Sec. 3. Sense of Congress
270 words·~1 min read·
/bill/117/s/4320/rs/section-3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that— the setback and collocation requirements referred to in section 2(5)(A), even with available waivers, no longer provide the security such requirements used to provide because of advancement in technologies, such as remote controlled drones, that can evade walls and other such static barriers; the Department of State should focus on creating performance security standards that— attempt to keep the setback requirements of diplomatic posts as limited as possible; and provide diplomats access to local populations as much as possible, while still providing a necessary level of security; collocation of diplomatic facilities is often not feasible or advisable, particularly for public diplomacy spaces in countries with repressive governments, since such spaces are required to permit the foreign public to enter and exit the space easily and openly; the Bureau of Diplomatic Security should— fully utilize the waiver process provided under paragraphs (2)(B) and (3)(B) of section 606(a) of the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999; and appropriately exercise such waiver process as a tool to right-size the appropriate security footing at each diplomatic post rather than only approving waivers in extreme circumstances; the return of great power competition requires— United States diplomats to do all they can to outperform our adversaries; and the Department of State to better utilize taxpayer funding to advance United States national interests; and this Act will rebalance the Department of State’s risk and provide United States diplomats the tools they need to compete in the 21st century, while saving United States taxpayers potentially billions of dollars in reduced property and maintenance costs at embassies and consulates abroad.