Under §18.2, the host of the Seat of Government must be reconsidered through a new competitive process no less often than every twenty years, and the Legislature may not suspend or indefinitely extend that requirement. Any State or Territory may submit a bid at that time; a host must satisfy minimum requirements published to the NRS in advance of the selection.
This Committee holds no authority to select a host, alter the current arrangement, or accelerate the twenty-year clock. Its sole function, on a periodic basis independent of any pending selection, is to review whether the published minimum requirements remain current and to recommend statutory amendments where they do not. This review was not prompted by any bid, petition, or pending selection; none is before the Republic at this time.
The Committee recommends the following requirements remain, or be adopted, as the minimum a State or Territory must satisfy to submit a qualifying bid. Statutory amendment requires ordinary Legislative passage; this report is a recommendation, not an enactment.
- Sustained fiscal capacity. The bidding jurisdiction must demonstrate, over a trailing five-year period, fiscal capacity sufficient to fund its share of footprint infrastructure without recourse to the federal equalization mechanism under §12.8. (Amended this cycle: the prior standard referenced a three-year trailing period; the Committee recommends five, on the finding that a shorter window did not reliably distinguish structural capacity from a single strong fiscal year.)
- Transportation and logistics capacity. The bidding jurisdiction must demonstrate integrated port, rail, or equivalent high-capacity transit access sufficient to support federal operations at projected footprint scale, either existing or under active construction with committed funding at time of bid.
- Geographic and seismic stability. The footprint site must meet the standard federal construction stability rating; no bid may proceed on a site below that rating regardless of other qualifications.
- Security perimeter feasibility. The proposed footprint must permit the exclusive federal control contemplated by §18.2 without reliance on the host's own law enforcement or military capacity for perimeter security.
- Continuity of host sovereignty. The bidding jurisdiction must hold unbroken State or Territory status for no less than ten years prior to bid submission. (Unchanged this cycle.)
The Committee records, without recommendation, that no bidding jurisdiction has yet been identified or has indicated intent to bid, and that the next mandatory reconsideration under §18.2 remains a number of years distant. The Committee further records that Requirement 2, as amended in the second periodic review, was drafted before transit infrastructure of the kind now under construction in several jurisdictions existed in its current form, and recommends a future review specifically examine whether "under active construction with committed funding" continues to function as intended against infrastructure completed well in advance of any bid.
This report is published to the NRS as required. Recommended amendments proceed to the Legislature for ordinary statutory consideration. The Committee's mandate for this cycle is concluded; a successor Committee will be appointed ahead of the next periodic review.
End of report.