New Law Enhances Federal Building Security: Improving Federal Building Security Act of 2024 Passes Congress

As of Dec. 10, 2024, Sen. Gary Peters’ (D-Mich.) Improving Federal Building Security Act of 2024 (IFBSA) has passed both the U.S. House and Senate and is on its way to be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

This bipartisan legislation mandates that facility security committees respond to security recommendations issued by the Federal Protective Service (FPS), within this U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), regarding facility security. A facility security committee is defined as a group that includes representatives from all federal tenants in a specific nonmilitary facility, the facility’s security organization and the federal tenant that owns or leases the facility. This committee is responsible for addressing facility-specific security matters and approving the implementation of security measures and practices within the facility.

Within 90 days of receiving a security recommendation from the FPS, the facility security committee must inform DHS on whether it plans to adopt or reject the recommendation. If it chooses to reject the recommendation, the committee must provide DHS with a justification for accepting the associated risks. Furthermore, DHS is required to establish a procedure to monitor these recommendations and responses, ensuring that facility security committees respond appropriately. Additionally, DHS must submit a report to Congress 270 days after the bill’s enactment and annually thereafter, detailing these recommendations, responses and the monitoring procedure.

Back in 2022, FPS and a group of investigators from the U.S. Government Accountability Office revealed that many agencies often completely ignore security recommendations for federal facilities, mostly due to funding concerns. It is estimated that between 2017 and 2021, of the more than 25,000 recommendations coming from FPS, agencies across the country implemented a mere 27% of security recommendations, completely ignoring about 50% of the recommendations, and simply acknowledging the rest with no further action.

Making sure federal buildings are secure and up to date is extremely important, as over 1.4 million Americans are employed in federal buildings across the country, along with countless visitors who are in the buildings each day. The IFBSA, initially introduced on Jan. 23 by Sen. Peters, is aimed at strengthening the security of federal buildings. Peters, who is the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, was working alongside Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

SIA Position:

The Security Industry Association strongly supports improving the security at federal buildings. Securing and protecting our agencies and their employees needs to be a top priority, and this starts with not only improving the process of receiving the recommendations, but also actually following through and making sure that the recommendations do not just sit idly but are responded to in a timely manner and implemented to ensure the safety of millions.