[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3530 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3530

 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 14, 2023

 Ms. Murkowski (for herself, Mr. Moran, Ms. Duckworth, and Ms. Rosen) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Agency.--The term ``agency''--
                    (A) means each agency, office, or other 
                establishment in the executive, legislative, or 
                judicial branch of the Federal Government; and
                    (B) includes--
                            (i) each nonappropriated fund 
                        instrumentality of the United States, including 
                        each instrumentality described in section 
                        2105(c) of title 5, United States Code; and
                            (ii) the United States Postal Service.
            (2) Armed forces.--The term ``Armed Forces'' has the 
        meaning given the term ``armed forces'' in section 2101 of 
        title 5, United States Code.
            (3) Covered individual.--The term ``covered individual'' 
        means an individual who--
                    (A) is the spouse of a member of the Armed Forces 
                or the Foreign Service;
                    (B) is an employee; and
                    (C) relocates because the spouse of the individual, 
                as described in subparagraph (A), is subject to a 
                permanent change of station.
            (4) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
        the Office of Personnel Management.
            (5) Employee.--The term ``employee'' means an employee of 
        an agency.
            (6) Permanent change of station.--The term ``permanent 
        change of station'' means, with respect to a member of the 
        Armed Forces or the Foreign Service--
                    (A) a permanent change of duty station; or
                    (B) a change in homeport of a vessel, ship-based 
                squadron or staff, or mobile unit.
            (7) Permanent employee.--The term ``permanent employee'' 
        does not include an employee who is serving under a temporary 
        appointment or a term appointment.
    (b) Requirement.--Not later than 30 days after receiving a request 
from a covered individual, the head of the agency employing the covered 
individual shall--
            (1) authorize the covered individual to work remotely full-
        time if that agency head determines that the duties of the 
        covered individual do not require the regular physical presence 
        of the covered individual in the workplace;
            (2) transfer the covered individual, if qualified, to a 
        position of equal grade in the agency and in the commuting area 
        of the new duty station or homeport of the spouse of the 
        covered individual;
            (3) transfer the covered individual, if qualified, to a 
        remote position of equal grade in the agency; or
            (4) in the case of a covered individual who is not 
        authorized to work remotely under paragraph (1), or to be 
        transferred under paragraph (2) or (3), place the covered 
        individual into a nonpay and nonduty status for the greater 
        of--
                    (A) the duration of the service of the spouse of 
                the covered individual at the new duty station or 
                homeport of that spouse, as described in paragraph (2); 
                or
                    (B) the period of 36 consecutive months following 
                the permanent change of station of the spouse of the 
                covered individual.
    (c) Non-Encumbered Nonpay and Nonduty Status.--A position held by a 
covered individual placed into nonpay and nonduty status under this 
section--
            (1) shall not be considered to be encumbered; and
            (2) may be backfilled by a permanent employee.
    (d) Reports.--
            (1) Agency reports to opm.--For each of the first 5 full 
        fiscal years beginning after the date of enactment of this Act, 
        the head of each agency shall, not later than 180 days after 
        the last day of that fiscal year, submit to the Director--
                    (A) a list of each request received by that agency 
                head under subsection (b) during the applicable fiscal 
                year; and
                    (B) the action taken by the agency head under 
                subsection (b) with respect to each request described 
                in subparagraph (A).
            (2) Report to congress.--With respect to the information 
        received by the Director under paragraph (1) for a fiscal year, 
        the Director shall, not later than 195 days after the last day 
        of that fiscal year, submit to Congress a report containing all 
        of that information for that fiscal year, which shall be sorted 
        by agency.
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