[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 132 (Thursday, July 31, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S5083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 3278. Mr. CRUZ (for himself, Mrs. Britt, and Mr. Lee) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 2296, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2026 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 title V, add the following:
Subtitle I--RESTORE Act
SEC. 591. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Reaffirming Every
Servicemembers' Trust Of Religious Exemptions Act'' or the
``RESTORE Act''.
SEC. 592. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SPECIAL REVIEW BOARD FOR
IMPACTED SERVICE MEMBERS.
(a) Establishment of Review Board.--The Secretary of
Defense shall convene a special review board under the Deputy
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to
audit religious accommodation requests and disposition and
review the personnel records of each service member who filed
a religious accommodation request specifically for the COVID-
19 vaccine and remained in service (in this section referred
to as the ``Special Review Board'').
(b) Duties of the Review Board.--The Special Review Board
shall perform the following duties:
(1) Audit scope of religious accommodation decisions since
2020.--Conduct a Department of Defense-wide audit to assess
full number of submissions, approvals, and consistency of
compliance with the Religious freedom Restoration Act of 1993
(RFRA) (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.).
(2) Assess career impact.--Determine whether the service
member's career progression, promotions, assignments,
retention, or professional development opportunities were
negatively affected by their religious accommodation request
or COVID-19 vaccine refusal.
(3) Adjudicate career restorations.--Determine and take
corrective action if the service member is eligible for--
(A) backdated promotion to the rank they would have
achieved absent the adverse impact;
(B) correction of their Date of Rank (DOR) to align with
their peer group;
(C) restoration of lost pay and benefits, including back
pay, retirement contributions, and applicable bonuses; and
(D) reinstatement to service if they left service due to
denial of religious accommodation that has since been
determined as unlawful.
(4) Expungement of adverse actions.--Ensure that all
adverse administrative actions related to refusal of the
COVID-19 vaccine (or other protected religious accommodation)
are expunged from the service member's record, including--
(A) administrative reprimands;
(B) negative or inconsistent evaluations;
(C) promotion delays or denials;
(D) issuance of Inactive Duty Training points to reserve
component personnel so that if affected they shall receive a
satisfactory year for participation; and
(E) career assignment considerations to improve service-
member competitiveness previously impacted solely due to
vaccine refusal (or religious accommodation).
(5) Review process.--Establish a mechanism for service
members to request review of decisions if they previously
submitted a religious accommodation and believe their records
or career progression were adversely impacted regardless of
accommodation request outcome.
(c) Timeline for Review and Reporting.--
(1) Review.--The Special Review Board shall complete a full
review of all affected military personnel not later than one
year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the review is
completed, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness shall submit to the Committee on
Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed
Services of the House of Representatives a report detailing--
(A) the Special Review Board's findings;
(B) the number of cases reviewed; and
(C) corrective actions taken.
(d) Deadline for Compensation.--The Secretary of Defense
shall ensure that service members determined by the Special
Review Board to be eligible for backdated reinstatements,
promotions, pay, and benefits receive such compensation not
later than 60 days after their case-review under subsection
(c)(1) is completed.
SEC. 593. CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
(a) Report of Initial Findings.--Not later than 90 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of
the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House
of Representatives a report with initial findings of the
audit directed in section 592(a). The report should provide
statistical analysis of affected service member population,
assess compliance of Department of Defense with RFRA, and
provide plans to address identified areas of opportunity.
(b) Quarterly Reports.--The Secretary of Defense shall
provide quarterly reports to the Committee on Armed Services
of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the
House of Representatives detailing--
(1) the number of cases reviewed by the Special Review
Board;
(2) the number of service members granted back pay,
promotions, or restored benefits;
(3) the number of adverse actions expunged from military
records;
(4) statistics on the performance of identified service
member populations with respect to boards, career
progression, and competitive assignment; and
(5) recommendations for further legislative action to
ensure fairness in military personnel policies.
(c) Inspector General Audit.--Not later than 18 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Department
of Defense Inspector General shall conduct an independent
audit and compliance review of the implementation of this
subtitle. The Inspector General shall review overall data of
religious accommodations and determine if RFRA was applied
consistently across the Department of Defense.
SEC. 594. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Adverse action.--The term ``adverse action'' includes--
(A) administrative reprimands;
(B) denial or delay of promotions;
(C) negative performance evaluations;
(D) forced involuntary separation;
(E) coerced voluntary separation; and
(F) denial of career-enhancing assignments.
(2) Religious accommodation.--The term ``religious
accommodation'' refers to a formally submitted request for
exemption from a military order, policy, or directive on
religious grounds, in accordance with the respective service
branch's religious accommodation policies.
(3) Service member.--The term ``service member'' means a
member of the Armed Forces total force serving on active
duty, reserve (to include Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)), or
National Guard status in any branch of the Department of
Defense.
SEC. 595. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be
necessary to carry out this subtitle. The Secretary of
Defense shall allocate necessary resources to support the
Special Review Board.
______