I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5330
To amend title 10, United States Code, to establish a Department of Defense
Military Housing Readiness Council, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER1, 2023
Ms. J
ACOBS(for herself and Mrs. BICE) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To amend title 10, United States Code, to establish a De-
partment of Defense Military Housing Readiness Coun-
cil, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MILITARY HOUS-3
ING READINESS COUNCIL. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Subchapter I of chapter 88 of 5
title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 6
section 1781c the following new section: 7
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‘‘§ 1781d. Department of Defense Military Housing 1
Readiness Council 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—There is in the Department of 3
Defense the Department of Defense Military Housing 4
Readiness Council (in this section referred to as the 5
‘Council’). 6
‘‘(b) M
EMBERS.—(1) The Council shall be composed 7
of the following members: 8
‘‘(A) The Assistant Secretary of Defense for 9
Energy, Installations, and Environment, who shall 10
serve as chair of the Council and who may designate 11
a representative to chair the Council in the absence 12
of the Assistant Secretary. 13
‘‘(B) One representative of each of the Army, 14
Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force— 15
‘‘(i) each of whom shall be a member of 16
the armed force to be represented; and 17
‘‘(ii) not fewer than two of whom shall be 18
enlisted members. 19
‘‘(C) One spouse of a member of each of the 20
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space 21
Force on active duty, not fewer than two of whom 22
shall be the spouse of an enlisted member. 23
‘‘(D) One representative that possesses exper-24
tise in State and Federal housing standards from 25
each of the following areas: 26
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‘‘(i) Plumbing. 1
‘‘(ii) Electrical. 2
‘‘(iii) Heating, ventilation, and air condi-3
tioning. 4
‘‘(iv) Certified home inspection. 5
‘‘(v) Roofing. 6
‘‘(vi) Structural engineering. 7
‘‘(vii) Window fall prevention and safety. 8
‘‘(E) Two representatives of organizations that 9
advocate on behalf of military families with respect 10
to military housing. 11
‘‘(F) One individual appointed by the Secretary 12
of Defense among representatives of the Inter-13
national Code Council. 14
‘‘(G) One individual appointed by the Secretary 15
of Defense among representatives of the Institute of 16
Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification. 17
‘‘(H) One individual appointed by the Secretary 18
of Defense among representatives of a voluntary 19
consensus standards body that develops construction 20
standards (such as building, plumbing, mechanical, 21
or electrical). 22
‘‘(I) One individual appointed by the Secretary 23
of Defense among representatives of a voluntary 24
consensus standards body that develops personnel 25
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certification standards for building maintenance or 1
restoration. 2
‘‘(J) Two individuals appointed by the Chair of 3
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate, 4
each of whom is not described in subparagraph (B), 5
(C), or (D) and is not a representative of an organi-6
zation specified in subparagraph (E), (F), (G), (H), 7
or (I). 8
‘‘(K) Two individuals appointed by the Ranking 9
Member of the Committee on Armed Services of the 10
Senate, each of whom is not described in subpara-11
graph (B), (C), or (D) and is not a representative 12
of an organization specified in subparagraph (E), 13
(F), (G), (H), or (I). 14
‘‘(L) Two individuals appointed by the Chair of 15
the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 16
Representatives, each of whom is not described in 17
subparagraph (B), (C), or (D) and is not a rep-18
resentative of an organization specified in subpara-19
graph (E), (F), (G), (H), or (I). 20
‘‘(M) Two individuals appointed by the Ranking 21
Member of the Committee on Armed Services of the 22
House of Representatives, each of whom is not de-23
scribed in subparagraph (B), (C), or (D) and is not 24
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a representative of an organization specified in sub-1
paragraph (E), (F), (G), (H), or (I). 2
‘‘(2) The term on the Council of the members speci-3
fied under subparagraphs (B) through (M) of paragraph 4
(1) shall be two years and may be renewed by the Sec-5
retary of Defense. 6
‘‘(3) The chair of the Council shall extend an invita-7
tion to all landlords for one representative of each landlord 8
to attend such meetings of the Council as the chair con-9
siders appropriate. 10
‘‘(4) Each member of the Council under paragraph 11
(1)(D) may not be affiliated with— 12
‘‘(A) any organization that provides privatized 13
military housing; or 14
‘‘(B) the Department of Defense. 15
‘‘(c) M
EETINGS.—The Council shall meet two times 16
each year. 17
‘‘(d) D
UTIES.—The duties of the Council shall in-18
clude the following: 19
‘‘(1) To review and make recommendations to 20
the Secretary of Defense regarding policies for 21
privatized military housing, including inspections 22
practices, resident surveys, landlord payment of 23
medical bills for health conditions of residents of 24
housing units resulting from lack of maintenance of 25
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minimum standards of habitability, and access to 1
maintenance work order systems. 2
‘‘(2) To monitor compliance by the Department 3
of Defense with, and effective implementation by the 4
Department of, statutory and regulatory improve-5
ments to policies for privatized military housing, in-6
cluding the Military Housing Privatization Initiative 7
Tenant Bill of Rights developed under section 2890 8
of this title and the complaint database established 9
under section 2894a of this title. 10
‘‘(3) To make recommendations to the Sec-11
retary of Defense to improve collaboration, aware-12
ness, and promotion of accurate and timely informa-13
tion about privatized military housing, accommoda-14
tions available through the Exceptional Family 15
Member Program of the Department, and other sup-16
port services among policymakers, service providers, 17
and targeted beneficiaries. 18
‘‘(e) P
UBLICREPORTING.—(1) Subject to section 19
552 of title 5 (commonly known as the ‘Freedom of Infor-20
mation Act’), the records, reports, transcripts, minutes, 21
appendices, working papers, drafts, studies, agenda, and 22
other documents made available to or prepared for or by 23
the Council shall be available for public inspection and 24
copying at a single location in a publicly accessible format 25
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on a website of the Department of Defense until the Coun-1
cil ceases to exist. 2
‘‘(2)(A) Detailed minutes of each meeting of the 3
Council shall be kept and shall contain— 4
‘‘(i) a record of the individuals present; 5
‘‘(ii) a complete and accurate description of 6
matters discussed and conclusions reached; and 7
‘‘(iii) copies of all reports received, issued, or 8
approved by the Council. 9
‘‘(B) The chair of the Council shall certify the accu-10
racy of the minutes of each meeting of the Council. 11
‘‘(f) A
NNUALREPORTS.—(1) Not later than March 12
1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the Council shall submit 13
to the Secretary of Defense and the congressional defense 14
committees a report on privatized military housing readi-15
ness. 16
‘‘(2) Each report under this subsection shall include 17
the following: 18
‘‘(A) An assessment of the adequacy and effec-19
tiveness of the provision of privatized military hous-20
ing and the activities of the Secretary of Defense in 21
meeting the needs of military families relating to 22
housing during the preceding fiscal year. 23
‘‘(B) A description of activities of the Council 24
during the preceding fiscal year, including— 25
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‘‘(i) analyses of complaints of tenants of 1
privatized military housing; 2
‘‘(ii) data received by the Council on main-3
tenance response time and completion of main-4
tenance requests relating to privatized military 5
housing; 6
‘‘(iii) assessments of dispute resolution 7
processes; 8
‘‘(iv) assessments of overall customer serv-9
ice for tenants; 10
‘‘(v) assessments of results of housing in-11
spections conducted with and without notice; 12
and 13
‘‘(vi) any survey results conducted on be-14
half of or received by the Council. 15
‘‘(C) Recommendations on actions to be taken 16
to improve the capability of the provision of 17
privatized military housing and the activities of the 18
Department of Defense to meet the needs and re-19
quirements of military families relating to housing, 20
including actions relating to the allocation of fund-21
ing and other resources. 22
‘‘(3) Each report under this subsection shall be made 23
available in a publicly accessible format on a website of 24
the Department of Defense. 25
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‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1
‘‘(1) The terms ‘landlord’ and ‘tenant’ have the 2
meanings given, respectively, in section 2871 of this 3
title. 4
‘‘(2) The term ‘privatized military housing’ 5
means housing provided under subchapter IV of 6
chapter 169 of this title.’’. 7
(b) B
RIEFING.—Not later than March 1, 2024, the 8
Secretary of Defense shall provide to the congressional de-9
fense committees a briefing on the annual report required 10
under subsection (f) of section 1781d of title 10, United 11
States Code, as added by subsection (a). 12
Æ
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