I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5321
To amend the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2019 to improve the John S. McCain strategic defense
fellows program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER1, 2023
Mr. B
ACONintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Armed Services
A BILL
To amend the John S. McCain National Defense Authoriza-
tion Act for Fiscal Year 2019 to improve the John
S. McCain strategic defense fellows program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strategic Defense Fel-4
lows Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENTS TO THE JOHN S. MCCAIN STRA-6
TEGIC DEFENSE FELLOWS PROGRAM. 7
(a) S
ELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS.—Subsection 8
(d)(2) of section 932 of the John S. McCain National De-9
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fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 1
115–232; 10 U.S.C. 1580 note prec.) is amended to read 2
as follows: 3
‘‘(2) G
EOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION .—Out 4
of the total number of individuals selected to partici-5
pate in the fellows program in any year, no more 6
than 20 percent may be from any of the following 7
geographic regions: 8
‘‘(A) The Northeast United States. 9
‘‘(B) The Southeast United States. 10
‘‘(C) The Midwest United States. 11
‘‘(D) The Southwest United States. 12
‘‘(E) The Western United States. 13
‘‘(F) Alaska, Hawaii, United States terri-14
tories, and areas outside the United States.’’. 15
(b) A
PPOINTMENT, PLACEMENT, ANDCONVER-16
SION.—Such section is further amended— 17
(1) in subsection (d)(3)— 18
(A) by striking ‘‘assigned’’ and inserting 19
‘‘appointed’’; and 20
(B) by striking ‘‘assignment’’ and inserting 21
‘‘appointment’’; and 22
(2) by amending subsections (e) and (f) to read 23
as follows: 24
‘‘(e) A
PPOINTMENT.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An individual who partici-1
pates in the fellows program shall be appointed into 2
an excepted service position in the Department. 3
‘‘(2) P
OSITION REQUIREMENTS .—Each year, 4
the head of each Department of Defense Component 5
shall submit to the Secretary of Defense placement 6
opportunities for participants in the fellows pro-7
gram. Such placement opportunities shall provide for 8
leadership development and potential commencement 9
of a career track toward a position of senior leader-10
ship in the Department. The Secretary of Defense, 11
in coordination with the heads of Department of De-12
fense Components, shall establish qualification re-13
quirements for the appointment of participants 14
under paragraph (1) and subsection (f)(2). 15
‘‘(3) A
PPOINTMENT TO POSITIONS .—Each year, 16
the Secretary of Defense shall appoint participants 17
in the fellows program to positions in the Depart-18
ment of Defense Components. In making such ap-19
pointments, the Secretary shall seek to best match 20
the qualifications and skills of the participants with 21
the requirements for positions available for appoint-22
ment. 23
‘‘(4) T
ERM.—The term of each appointment 24
under the fellows program shall be one year with the 25
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option to extend the appointment up to one addi-1
tional year. 2
‘‘(5) G
RADE.—An individual appointed to a po-3
sition under the fellows program shall be appointed 4
at a level between GS–10 and GS–12 of the General 5
Schedule based on the directly-related qualifications, 6
skills, and professional experience of the individual. 7
‘‘(6) E
DUCATION LOAN REPAYMENT .—To the 8
extent that funds are provided in advance in appro-9
priations Acts, the Secretary of Defense may repay 10
a loan of a participant in the fellows program if the 11
loan is described by subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) 12
of section 16301(a)(1) of title 10, United States 13
Code. Any repayment of a loan under this paragraph 14
may require a minimum service agreement, as deter-15
mined by the Secretary. 16
‘‘(7) D
EPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMPONENT 17
DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘Depart-18
ment of Defense Component’ means a Department 19
of Defense Component, as set forth in section 111 20
of title 10, United States Code. 21
‘‘(f) C
AREERDEVELOPMENT.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense 23
shall ensure that participants in the fellows pro-24
gram— 25
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‘‘(A) receive career development opportuni-1
ties and support appropriate for the commence-2
ment of a career track within the Department 3
leading toward a future position of senior lead-4
ership within the Department, including ongo-5
ing mentorship support through appropriate 6
personnel from entities within the Department; 7
and 8
‘‘(B) are provided appropriate employment 9
opportunities for competitive and excepted serv-10
ice positions in the Department upon successful 11
completion of the fellows program. 12
‘‘(2) N
ONCOMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT OR CON -13
VERSION.—Upon a participant’s successful comple-14
tion of the fellows program, the Secretary may, with-15
out regard to the provisions of subchapter I of chap-16
ter 33 of title 5, United States Code, noncompeti-17
tively appoint or convert the participant into a va-18
cant competitive or excepted service position in the 19
Department, if the Secretary determines that such 20
appointment or conversion will contribute to the de-21
velopment of highly qualified future senior leaders 22
for the Department. The Secretary may appoint or 23
convert the participant into a position up to the GS– 24
13 level of the General Schedule or an equivalent po-25
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sition for which the participant is qualified without 1
regard to any minimum time in grade requirements. 2
‘‘(3) A
PPOINTMENT OF FORMER PARTICI -3
PANTS.—The Secretary may utilize the authority in 4
paragraph (2) for a participant— 5
‘‘(A) up to 2 years after the date of the 6
participant’s successful completion of the fel-7
lows program; or 8
‘‘(B) in the case of a participant who en-9
tered the fellows program before the date of the 10
enactment of this subparagraph, up to 5 years 11
after the date of the participant’s successful 12
completion of the fellows program. 13
‘‘(4) P
UBLICATION OF SELECTION .—The Sec-14
retary shall publish, on an Internet website of the 15
Department available to the public, the names of the 16
individuals selected to participate in the fellows pro-17
gram.’’. 18
Æ
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