[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 687 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 687

    To direct the Secretary of Defense to eliminate the backlog in 
   satisfying requests of former members of the Armed Forces for the 
      issuance or replacement of military medals and decorations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 23, 1999

  Mr. Harkin introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To direct the Secretary of Defense to eliminate the backlog in 
   satisfying requests of former members of the Armed Forces for the 
      issuance or replacement of military medals and decorations.

    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 ``Veterans Expedited Military Medals 
Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF BACKLOG IN REQUESTS FOR REPLACEMENT OF MILITARY 
              MEDALS AND OTHER DECORATIONS.

    (a) Sufficient Resourcing Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
make available funds and other resources at the levels that are 
necessary for ensuring the elimination of the backlog of the 
unsatisfied requests made to the Department of Defense for the issuance 
or replacement of military decorations for former members of the Armed 
Forces. The organizations to which the necessary funds and other 
resources are to be made available for that purpose are as follows:
            (1) The Army Reserve Personnel Command.
            (2) The Bureau of Naval Personnel.
            (3) The Air Force Personnel Center.
            (4) The National Archives and Records Administration
    (b) Condition.--The Secretary shall allocate funds and other 
resources under subsection (a) in a manner that does not detract from 
the performance of other personnel service and personnel support 
activities within the Department of Defense.
    (c) Replacement Decoration Defined.--For the purposes of this 
section, the term ``decoration'' means a medal or other decoration that 
a former member of the Armed Forces was awarded by the United States 
for military service of the United States.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    Not later than 45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report on the 
status of the backlog described in section 2(a). The report shall 
include a plan for eliminating the backlog.
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