[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S3508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 480. Mr. JOHNSON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle C of title V, add the following:

     SEC. 520. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON LOCAL PERFORMANCE OF MILITARY 
                   ACCESSION PHYSICALS.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The United States Military Entrance Processing Command 
     (USMEPCOM) consists of 65 Military Entrance Processing 
     Stations (MEPS) dispersed throughout the contiguous United 
     States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
       (2) Applicants who must travel to the closest Processing 
     Station are often driven by their military recruiter and 
     receive free lodging at a nearby hotel paid by the Armed 
     Force concerned.
       (3) In fiscal year 2015, the United States Military 
     Entrance Processing Command processed 473,000 applicants at 
     its Processing Stations, with an aggregate total of 931,000 
     applicant visits to such Processing Stations in that fiscal 
     year.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) permitting military accession physicals in local 
     communities would allow recruiters to focus on their core 
     recruiting mission; and
       (2) the conduct of military accession physicals in local 
     communities would permit the United States Military Entrance 
     Processing Command to reduce costly and inefficient return 
     visits by applicants to Military Entrance Processing Stations 
     and increase efficiency in its processing times.
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