I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5542
To provide for the review and appeal of determinations that personnel of
the Department of State should be restricted or precluded from serving
in certain assignments, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER18, 2023
Mr. L
IEU(for himself, Mr. CASTROof Texas, and Mr. KIMof New Jersey)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To provide for the review and appeal of determinations that
personnel of the Department of State should be re-
stricted or precluded from serving in certain assignments,
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. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability in As-4
signment Restrictions and Reviews Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY IN ASSIGNMENT RE-1
STRICTIONS AND REVIEW. 2
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-3
gress that— 4
(1) the use of policies to restrict personnel from 5
serving in certain assignments may undermine the 6
ability of the Department of State to deploy relevant 7
cultural and linguistic skills at diplomatic posts 8
abroad if not applied judiciously; and 9
(2) the Department should continuously evalu-10
ate all processes relating to assignment restrictions, 11
assignment reviews, and preclusions at the Depart-12
ment. 13
(b) N
OTIFICATION OFSTATUS.—Beginning not later 14
than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 15
the Secretary shall— 16
(1) provide a status update for all Department 17
personnel who, prior to such date of enactment, were 18
subject to a prior assignment restriction, assignment 19
review, or preclusion for whom a review or decision 20
related to assignment is pending; and 21
(2) on an ongoing basis, provide a status up-22
date for any Department personnel who has been 23
the subject of a pending assignment restriction or 24
pending assignment review for more than 30 days. 25
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(c) NOTIFICATIONCONTENT.—The notification re-1
quired under subsection (b) shall inform relevant per-2
sonnel, as of the date of the notification— 3
(1) whether any prior assignment restriction 4
has been lifted; 5
(2) if their assignment status is subject to on-6
going review, and an estimated date for completion; 7
and 8
(3) if they are subject to any other restrictions 9
on their ability to serve at posts abroad. 10
(d) A
DJUDICATION OF ONGOINGASSIGNMENTRE-11
VIEWS.— 12
(1) T
IME LIMIT.—The Department shall estab-13
lish a reasonable time limit for the Department to 14
complete an assignment review and establish a dead-15
line by which it must inform personnel of a decision 16
related to such a review. 17
(2) A
PPEALS.—For any personnel the Depart-18
ment determines are ineligible to serve in an assign-19
ment due to an assignment restriction or assignment 20
review, a Security Appeal Panel shall convene not 21
later than 120 days of an appeal being filed. 22
(3) E
NTRY-LEVEL BIDDING PROCESS .—The De-23
partment shall include a description of the assign-24
ment review process and critical human intelligence 25
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threat posts in a briefing to new officers as part of 1
their entry-level bidding process. 2
(4) P
OINT OF CONTACT .—The Department 3
shall designate point of contacts in the Bureau of 4
Diplomatic Security and Bureau of Global Talent 5
Management to answer employee and Career Devel-6
opment Officer questions about assignment restric-7
tions, assignment reviews, and preclusions. 8
(e) S
ECURITYAPPEALPANEL.—Not later than 90 9
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secu-10
rity Appeal Panel shall be comprised of— 11
(1) the head of an office responsible for human 12
resources or discrimination who reports directly to 13
the Secretary; 14
(2) the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary 15
for the Bureau of Global Talent Management; 16
(3) the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary 17
for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research; 18
(4) an Assistant Secretary or Deputy, or equiv-19
alent, from a third bureau as designated by the 20
Under Secretary for Management; 21
(5) a representative from the geographic bureau 22
to which the restriction applies; and 23
(6) a representative from the Office of the 24
Legal Adviser and a representative from the Bureau 25
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of Diplomatic Security, who shall serve as non-vot-1
ing advisors. 2
(f) A
PPEALRIGHTS.—Section 414(a) of the Depart-3
ment of State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017 (22 4
U.S.C. 2734c(a)) is amended by striking the first two sen-5
tences and inserting ‘‘The Secretary shall establish and 6
maintain a right and process for employees to appeal a 7
decision related to an assignment, based on a restriction, 8
review, or preclusion. Such right and process shall ensure 9
that any such employee shall have the same appeal rights 10
as provided by the Department regarding denial or revoca-11
tion of a security clearance.’’. 12
(g) F
AMUPDATE.—Not later than 120 days after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 14
amend all relevant provisions of the Foreign Service Man-15
ual, and any associated or related policies of the Depart-16
ment, to comply with this section. 17
(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
(1) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 19
means the Department of State. 20
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 21
the Secretary of State. 22
Æ
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