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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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E

Glossary

The following definitions are used in this report. The committee has confirmed that these definitions match what the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Office of Facilities and Property Management (OFPM) uses, and unless otherwise noted, all definitions come directly from OFPM:

capital facility: Any publicly owned structure, improvement, or asset (including buildings, utilities, infrastructure, streets, and pavements) that has an intended service life of at least 10 years. Also includes extensions, enlargements, renovations, and other enhancements to an existing capital facility.

capital facility needs: There are two different but valid meanings of the phrase “capital facility needs”: (a) needs of an individual existing facility, and (b) needs of an organization’s facility portfolio.

needs of an individual capital facility: Activities to keep the components of a capital facility in good working order; to return its components to good working order; to prolong component service life; and to adapt (within prescribed limits) rooms, spaces, or facility components, or both, for evolving user needs. Also referred to collectively as needs for sustainment, restoration, and modernization (sustainment, restoration, modernization, and expansion).

needs of an organization’s facility portfolio: Activities conducted to (1) divest the portfolio of existing capital facilities and replace them with new capital facilities, and (2) to acquire new capital facilities, all in anticipation of future facilities performance issues and evolving mission-support demands. Examples of such activities: inventory taking and administration; performance assessment, requirements planning, master planning, design, construction, outfitting, and commissioning.

capital project: Meant in the same sense as DoD MILCON (Department of Defense’s military construction) project—a project exceeding a prescribed estimated cost for the construction of a new facility or major restoration and modernization of an existing facility ($5 million in the case of NIST). A capital project is individually identified in congressional language and has its own budget stream. Congress may not necessarily indicate specific line item requirements, but rather allow NIST the latitude to determine line item type delineation in

Page 153 Cite

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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NIST’s spend plan for congressional approval. However, NIST does this only for items that would be a “line item like” project. Not a “recapitalization project.”

capital strategy: Includes all individual capital projects that will be necessary to build out the two campuses’ master plans. The Integrated Master Plan Implementation Report contains and describes in priority order most of the individual capital projects. Capital strategy does not include recapitalization strategy or vice versa.

capitalization: In NIST’s two-pronged funding plan, capitalization is new construction work funded by the part of the construction of research facility (CRF) appropriation called Construction and Major Renovations (CMR).

component: See facility systems and components.

condition: See physical condition.

construction: The work activities of industries assigned by the North American Industry Classification System NAICS Code 23—Construction. “Construction work may include new work, additions, alterations, or maintenance and repairs” (NAICS 2022).

construction of research facilities (CRF): The appropriation that provides NIST with funds for construction of new capital facilities plus FSRM (sustainment, restoration, and modernization) and expansion of existing facilities. CRF is comprised of two parts: SCMMR and CMR.

SCMMR (safety, capacity, maintenance, and major repairs): Provides funds for routine maintenance and repairs of existing facilities, and for restoration and modernization projects estimated to cost less than $5 million.

CMR (construction and major renovations): Provides funds for restoration and modernization projects estimated to cost more than $5 million and for construction of new facilities and additions to existing facilities. Also, funds contracts for architectural and engineering design and construction contract oversight.

continual renewal: A combination of sustainment and renewal; another way of saying: “sustainment, restoration, and modernization.”

Current Replacement Value (CRV): The amount in current year dollars it would cost to duplicate the facilities (NRC 1996, p. 11). CRV is equivalent to RV (Replacement Value). This report uses CRV when referring to relevant NRC guidance, and uses the equivalent term, RV, when referring to relevant Federal Real Property Council guidance.

deferred maintenance and repairs (DM&R): Sustainment and restoration work activities that were not performed when they should have been or were scheduled and which were put off or are delayed for a future period (FASAB 2012, p. 7).

existing facility: A standing capital facility carried as “active” on an organization’s facility inventory.

expansion: An increase of a facility’s gross square footage or an infrastructure system’s capacity for the purpose of accommodating mission and program or staff growth, or both. Expansion of an individual facility or infrastructure system is accomplished by the addition of gross square footage or larger capacity. Expansion of a portfolio of facilities and infrastructure systems is accomplished by greenfield construction of new facilities or new infrastructure systems.

Page 154 Cite

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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external practices: The policies, procedures, and processes that OFPM does not control and has no authority to change (e.g., practices of other NIST departments, the Department of Commerce, the Office of Management and Budget, or Congress).

facility condition index: Is a comparative, economic indicator of the relative physical condition of a large facility portfolio. The FCI is expressed as a ratio of the cost of remedying existing, routine maintenance and repair deficiencies to the portfolio’s current replacement value. The figure does not include projected maintenance and repair or other types of work such as restoration, modernization, or new construction.

facility operations: Activities necessary to support the normal use of existing facilities (e.g., facility leases, custodial services, grounds services, waste disposal, and operations [not facilities sustainment, renovation, modernization, or expansion] of utility infrastructure [called central utilities generation and distribution operations]).

facility performance: The ability of a facility or infrastructure system to accommodate facility user accomplishment of mission functions currently assigned to the facility users. Facility performance consists of, and is assessed according to, two components: physical condition and functionality.

facility systems and components: A capital facility is physically comprised of systems such as structure, roof, HVAC, and plumbing. Each system is comprised of components (often called elements) such as floors, doors, walls, furnaces, ducts, roofing sections, lighting fixtures, and water pipes.

fit for current use: A normal state of good physical condition and functionality capable of supporting world-class¹ research.

functional area: A room or space or a group of like-purposed rooms and spaces within an individual capital facility. A functional area is designed or designated (or both) to support human activity that contributes to accomplishment of one or more mission functions.

functionality: The ability of a room or space to support the current user’s activities that contributes to accomplishment of one or more mission functions (e.g., a laboratory’s ability to achieve the ranges of room humidity and temperature that the scientists who use the laboratory must have to conduct their experiments). The HVAC system serving the laboratory may be in perfect physical condition but needs replacement because its designed ranges of room and space humidity and temperature do not provide the functionality that the scientists who use the laboratory must have to conduct their experiments.

good working order: Able to support the mission functions of the people who use the room or space.

Historically Designated Federal Agency: The intended meaning of the phrase is “a designated federal agency (per the Register of Designated Federal Entities) that owns federally-designated historic property (per the National Register of Historic Places).”

industrial technology services (ITS): The appropriation that provides funding to the Manufacturing USA and Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership programs. Primarily external facing.

infrastructure: NIST’s facilities (buildings, structures, paved areas, and grounds) plus utility generation and distribution systems that serve the facilities.

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¹ This report uses “world-class” in the sense of being among the best in the world.

Page 155 Cite

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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institutional support (IS): NIST does not receive a budget line for administration and operations. Rather, all expenditures made by non-support programs are “taxed” to create an institutional support (IS) account. IS funds activities such as human resources, finance, procurement, safety, physical security, and more. IS also funds facility operations like janitorial services and utilities. Laboratory program activities are taxed at a 31 percent rate. CRF expenditures are taxed at a lighter 4.5 percent rate.

Integrated Master Plans Implementation Report: The 2020 document of this title was product of NIST’s traditional master planning practice and organization. It contained 11 proposed, CMR-funded projects and 11 proposed SCMMR-funded projects and was supposed to set the roadmap for the next 20 to 30 years of the NIST capital projects program. The 2020 report was not approved and the Department of Commerce directed NIST to develop a different and more ambitious, multi-billion-dollar 2022 Infrastructure Plan to presumably replace the 2020 report.

internal practices: The policies, procedures, and processes that OFPM controls and has the authority to change.

maintenance and repairs: Activities directed toward keeping fixed assets in an acceptable condition.² Activities include preventive maintenance; replacement of parts, systems,³ or components; and other activities needed to preserve or maintain the asset (FASAB 2012, p. 7). Maintenance and repairs, as distinguished from capital improvements, exclude activities directed toward expanding the size or capacity of an asset or otherwise upgrading it to serve needs different from, or significantly greater than, its current use.

mission: A very broad, top-level description of an organization’s purposes, directions, and goals.

mission elements (goals) and strategic objectives: For purposes of governance, an organization typically partitions its mission into categories of mission elements (goals) and sets strategic objectives for each mission element (goal). Collective accomplishment of the strategic objectives included in a particular mission element (goal) contributes to accomplishment of the parent mission element (goal).

mission functions: The human activities that collectively and directly serve to accomplish the organization’s strategic objectives and thereby, achieve the organization’s mission. Mission functions include a wide variety of activities such as, but not limited to, laboratory work, administration, study, and lunch.

modernization: The alteration or replacement of facilities solely to implement new or higher standards, to accommodate new functions, or to replace facility and infrastructure systems or components that are typically designed to last more than 50 years (such as the framework or foundation) (DoD 2016).

physical condition: The state of a capital facility system or system component that results from natural deterioration over time or from damage due to any cause (e.g., the physical condition of an HVAC system that has deteriorated and needs work in order to achieve its designed ranges of room and space humidity and temperature).

planning programming budgeting execution (PPBE):

planning: Identifies, packages, documents, and ranks requirements.

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² The determination of acceptable condition may vary both between entities and among sites within the same entity. Management shall determine what level of condition is acceptable (FASAB 2012, p. 7).

³ The term “systems” can refer to either (1) information technology assets (e.g., hardware, internal use software, data communication devices), or (2) groupings (assemblages) of component parts belonging to a building, equipment, or other personal property (FASAB 2012, p. 7).

Page 156 Cite

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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programming: Generates short- and long-term funding plans and programming documents based on identified requirements and funding sources.

budgeting: Converts the first year of the various funding plans into budget terms for submission to funder. Funder decides what to fund and allocate and what to defer.

execution: Allocates and expends funds in accordance with approved budgets and assesses actual program performance compared to planned performance.

portfolio expansion: An increase of a facility portfolio’s total gross square footage for the purpose of accommodating mission, program, and staff growth. Portfolio expansion is accomplished by greenfield construction of new infrastructure or the addition of gross square footage or new capacity to existing infrastructure.

practices: Policies, procedures, and processes.

internal practices: The policies, procedures, and processes that OFPM has the authority to create or change.

external practices: The policies, procedures, and processes that OFPM does not have the authority to create or change. External practices include those controlled by other NIST departments, the Department of Commerce, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Congress.

recapitalization: Meant in the Department of Defense sense of the word: “major renovation, reconstruction, restoration, modernization, and replacement of components of existing facilities in order to keep existing facilities modern and relevant, or to extend or restore lost service life. It does not include New Construction.”

recovery: A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. As applied to the currently unsatisfactory NIST facilities situation, recovery is a return from the current, unsatisfactory state of widespread physical deterioration and functional obsolescence to a normal state of good physical condition and modern functionality capable of supporting world-class research.

recovery plan: OFPM’s proposed “2-pronged approach” to recover from NIST’s current unsatisfactory facilities situation. In June 2022, NIST’s Chief Facilities Management Officer briefed the pictured, top-level summary of the plan to Congressman Matt Cartwright (8th District PA), Chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee for the 117th Congress, as well as to Congressman David Trone (6th District MD).

Construction & Major Renovations (CMR)	$300M-$400M annually
Safety, Capacity, Maintenance and Major Repairs (SCMMR)	$120M - $150M annually
Total Needed for Construction of Research Facilities (CRF)	$420M-$550M annually

Total received in FY21 and FY22	$80M annually

renewal: Restoration or modernization of an existing facility or infrastructure system. Does not include expansion of an existing facility.

renovation: Same meaning as renewal—to restore or modernize (or both), but not to expand.

Page 157 Cite

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.

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repair: Meant in the DoD sense of the word, “all non-maintenance activities needed to keep facilities in good working order. It includes both minor and major repairs and replacements of facility components.”

replacement: The removal of existing infrastructure components and systems and subsequent substitution with other components and systems.

replacement value (RV): the cost required to design, acquire and construct an asset to replace an existing asset of the same functionality, size, and in the same location using current costs, building codes, and standards. Neither the current condition of the asset nor the future need for the asset is a factor in the replacement value estimate. CRV is equivalent to RV. This report uses CRV when referring to relevant NRC guidance, and uses the equivalent term, RV, when referring to relevant Federal Real Property Council guidance.

restoration: Returning real property to such a physical condition and functionality that it may be used for its designated purpose. Restoration includes repair or replacement work to restore facilities damaged by inadequate sustainment, excessive age, natural disaster, fire, accident, or other causes (DoD 2016, p. 8-6).

Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS): The appropriation that provides funding for NIST’s six laboratories and is the major source of annual funding to NIST.

sustainment: The routine maintenance and repair activities necessary to keep an inventory of facilities in good working order. It includes regularly scheduled adjustments and inspections, preventive maintenance tasks, emergency and service response, and minor repairs. It also includes major repairs or replacement of facility components (usually accomplished by contract) that are expected to occur periodically throughout the life cycle of facilities. This work includes regular roof replacement, refinishing of wall surfaces, repairing and replacement of heating and cooling systems, replacing tile and carpeting, and similar types of work. It does not include environmental compliance costs, facility leases, or other tasks associated with facilities operations (such as custodial services, grounds services, waste disposal, and the provision of central utilities) (DoD 2016, p. 8-5).

utility infrastructure: Facilities, structures and systems that generate, process, distribute, and collect central utilities (electric power, water, natural gas, and sewerage).

REFERENCES

DoD (Department of Defense). 1996. Financial Management Regulation, Vol. 4, Chapter 17, Appendix C, December 1996.

DoD. 2016. Financial Management Regulation, Volume 2b, Chapter 8, “Facilities Sustainment and Restoration/Modernization.” December.

FASAB (Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board). 2012. Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS) 42. “Deferred Maintenance and Repairs: Amending Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Standards 6, 14, 29 and 32.” April.

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System). “NAICS Code Description: Construction.” https://www.naics.com/naics-code-description/?code=23.

NRC (National Research Council). 1996. Budgeting for Facilities Maintenance and Repair Activities: Report Number 131. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9226.