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To direct the Administrator of General Services to ensure that the design of public buildings in the United States adheres to the guiding principles for Federal architecture, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill directs the General Services Administration to ensure that the design of federal public buildings adheres to the "Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture," a set of design standards established in a 1962 report. The bill requires the GSA Administrator to promulgate regulations within 180 days that implement these principles and establish minimum design standards for federal public buildings. The regulations must be developed through the standard federal rulemaking process with public notice and opportunity for comment.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
3 cosponsors
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM] (D-NM)
Actions (2)
- Sep 18, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. · senate
- Sep 18, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 18 (legislative day, September 16), 2025
Mr. Van Hollen (for himself and Mr. Lujan) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of General Services to ensure that the design of public buildings in the United States adheres to the guiding principles for Federal architecture, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Democracy in Design Act”.
SEC. 2. CONTINUING INVESTIGATION AND SURVEY OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
(a) In General.—Section 3303 of title 40, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding paragraph
(1), by inserting “(referred to in this section as the ‘Administrator’)” after “Services”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(e) Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture.—The Administrator shall ensure that the design of public buildings in the United States adheres to the principles described in the report published by the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space entitled ‘Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture’ and dated June 1, 1962.”.
(b) Rulemaking.—
(1) In general.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of General Services shall promulgate such regulations as are necessary—
(A) to implement the amendment made by subsection
(a)(2); and
(B) to establish minimum standards by which the Administrator of General Services shall design public buildings (as defined in section 3301(a) of title 40, United States Code) in the United States.
(2) Notice and comment.—The regulations required under paragraph (1) shall be issued after notice and an opportunity for public comment in accordance with the procedure applicable to substantive rules under section 553 of title 5, United States Code. <all>
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