Sec. 302. Multiyear acquisition strategy
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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: Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate homeland security committees a multiyear acquisition strategy to guide the overall direction of the acquisitions of the Department while allowing flexibility to deal with ever-changing threats and risks and to help industry better understand, plan, and align resources to meet the future acquisition needs of the Department.
The strategy shall be updated and included in each Future Years Homeland Security Program required under section 874 of this Act. In developing the strategy, the Secretary shall consult with others as the Secretary deems appropriate, including headquarters, Components, employees in the field, and when appropriate, individuals from industry and the academic community. The report shall be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex for any sensitive or classified information if necessary.
The Department also shall publish the plan in an unclassified format that is publicly available. The strategy shall include the following: A systematic and integrated prioritized list developed by the Under Secretary for Management or his designee in coordination with all of the Component Acquisition Executives of Department major acquisition programs that Department and Component acquisition investments seek to address, that includes the expected security and economic benefit of the program or system and an analysis of how the security and economic benefit derived from the program or system will be measured.
A plan to develop a reliable Department-wide inventory of investments and real property assets to help the Department plan, budget, schedule, and acquire upgrades of its systems and equipment and plan for the acquisition and management of future systems and equipment. A plan to address funding gaps between funding requirements for major acquisition programs and known available resources including, to the maximum extent practicable, ways of leveraging best practices to identify and eliminate overpayment for items to prevent wasteful purchasing, achieve the greatest level of efficiency and cost savings by rationalizing purchases, aligning pricing for similar items, and utilizing purchase timing and economies of scale.
An identification of test, evaluation, modeling, and simulation capabilities that will be required to support the acquisition of the technologies to meet the needs of the plan and ways to leverage to the greatest extent possible the emerging technology trends and research and development trends within the public and private sectors and an identification of ways to ensure that the appropriate technology is acquired and integrated into the Department’s operating doctrine and procured in ways that improve mission performance.
An assessment of ways the Department can improve its ability to test and acquire innovative solutions to allow needed incentives and protections for appropriate risk-taking in order to meet its acquisition needs with resiliency, agility, and responsiveness to assure the Nation’s homeland security and facilitate trade. An assessment of ways the Department can develop incentives for program managers and senior Department acquisition officials to prevent cost overruns, avoid schedule delays, and achieve cost savings in major acquisition programs.
An assessment of ways the Department can improve the acquisition process to minimize cost overruns in requirements development, procurement announcements, requests for proposals, evaluation of proposals, protests of decisions and awards and through the use of best practices as defined in section 4(b) of the DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act and lessons learned by the Department and other Federal agencies. An identification and assessment of ways to increase opportunities for communication and collaboration with industry, small and disadvantaged businesses, intra-government entities, university centers of excellence, accredited certification and standards development organizations, and national laboratories to ensure that the Department understands the market for technologies, products, and innovation that is available to meet its mission needs to inform the requirements-setting process and before engaging in an acquisition, including— methods designed especially to engage small and disadvantaged businesses and a cost-benefit analysis of the tradeoffs that small and disadvantaged businesses provide, barriers to entry for small and disadvantaged businesses, and unique requirements for small and disadvantaged businesses; and within the Department Vendor Communication Plan and Market Research Guide, instructions for interaction by program managers with such entities to prevent misinterpretation of acquisition regulations and to permit freedom within legal and ethical boundaries for program managers to interact with such businesses with transparency.
A plan regarding competition as described in subsection (e). A plan regarding the Department acquisition workforce as described in subsection (f). An assessment of the feasibility of conducting a pilot program to establish an acquisition workforce development fund as described in subsection (g). The strategy shall also include a plan (referred to in subsection (d)(9)) that shall address actions to ensure competition, or the option of competition, for major acquisition programs.
The plan may include assessments of the following measures in appropriate cases if such measures are cost effective: Competitive prototyping. Dual-sourcing. Unbundling of contracts. Funding of next-generation prototype systems or subsystems. Use of modular, open architectures to enable competition for upgrades. Acquisition of complete technical data packages. Periodic competitions for subsystem upgrades. Licensing of additional suppliers, including small businesses. Periodic system or program reviews to address long-term competitive effects of program decisions.
The strategy shall also include a plan (referred to in subsection (d)(10)) to address Department acquisition workforce accountability and talent management that identifies the acquisition workforce needs of each Component performing acquisition functions and develops options for filling those needs with qualified individuals, including a cost-benefit analysis of contracting for acquisition assistance. The acquisition workforce plan shall address ways to— improve the recruitment, hiring, training, and retention of Department acquisition workforce personnel, including contracting officer’s representatives, in order to retain highly qualified individuals that have experience in the acquisition life cycle, complex procurements, and management of large programs; empower program managers to have the authority to manage their programs in an accountable and transparent manner as they work with the acquisition workforce; prevent duplication within Department acquisition workforce training and certification requirements through leveraging already-existing training within the Federal Government, academic community, or private industry; achieve integration and consistency with Government-wide training and accreditation standards, acquisition training tools, and training facilities; designate the acquisition positions that will be necessary to support the Department acquisition requirements, including in the fields of— program management; systems engineering; procurement, including contracting; test and evaluation; life cycle logistics; cost estimating and program financial management; and additional disciplines appropriate to Department mission needs; strengthen the performance of contracting officer’s representatives (as defined in Subpart 1.602-2 and Subpart 2.101 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation), including by— assessing the extent to which contracting officer’s representatives are certified and receive training that is appropriate; determining what training is most effective with respect to the type and complexity of assignment; and implementing actions to improve training based on such assessment; and identify ways to increase training for relevant investigators and auditors to examine fraud in major acquisition programs, including identifying opportunities to leverage existing Government and private sector resources in coordination with the Inspector General of the Department.
The strategy shall also include an assessment (referred to in subsection (d)(11)) of the feasibility of conducting a pilot program to establish a Homeland Security Acquisition Workforce Development Fund (in this subsection referred to as the Fund ) to ensure the Department acquisition workforce has the capacity, in both personnel and skills, needed to properly perform its mission and ensure that the Department receives the best value for the expenditure of public resources. The assessment shall address the following:
Ways to fund the Fund, including the use of direct appropriations, or the credit, transfer, or deposit of unobligated or unused funds from Department Components into the Fund to remain available for obligation in the fiscal year for which credited, transferred, or deposited and to remain available for successive fiscal years. Ways to reward the Department acquisition workforce and program managers for good program management in controlling cost growth, limiting schedule delays, and ensuring operational effectiveness through providing a percentage of the savings or general acquisition bonuses.
Guidance for the administration of the Fund that includes provisions to do the following: Describe the costs and benefits associated with the use of direct appropriations or credit, transfer, or deposit of unobligated or unused funds to finance the Fund. Describe the manner and timing for applications for amounts in the Fund to be submitted. Explain the evaluation criteria to be used for approving or prioritizing applications for amounts in the Fund in any fiscal year. Explain the mechanism to report to Congress on the implementation of the Fund on an ongoing basis.
Detail measurable performance metrics to determine if the Fund is meeting the objective to improve the acquisition workforce and to achieve cost savings in acquisition management. . 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 838 the following new item: Sec. 839. Multiyear acquisition strategy. . Section 874(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 ( 6 U.S.C. 454(b) ) is amended— by striking and at the end of paragraph (2); by striking the period at the end of paragraph
(3)and inserting ; and ; and by adding at the end the following new paragraph: include the multiyear acquisition strategy required under section 839 of this Act. .
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