Sec. 5556. 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, as the United States will need to station many more United States civilian and military personnel in western Australia to support the maintenance and supply of these vessels.
Not later than 90 days after the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report regarding staffing and facility requirements at United States Mission 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 of State expects in the Perth area and across Australia in the next two years; an assessment of what requirements those United States personnel will have, including housing, schooling, and office space; a description of how many United States personnel are currently working in the United States Consulate in Perth and their roles; information regarding the Department of State’s actions to transfer United States personnel from elsewhere within Mission Australia to increase staffing in Perth and the tradeoffs of such personnel moves; a status update on the interagency process begun in 2024 to assess the needs of Mission Australia; an assessment of the impact of the Department of State reorganization and workforce reduction on the staffing contemplated by that process; and an estimated total cost of expanding Perth staffing to sufficiently serve the increased presence of United States personnel in the area and to achieve any other United States foreign policy objectives. In this section, the term appropriate committees of Congress means— the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate; the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.