[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2600 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2600

To equalize authorities to provide allowances, benefits, and gratuities 
   to civilian personnel of the United States Government in Iraq and 
                  Afghanistan, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 7, 2006

  Mr. Warner (for himself and Mrs. Clinton) introduced the following 
   bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To equalize authorities to provide allowances, benefits, and gratuities 
   to civilian personnel of the United States Government in Iraq and 
                  Afghanistan, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) As part of the United States effort to bring democracy 
        and freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, employees of a broad range 
        of Federal agencies are needed to serve in those countries, 
        furnishing expertise to their counterpart agencies in the 
        Government of Iraq and the Government of Afghanistan.
            (2) While the heads of a number of Federal agencies already 
        possess authority to provide to their personnel serving abroad 
        allowances, benefits, and death gratuities comparable to those 
        provided by the Secretary of State to similarly-situated 
        Foreign Service personnel serving abroad, other agency heads do 
        not possess such authority.
            (3) In order to assist the United States Government in 
        recruiting personnel to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to 
        avoid inequities in allowances, benefits, and death gratuities 
        among similarly-situated United States Government civilian 
        personnel serving in these countries, it is essential that the 
        heads of all agencies that have personnel serving in Iraq and 
        Afghanistan have the same basic authority with respect to 
        allowances, benefits, and death gratuities for such personnel.

SEC. 2. AUTHORITY TO EQUALIZE ALLOWANCES, BENEFITS, AND GRATUITIES OF 
              PERSONNEL SERVING IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.

    (a) In General.--During any fiscal year, the head of an agency may, 
in the agency head's discretion, provide to an individual employed by, 
or assigned or detailed to, such agency allowances, benefits, and 
gratuities comparable to those provided by the Secretary of State to 
officers and employees of the Foreign Service under section 413 and 
chapter 9 of title I of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 
3973; 4081 et seq.), if the duty station of such individual is in Iraq 
or Afghanistan.
    (b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to 
impair or otherwise affect the authority of the head of an agency under 
any other provision of law.
    (c) Applicability of Certain Authorities.--Section 912(a) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall apply with respect to amounts 
received as allowances or otherwise under this section in the same 
manner as section 912 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 applies with 
respect to amounts received by civilian officers or employees as 
allowances or otherwise under chapter 9 of title I of the Foreign 
Service Act of 1980.
                                 <all>