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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 124 / Thursday, July 1, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
acquisition members must maintain contact as necessary with the appropriate FPS inspector throughout the lease administration. The facility security level designation does not change solely based on lessor ownership information collected via this rule.

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3 GSA LeasingDetermining Countermeasures GSA follows the Interagency Security Committee ISC provided standard for Physical Security Criteria PSC for Federal Facilities. This standard establishes baseline physical security measures for each FSL. This standard defines the process for determining the appropriate security measures; it also covers any uncommon measures required to address the unique risks at a particular facility. The GSA Desk Guide currently uses the PSC to prescribe the process for determining appropriate countermeasures for a facility. Adherence to this process 1
ensures that all security criteria will be considered; 2 defines the relationship between the levels of risk determined for each undesirable event and; 3
mitigates risk through countermeasures that provide a commensurate Level of Protection LOP. The lessor ownership information does not affect the PSCs for Federal Facilities and therefore GSA
does not anticipate this rule to have a significant impact on the security standards used by GSA tenants.
c Compliance Plan Estimated Due to Interim Rule GSA assumes the following steps would most likely be part of a lessors plan that would need to be developed by any entity to stay in compliance with the new representation clause at GSAR
552.27033 and other clause at GSAR
552.20734 being implemented by this rule:
1. Regulatory Familiarization. The entity must read and understand the GSAR rules and the resulting necessary actions for compliance.
2. Workforce Training. The entity must educate its purchasing/
procurement professionals 9 to ensure that they are familiar with the representation and clause and their disclosure requirements as applicable.
3. Compliance with Clauses. The entity must identify and disclose whether the immediate or highest-level owner of the leased space, including an entity involved in the financing thereof, 9 GSA estimates that the purchasing/procurement professional requiring training as a result of this rule on average would be equal to a mid-career professional. The equivalent labor category used to capture cost estimates therefore is a GS12 Step 5, or Journeyman Level 1.

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is a foreign person or a foreign entity, including the country associated with the ownership entity. If a disclosure is made, the Federal lessee shall notify the Federal tenant of the building or other improvement that will be used for highsecurity space in writing, and consult with the Federal tenant regarding security concerns and necessary mitigation measures, if any, prior to award of the lease or approval of the novation agreement.
d Benefits This Act requires the identification of all individuals who own or benefit from partial ownership of a property that will be leased by the federal government for high-security use. The statute is in response to a 2017 Government Accountability Office GAO report which indicated that Federal agencies were vulnerable to espionage and other intrusions because foreign actors could gain unauthorized access to spaces used for classified operations or to store sensitive data. Agencies store law enforcement evidence and other sensitive data and are often unaware of foreign ownership of their office spaces.
While many of the foreign owners identified in the 2017 GAO report were companies based in allied countries such as Canada, Norway, Japan or South Korea, other properties were owned and managed by entities based in more adversarial nations. The report noted Chinese-owned properties, in particular, presented security challenges because of the countrys proclivity for cyberespionage and the close ties between private sector companies and the Chinese government. The GAO
report highlighted the dangers posed by these properties, indicating that leasing space in foreign-owned buildings could present security risks such as espionage, unauthorized cyber and physical access to the facilities, and sabotage.
The United States faces an expanding array of foreign intelligence threats by adversaries who are using increasingly sophisticated methods to harm the Nation.10 Threats to the United States posed by foreign intelligence entities are becoming more complex and harmful to U.S. interests.11 Foreign intelligence actors are employing innovative combinations of traditional spying, economic espionage, and supply chain and cyber operations to gain access to critical infrastructure, and steal sensitive information and industrial 10 National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 20202022.
11 National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 20202022.

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secrets.12 The exploitation of key supply chains by foreign adversaries represents a complex and growing threat to strategically important U.S. economic sectors and critical infrastructure.13
Additionally, by requiring Financing Entity information in the representation clause, GSA will benefit by better understanding the source of funds used to finance projects. Risks associated with financing, such as money laundering, involve disguising financial assets so they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them.14 These transactions further shield the entity from a recorded connection to the funds by providing a plausible explanation for the source of the funds.15 Typical examples used for this type of activity include the purchase and resale of real estate, investment securities, foreign trusts, or other assets.16 By collecting this information, GSA will be able to share more transparent information on foreign financing of leases with tenant agencies.
The goal of the Act is to close security loopholes by directing the GSA to design a verification system that identifies a propertys owners if the space would be used for high-security purposes. While GSA and other Federal agencies have made positive changes in response to GAOs 2017 report, this rule will help support current best practices being followed more uniformly throughout the Federal government.
Finally, this Act ensures that GSA
and all agencies particularly with independent leasing authority will have the ability to obtain information on foreign ownership and provide it to relevant Federal tenants.
e Public Costs During the first and subsequent years after publication of the rule, lessors will need to learn about the clauses and its requirements. GSA estimates this cost by multiplying the time required to review the regulations and guidance implementing the rule by the estimated compensation of a purchasing/
12 National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 20202022.
13 National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 20202022.
14 Government Accountability Office Report GAO17195, GSA Should Inform Tenant Agencies When Leasing High-Security Space from Foreign Owners, dated January 2017.
15 Government Accountability Office Report GAO17195, GSA Should Inform Tenant Agencies When Leasing High-Security Space from Foreign Owners, dated January 2017.
16 Government Accountability Office Report GAO17195, GSA Should Inform Tenant Agencies When Leasing High-Security Space from Foreign Owners, dated January 2017.

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