Office of United States Technology Procurement

(a) Designation of responsibility The Secretary of State may designate an existing office within the Department of State as, or newly establish, an Office of United States Technology Procurement (referred to in this title as the Office), which shall be responsible for administering the Program. (b) Personnel (1) Composition The Office should be comprised of a Director, a Deputy Director, and such other staff as the Secretary of State deems appropriate. (2) Staffing The Office should include personnel with expertise or experience in performing the following functions: (A) Grant design and management. (B) Program monitoring, evaluation, and learning. (3) Director The Director of the Office shall fulfill the following responsibilities: (A) Identify, on an annual basis, specific strategic priorities for the Program consistent with United States national security priorities and objectives. (B) In coordination with the other relevant officials, select and approve all partnerships with foreign government partners under the Program. (C) Conduct oversight, monitoring, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the Program, including long-term outcome assessments, to ensure the Program advances United States foreign policy and national security interests and to ensure monitoring, evaluation, and learning results directly inform future grant decisions. (D) Ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that all Program activities are carried out in coordination with other Federal efforts to promote the United States technology stack overseas. (E) Compiling and submitting the list required by section 402(m)(1). (c) Special hiring authorities During the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, for the purposes of supporting the Director in carrying out the responsibilities of the Office, the Secretary of State may— (1) appoint up to 10 employees to positions without regard to the provisions of subchapter 1 of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, regarding appointments in the competitive service; and (2) fix the rates of basic pay of such employees without regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title regarding classification and General Schedule pay rates, provided that the rates for such positions do not exceed the annual rate of basic pay in effect for a position at level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code.