirements to reduce duplication in acquisition programs

“(a) Requirement To establish policies—In an effort to reduce duplication and inefficiency for all Department investments, including major acquisition programs, the Deputy Secretary, in consultation with the Under Secretary for Management, shall establish Department-wide policies to integrate all phases of the investment life cycle and help the Department identify, validate, and prioritize standards for common Component requirements for major acquisition program requirements in order to increase opportunities for effectiveness and efficiencies. The policies shall also include strategic alternatives for developing and facilitating a Department Component-driven requirements process that includes oversight of a development test and evaluation capability; identification of priority gaps and overlaps in Department capability needs; and provision of feasible technical alternatives, including innovative commercially available alternatives, to meet capability needs.

“(b) Mechanisms To carry out requirement—The Deputy Secretary, in consultation with the Under Secretary for Management, shall coordinate the actions necessary to carry out subsection (a), using such mechanisms as considered necessary by the Secretary to help the Department reduce duplication and inefficiency for all Department investments, including major acquisition programs.

“(c) Coordination—In coordinating the actions necessary to carry out subsection (a), the Deputy Secretary shall consult with the Under Secretary for Management, Component Acquisition Executives, and any other Department officials, including the Under Secretary for Science and Technology or his designee, with specific knowledge of Department or Component acquisition capabilities to prevent unnecessary duplication of requirements.

“(d) Advisors—The Deputy Secretary, in consultation with the Under Secretary for Management, shall seek and consider input within legal and ethical boundaries from members of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, as appropriate, on matters within their authority and expertise in carrying out the Department’s mission.

“(e) Meetings—The Deputy Secretary, in consultation with the Under Secretary for Management, shall meet at least quarterly and communicate with Components often to ensure that Components do not overlap or duplicate spending or priorities on major investments and acquisition programs within their areas of responsibility.

“(f) Responsibilities—In carrying out this section, the responsibilities of the Deputy Secretary are as follows:

“(1) To review and validate the requirements documents of major investments and acquisition programs prior to acquisition decision events of the investments or programs.

“(2) To ensure the requirements and scope of a major investment or acquisition program are stable, measurable, achievable, at an acceptable risk level, and match the resources planned to be available.

“(3) Before any entity of the Department issues a solicitation for a new contract, coordinate with other Department entities as appropriate to prevent duplication and inefficiency and—

“(A) to implement portfolio reviews to identify common mission requirements and crosscutting opportunities among Components to harmonize investments and requirements and prevent overlap and duplication among Components; and

“(B) to the extent practicable, to standardize equipment purchases, streamline the acquisition process, improve efficiencies, and conduct best practices for strategic sourcing.

“(4) To ensure program managers of major investments and acquisition programs conduct analyses, giving particular attention to factors such as cost, schedule, risk, performance, and operational efficiency in order to determine that programs work as intended within cost and budget expectations.

“(5) To propose schedules for delivery of the operational capability needed to meet each Department investment and major acquisition program.

“(g) Best practices defined—In this section, the term best practices has the meaning provided in section 4(b) of the DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act.”

(b)
Clerical amendment— The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et seq.) is further amended by adding after the item relating to section 836 the following new item:

Sec. 203 Government Accountability Office review of Board and of requirements to reduce duplication in acquisition programs

(a)
Review required— The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a review of the effectiveness of the Acquisition Review Board established under section 836 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (as added by section 201) and the requirements to reduce duplication in acquisition programs established under section 837 of such Act (as added by section 202) in improving the Department’s acquisition management process.
(b)
Scope of report— The review shall include the following:
(1)
An assessment of the effectiveness of the Department in increasing program management oversight, best practices and standards, and discipline among the Components of the Department, including in working together and in preventing overlap and duplication.
(2)
An assessment of the effectiveness of the Department in instilling program management discipline.
(3)
A statement of how regularly each major acquisition program is reviewed by the Board, how often the Board stops major acquisition programs from moving forward in the phases of the acquisition life cycle process, and the number of major acquisition programs that have been halted because of problems with operational effectiveness, schedule delays, or cost overruns.
(c)
Report required— The Comptroller General shall submit to the congressional homeland security committees a report on the review required by this section not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act. The report shall be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex.

Sec. 204 Excluded Party List System waivers

The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide notification to the congressional homeland security committees within five days after the issuance of a waiver by the Secretary of Federal requirements that an agency not engage in business with a contractor in the Excluded Party List System (or successor system) as maintained by the General Services Administration and an explanation for a finding by the Secretary that a compelling reason exists for this action.

Sec. 205 Inspector General oversight of suspension and debarment

The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security—
(1)
may audit decisions about grant and procurement awards to identify instances where a contract or grant was improperly awarded to a suspended or debarred entity and whether corrective actions were taken to prevent recurrence; and
(2)
shall review the suspension and debarment program throughout the Department of Homeland Security to assess whether suspension and debarment criteria are consistently applied throughout the Department and whether disparities exist in the application of such criteria, particularly with respect to business size and categories.