1.Comprehensive Armed Forces
policy on prevention and response to hazing involving members of the Armed
Forces
(a)The Secretary of
Defense, in consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments and
the Secretary of Homeland Security (with respect to the Coast Guard), shall
assess and develop a uniform definition of hazing applicable to members of the
Armed Forces for inclusion in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The
Secretary of Defense shall submit the definition to the designated
congressional committees not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act. It is the sense of Congress that the definition should cover, at a
minimum, any situation in which a member of the Armed Forces suffers, or is
exposed to, any cruelty, indignity, humiliation, hardship, harm, harassment, or
oppression, or the deprivation or abridgement of any right by another member of
the Armed Forces.
(b)Comprehensive
Armed Forces policy required
(1)Not later than one
year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in
consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments and the Secretary
of Homeland Security, shall develop and implement a comprehensive policy on the
prevention of and response to hazing involving members of the Armed
Forces.
(2)Consideration of
recommendationsIn developing
this policy, the Secretaries shall consider the recommendations made and
findings of the Inspectors General of the Department of Defense and the
Department of Homeland Security in reports investigating hazing involving
members of the Armed Forces and the recommendations of the Comptroller General
of the United States under subsection (e).
(3)The policy shall
reflect the comprehensive definition of hazing determined pursuant to
subsection (a).
(c)Information
database on hazing incidents
(1)The Secretary of
Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall develop and implement a
centralized, case-level database for the collection and maintenance of
information regarding hazing involving a member of the Armed Services,
including hazing incidents occurring at officer candidate schools, military
academies, military academy preparatory schools, and basic training and
professional schools for enlisted members. The collection and maintenance of
information in the database shall be conducted in a manner consistent with
Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security regulations for
restricted reporting.
(2)The database shall
provide the following information with respect to each Armed Force:
(A)Description of
each hazing complaint.
(B)Substantiated
incidents of hazing.
(C)The nature and
date of the hazing.
(D)The victim,
including race, gender, and rank.
(E)The alleged
offender, including race, gender, and rank.
(F)The branch and
division in which the hazing incident occurred, along with whether it took
place during a contingency operation.
(G)Actions taken to
resolve hazing, including disciplinary action, transfer of an offender as a
result or related to the offense, and training, policy, and internal guideline
changes to address hazing.
(H)The outcome of any
legal proceedings in connection with the hazing.
(3)
(A)Not later than
90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense
and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to the designated
congressional committees a plan to provide for the implementation of the
database.
(B)Relation to
defense incident-based reporting systemNot later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the
designated congressional committees a report containing—
(i)a
description of the current status of the Defense Incident-Based Reporting
System; and
(ii)an
explanation of how the Defense Incident-Based Reporting System will relate to
the database.
(C)Not later than 15 months after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall complete implementation of the database.
(d)Annual reporting
requirement
(1)The database required
by subsection (c) shall be used to develop and implement an annual
congressional report.
(2)Not later than
January 15 of each year, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall submit to the designated congressional committees a report on
the hazing incidents involving members of the Armed Forces during the preceding
year.
(3)Each
report shall include the following:
(A)An assessment by
the Secretaries of the implementation during the preceding year of the policies
and procedures of each Armed Force on the prevention of and response to hazing
involving members of the Armed Forces in order to determine the effectiveness
of such policies and procedures.
(B)Data on the number
of alleged and substantiated hazing incidents within each Armed Force that
occurred that year, including the race, gender and Armed Force of the victim
and offender, the nature of the hazing, and actions taken to resolve and
address the hazing.
(e)Comptroller
general report
(1)Not later than one
year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the
United States shall submit to the designated congressional committees a report
on the policies to prevent hazing and systems initiated to track incidents of
hazing in each of the Armed Forces, including officer cadet schools, military
academies, military academy preparatory schools, and basic training and
professional schools for enlisted members.
(2)The
report required by paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A)An evaluation of
the definition of hazing developed under subsection (a).
(B)A description of
the criteria used, and the methods implemented, in the systems to track
incidents of hazing in the Armed Forces.
(C)An assessment of
the following:
(i)The
scope of hazing in each Armed Force.
(ii)The policies in place and the training on
hazing provided to members throughout the course of their careers for each
Armed Force.
(iii)The actions
taken to mitigate hazing incidents in each Armed Force.
(iv)The effectiveness of the training and
policies in place regarding hazing.
(v)The
number of alleged and substantiated incidents of hazing over the last five
years for each Armed Force, the nature of these cases and actions taken to
address such matters through non-judicial and judicial action.
(D)An evaluation of
the additional actions, if any, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Homeland Security propose to take to further address the incidence of hazing in
the Armed Forces.
(E)Such recommendations as the Comptroller
General considers appropriate for improving hazing prevention programs,
policies, and other actions taken to address hazing within the Armed
Forces.
(f)Designated
congressional committees definedIn this section, the term designated
congressional committees means—
(1)the Committee on Armed Services, the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation of the Senate; and
(2)the Committee on Armed Services, the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives.