1.This Act may be cited as the
Women’s Fair and Equal Right to
Military Service Act
.
2.
(a)Congress finds the following:
(1)260,457 female members of the Armed Forces
have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, or
Operation New Dawn.
(2)25,099 female
members of the Armed Forces are currently serving in Iraq or
Afghanistan.
(3)Women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are
not excluded from providing support to combat units or other frontline
units.
(4)As of April 1,
2011, 137 female members of the Armed Forces have been killed in Iraq or
Afghanistan, and, of the women killed, over 60 were killed in combat.
(5)More than 1,300
female members of the Armed Forces have been wounded in action, of which 758
were wounded in hostile action.
(6)The current nature
of war has changed in Iraq and Afghanistan and, despite the prohibition on
female members of the Armed Forces serving in combat, so has the role of female
members of the Armed Forces.
(7)Women are
increasingly attached to combat units and engaging in frontline roles despite
the current ground combat exclusion policy.
(8)Female members of the Armed Forces are
engaging in direct combat without receiving adequate combat training due to the
current ground combat exclusion policy described in current section 652 of
title 10, United States Code.
(9)The Secretaries of
the military departments should be given the authorization to assign an
eligible member of an armed force under the jurisdiction of that Secretary to a
unit of that armed force based on the needs of the unit, regardless of the
member’s gender.
(10)Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates has stated that women have been serving in combat already
and female members of the Armed Services have expressed that because they’re
not in a combat military occupational specialty, they haven’t had combat
training, but they’re on a combat patrol.
(b)The
purposes of this Act are—
(1)to ensure that
modern military combat policies reflect the current operational environment of
the combat operations; and
(2)to raise the
profile of the recognition that female members of the Armed Forces should
receive for their service, particularly when it involves their contribution
with regard to direct combat operations.
3.Repeal of ground
combat exclusion policy for female members of the Armed Forces
(a)
(1)Section 652 of title 10, United States
Code, is repealed.
(2)The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 37 of
such title is amended by striking the item relating to section 652.
(b)Revision of
current military personnel policies
(1)The Secretary of Defense shall revise the
military personnel policies of the Department of Defense and the military
departments so that such policies do not restrict members of the Armed Forces
from assignment to units and positions based on gender.
(2)Any change in a military
personnel policy that would exclude based on gender shall not take effect
until—
(A)the Secretary of
Defense submits to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of
Representatives a notice of the intent to make the change; and
(B)a period of 30
legislative days has expired following the date on which the notice is received
by the committees.
(3)In this subsection,
term legislative day
means a day on which either House of
Congress is in session.