“To restore fairness to service members who filed religious accommodation requests and ensure their career progression is justly reviewed.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a Special Review Board, under the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, to audit Department of Defense religious accommodation requests and dispositions for the COVID-19 vaccine since 2020 for consistency with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), and to review personnel records of service members who filed such requests and remained in service. The board must (1) assess whether service members' career progression, promotions, assignments, retention, or professional development were negatively affected by their requests or vaccine refusal; (2) adjudicate eligibility for corrective actions, including backdated promotions, correction of Date of Rank to align with peers, restoration of lost pay, benefits, retirement contributions, and bonuses, and reinstatement for those who left service due to unlawful denial; (3) expunge adverse actions from records (e.g., reprimands, negative evaluations, promotion delays, Inactive Duty Training points for reserve personnel, and impacted assignments); and (4) establish a review request mechanism for affected service members. The board must complete its review within one year of enactment, with the Deputy Under Secretary submitting a report to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees within 60 days thereafter detailing findings, cases reviewed, and actions taken. Eligible service members must receive compensation within 60 days after their case review.
This section directs the Secretary of Defense to submit to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees (1) an initial report within 90 days of enactment with findings from the section 2(a) audit, including statistical analysis of the affected service member population, assessment of Department of Defense compliance with RFRA (i.e., Religious Freedom Restoration Act), and plans to address identified deficiencies; and (2) quarterly reports detailing the number of cases reviewed by the Special Review Board, service members granted back pay, promotions, or restored benefits, adverse actions expunged from military records, performance statistics for affected service members regarding boards, career progression, and competitive assignments, and recommendations for further legislative action. It further requires the Department of Defense Inspector General to conduct an independent audit and compliance review of the Act's implementation within 18 months of enactment, including analysis of religious accommodation data and consistency of RFRA application across the department.
This section defines, for purposes of the Act, (1) "adverse action" to include administrative reprimands, denial or delay of promotions, negative performance evaluations, forced involuntary separation, coerced voluntary separation, and denial of career-enhancing assignments; (2) "religious accommodation" as a formally submitted request for exemption from a military order, policy, or directive on religious grounds, in accordance with the respective service branch’s religious accommodation policies; and (3) "service member" as a member of the Armed Forces total force serving on active duty, reserve (including Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)), or National Guard status in any branch of the Department of Defense.