Sec. 5606. Report on United States Mission Australia staffing
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It is the sense of Congress that— Australia is one of the closest allies of the United States and integral to United States national security interests in the Indo-Pacific; the United States-Australia alliance has seen tremendous growth, including through AUKUS, as part of which, the United States plans to rotate up to four Virginia-class attack submarines out of the Australian port of Perth by 2027; and current United States staffing and facilities across United States Mission Australia do not appear adequately resourced to support an expanding mission set and are no longer commensurate with strategic developments.
Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report regarding staffing and facility requirements at United States Mission Australia to provide administrative and operational support for all United States Government personnel under Chief of Mission Authority of the head of the United States Mission in Australia. The report required under paragraph
(1)shall include— an assessment of how many United States civilian and military personnel and their dependents the Department expects across Australia in the next five years; an assessment of what requirements those United States personnel will have, including housing, schooling, and office space; a status update on anticipated interagency growth plans across Australia and the interagency process begun in 2024 to assess the needs of Mission Australia; an assessment of the impact of the Department reorganization and workforce reduction on the staffing contemplated by that process; an analysis of resource gaps that could undermine mission capacity and United States foreign policy objectives, including advancing the United States-Australia alliance and AUKUS; a recommendation for additional facilities, staffing, and resources needed to execute on mission growth; and an estimated total cost of expanding staffing to sufficiently serve the increased presence of United States personnel in the area and to achieve any other United States foreign policy objectives. The report shall contain a classified annex as necessary. In this section, the term appropriate congressional committees means— the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.