117 S3016 IS: Military Forces Assuring that Treatment of Items by Gender are Uniform and Equal across the Services Act of 2021 U.S. Senate 2021-10-20 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

II117th CONGRESS1st SessionS. 3016IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESOctober 20, 2021Ms. Hassan (for herself, Ms. Ernst, and Mr. Coons) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed ServicesA BILLTo address out-of-pocket inequities related to military service uniforms, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Military Forces Assuring that Treatment of Items by Gender are Uniform and Equal across the Services Act of 2021 or the Military FATIGUES Act of 2021.

2.

Modifications to military service uniform requirements and procedures

(a)

Establishment of consistent criteria

(1)

In general

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and in coordination with the Secretaries concerned with respect to the Armed Forces under their jurisdiction, shall establish consistent criteria for determining which uniform or clothing items across the services are considered uniquely military for purposes of calculating the standard cash clothing replacement allowances, in part to reduce differences in out-of-pocket costs incurred by enlisted members of the Armed Forces across the military services and by gender within a military service.(2)

Review

The Under Secretary shall review the criteria established under paragraph (1) every 5 years thereafter and recommend adjustments to enlisted clothing allowances if they are insufficient to pay for uniquely military items.(b)

Additional reviews

The Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments, shall—(1)periodically review all uniform clothing plans of the military services to identify data and requirements needed to facilitate cost discussions and to recommend adjustments as appropriate;(2)periodically review items in the military services’ calculations of the enlisted standard cash clothing replacement allowances, at a minimum, every 5 years and develop a standard by which to identify significant cost differences that warrant being addressed; (3)periodically review all plans of the military services for changing uniform items to determine if the planned changes will result in significant out-of-pocket cost differences among the services or among genders; and(4)periodically review initial officer clothing allowances, at a minimum, every 10 years and identify requirements needed to facilitate cost discussions and adjustment recommendations as appropriate.(c)

Sense of Congress

It is the sense of Congress that the cost of like items between genders should be the same for members of the Armed Forces. (d)

Report

Not later than December 31, 2022, the Department of Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments, shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report on the estimated production and average retail prices of military clothing items for members of each Armed Force, including both officer and enlisted uniforms, and a comparison of costs for both male and female military clothing items for members of each of the respective services.