[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6462 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6462

 To retain Federal employees who are spouses of a member of the Armed 
  Forces or the Foreign Service when relocating due to an involuntary 
                   transfer, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2023

 Ms. Crockett (for herself, Mr. Bacon, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Wittman, Mr. 
    Raskin, Mr. Bergman, Ms. Escobar, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Panetta, Mr. 
  Newhouse, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Trone, and Mrs. Kiggans of 
  Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
               Committee on Oversight and Accountability

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To retain Federal employees who are spouses of a member of the Armed 
  Forces or the Foreign Service when relocating due to an involuntary 
                   transfer, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Resilient Employment and 
Authorization Determination to Increase the National Employment of 
Serving Spouses Act'' or the ``READINESS Act''.

SEC. 2. FLEXIBILITIES FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WHO ARE ARMED FORCES OR 
              FOREIGN SERVICE SPOUSES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 30 calendar days after receiving a 
request from a covered individual, the head of the agency or 
instrumentality of the Federal Government employing such covered 
individual shall--
            (1) authorize such covered individual to work remotely 
        full-time if the head determines that the duties of such 
        covered individual do not require regular physical presence of 
        the covered individual in the workplace;
            (2) transfer the covered individual to a position of equal 
        grade, as qualified, in the agency or instrumentality in the 
        commuting area of the new permanent duty location of the spouse 
        of such covered individual;
            (3) transfer the covered individual to a remote position of 
        equal grade, as qualified, in the agency or instrumentality; or
            (4) in the case of a covered individual who is not 
        authorized or able to be transferred under paragraph (1), (2), 
        or (3), place the covered individual into a nonpay status for 
        the greater of--
                    (A) the duration of the service of the spouse of 
                the covered individual at such permanent duty location; 
                or
                    (B) the period of 36 consecutive months following 
                the permanent change of station.
    (b) Non-Encumbered Nonpay Status.--A position held by a covered 
individual placed into nonpay status under this section shall not be 
considered encumbered, and may be backfilled by a permanent employee.
    (c) Reports.--
            (1) Agency reports to opm.--Not later than October 1 of 
        each of the first five fiscal years after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the head of each agency or 
        instrumentality of the Federal Government shall submit to the 
        Director of the Office of Personnel Management--
                    (A) a list of each request received by such head 
                under subsection (a) during the immediately preceding 
                fiscal year; and
                    (B) which action was taken by the head under such 
                subsection with respect to such a request.
            (2) Report to congress.--Not later than October 15 of each 
        of the first five fiscal years after the date of the enactment 
        of this Act, the Director shall provide a report to Congress 
        detailing the information received under paragraph (1), sorted 
        by agency or instrumentality.
    (d) Covered Individual Defined.--In this section, the term 
``covered individual'' means an individual--
            (1) who is the spouse of a member of the Armed Forces (as 
        defined in section 2101 of title 5, United States Code) or the 
        Foreign Service;
            (2) who is an employee of an agency or instrumentality of 
        the Federal Government; and
            (3) who relocates because such member receives a permanent 
        change of station or change in homeport of a vessel, ship-based 
        squadron or staff, or mobile unit.
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