“A bill 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—including compliance with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA, 42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.)—and to review personnel records of service members who filed such requests and remained in service. The board shall (1) assess whether service members' career progression, promotions, assignments, retention, or professional development were negatively affected by their requests or vaccine refusals; (2) adjudicate eligibility for corrective actions, including backdated promotions, Date of Rank corrections, restoration of lost pay, benefits, retirement contributions, and bonuses, and reinstatement for those who separated due to unlawful denials; (3) expunge adverse actions related to vaccine refusal or accommodations (e.g., reprimands, negative evaluations, promotion delays, Inactive Duty Training points for reservists); and (4) establish a review request mechanism for affected service members. The board must complete all reviews not later than one year after enactment, with the Deputy Under Secretary submitting a report on findings, cases reviewed, and actions taken to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees not later than 60 days thereafter. Eligible compensation must be provided not later than 60 days after each case review.
This section directs the Secretary of Defense to submit specified reports to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and requires the Department of Defense Inspector General to conduct an audit. Specifically, it (1) requires an initial report not later than 90 days after enactment containing findings from the section 2(a) audit, including statistical analysis of the affected service member population, assessment of Department of Defense compliance with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and plans to address identified issues; (2) requires 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 records, statistics on performance of affected service members with respect to boards, career progression, and competitive assignments, and recommendations for further legislative action; and (3) requires the Inspector General, not later than 18 months after enactment, to conduct an independent audit and compliance review of the Act's implementation, including religious accommodation data and consistency of RFRA application across the Department of Defense.
This section defines key terms for purposes of the Act, including: (1) adverse action, which encompasses 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, referring to 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, meaning a member of the Armed Forces total force serving on active duty, reserve (including Individual Ready Reserve), or National Guard status in any branch of the Department of Defense.