I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 6470
To provide for outreach to build awareness among former members of the
Armed Forces of the process established pursuant to section 527 of
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 for the
review of discharge characterizations, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER21, 2023
Mr. P
OCAN(for himself and Mr. TAKANO) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for outreach to build awareness among former
members of the Armed Forces of the process established
pursuant to section 527 of the National Defense Author-
ization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 for the review of dis-
charge characterizations, 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 ‘‘Restore Honor to Serv-4
ice Members Act of 2023’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 6470 IH
SEC. 2. TIGER TEAM FOR OUTREACH TO FORMER MEM-1
BERS. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF TIGERTEAM.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 5
of Defense shall establish a team (commonly known 6
as a ‘‘tiger team’’ and referred to in this section as 7
the ‘‘Tiger Team’’) responsible for conducting out-8
reach to build awareness among former members of 9
the Armed Forces of the process established pursu-10
ant to section 527 of the National Defense Author-11
ization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116– 12
92; 10 U.S.C. 1552 note) for the review of discharge 13
characterizations by appropriate discharge boards. 14
The Tiger Team shall consist of appropriate per-15
sonnel of the Department of Defense assigned to the 16
Tiger Team by the Secretary for purposes of this 17
section. 18
(2) T
IGER TEAM LEADER.—One of the individ-19
uals assigned to the Tiger Team under paragraph 20
(1) shall be a senior-level officer or employee of the 21
Department who shall serve as the lead official of 22
the Tiger Team (in this section referred to as the 23
‘‘Tiger Team Leader’’) and who shall be accountable 24
for the activities of the Tiger Team under this sec-25
tion. 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 6470 IH
(3) REPORT ON COMPOSITION .—Not later than 1
90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 2
the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report set-3
ting forth the names of the personnel of the Depart-4
ment assigned to the Tiger Team pursuant to this 5
subsection, including the positions to which such 6
personnel are assigned. The report shall specify the 7
name of the individual assigned as Tiger Team 8
Leader. 9
(b) D
UTIES.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Tiger Team shall con-11
duct outreach to build awareness among veterans of 12
the process established pursuant to section 527 of 13
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 14
Year 2020 for the review of discharge characteriza-15
tions by appropriate discharge boards. 16
(2) C
OLLABORATION.—In conducting activities 17
under this subsection, the Tiger Team Leader shall 18
identify appropriate external stakeholders with 19
whom the Tiger Team shall work to carry out such 20
activities. Such stakeholders shall include the fol-21
lowing: 22
(A) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 23
(B) The Archivist of the United States. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 6470 IH
(C) Representatives of veterans service or-1
ganizations. 2
(D) Such other stakeholders as the Tiger 3
Team Leader considers appropriate. 4
(3) I
NITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 210 days 5
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-6
retary of Defense shall submit to Congress the fol-7
lowing: 8
(A) A plan setting forth the following: 9
(i) A description of the manner in 10
which the Secretary, working through the 11
Tiger Team and in collaboration with ex-12
ternal stakeholders described in paragraph 13
(2), shall identify individuals who meet the 14
criteria in section 527(b) of the National 15
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 16
2020 for review of discharge characteriza-17
tion. 18
(ii) A description of the manner in 19
which the Secretary, working through the 20
Tiger Team and in collaboration with the 21
external stakeholders, shall improve out-22
reach to individuals who meet the criteria 23
in section 527(b) of the National Defense 24
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 for 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 6470 IH
review of discharge characterization, in-1
cluding through— 2
(I) obtaining contact information 3
on such individuals; and 4
(II) contacting such individuals 5
on the process established pursuant to 6
section 527 of the National Defense 7
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 8
2020 for the review of discharge char-9
acterizations. 10
(B) A description of the manner in which 11
the work described in clauses (i) and (ii) of sub-12
paragraph (A) will be carried out, including an 13
allocation of the work among the Tiger Team 14
and the external stakeholders. 15
(C) A schedule for the implementation, 16
carrying out, and completion of the plan re-17
quired under subparagraph (A). 18
(D) A description of the additional fund-19
ing, personnel, or other resources of the De-20
partment required to carry out the plan re-21
quired under subparagraph (A), including any 22
modification of applicable statutory or adminis-23
trative authorities. 24
(4) I
MPLEMENTATION OF PLAN .— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 6470 IH
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall im-1
plement and carry out the plan submitted under 2
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (3) in accord-3
ance with the schedule submitted under sub-4
paragraph (C) of that paragraph. 5
(B) U
PDATES.—Not less frequently than 6
once every 90 days after the submittal of the 7
report under paragraph (3), the Tiger Team 8
shall submit to Congress an update on the car-9
rying out of the plan submitted under subpara-10
graph (A) of that paragraph. 11
(5) F
INAL REPORT.—Not later than 3 years 12
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 13
Tiger Team shall submit to the Committees on 14
Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Rep-15
resentatives a final report on the activities of the 16
Tiger Team under this subsection. The report shall 17
set forth the following: 18
(A) The number of individuals discharged 19
under former section 654 or a similar policy 20
prior to the enactment of former section 654. 21
(B) The number of individuals described in 22
subparagraph (A) who availed themselves of a 23
review of discharge characterization (whether 24
through discharge review or correction of mili-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•HR 6470 IH
tary records) through a process established 1
prior to the enactment of this Act. 2
(C) The number of individuals contacted 3
through outreach conducted pursuant to this 4
section. 5
(D) The number of individuals described in 6
subparagraph (A) who availed themselves of a 7
review of discharge characterization through the 8
process established pursuant to section 527 of 9
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fis-10
cal Year 2020. 11
(E) The number of individuals described in 12
subparagraph (D) whose review of discharge 13
characterization resulted in a change of charac-14
terization to honorable discharge. 15
(F) The total number of individuals de-16
scribed in subparagraph (A), including individ-17
uals also covered by subparagraph (E), whose 18
review of discharge characterization since Sep-19
tember 20, 2011, resulted in a change of char-20
acterization to honorable discharge. 21
(6) T
ERMINATION.—On the date that is 60 22
days after the date on which the final report re-23
quired by paragraph (5) is submitted, the Secretary 24
shall terminate the Tiger Team. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8
•HR 6470 IH
(c) ADDITIONALREPORTS.— 1
(1) R
EVIEW.—The Secretary of Defense shall 2
conduct a review of the consistency and uniformity 3
of the reviews conducted pursuant to section 527 of 4
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 5
Year 2020. 6
(2) R
EPORTS.—Not later than 270 days after 7
the date of the enactment of this Act, and each year 8
thereafter for a four-year period, the Secretary of 9
Defense shall submit to Congress a report on the re-10
views under paragraph (1). Such reports shall in-11
clude any comments or recommendations for contin-12
ued actions. 13
(d) F
ORMERSECTION654 DEFINED.—In this sec-14
tion, the term ‘‘former section 654’’ means section 654 15
of title 10, United States Code, as in effect before such 16
section was repealed pursuant to Public Law 111–321 (10 17
U.S.C. 654 note). 18
SEC. 3. RELIEF FOR IMPACTED FORMER MEMBERS. 19
(a) R
EVIEW OFDISCHARGE.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense 21
shall review and update existing guidance to ensure 22
that the appropriate discharge board for the military 23
departments concerned shall review a discharge 24
characterization of the covered member as required 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 9
•HR 6470 IH
under section 527 of the National Defense Author-1
ization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 at the request of 2
a covered member, or their representative, notwith-3
standing any requirements to provide documentation 4
necessary to initiate a review of a discharge charac-5
terization. 6
(2) E
XCEPTION.—The appropriate discharge 7
board for the military departments concerned shall 8
not be required to initiate a request for a review of 9
a discharge as described in paragraph (1) if there is 10
evidence available to the discharge board that is un-11
related to the material request of the covered mem-12
ber or the representative of the covered member but 13
that would have reasonably substantiated the dis-14
charge decision of the military department. 15
(b) V
ETERANSBENEFITS.— 16
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE OF CHANGE OF CHARAC -17
TERIZATION FOR VETERANS BENEFITS .—For pur-18
poses of the provision of benefits to which veterans 19
are entitled under the laws administered by the Sec-20
retary of Veterans Affairs to a covered member 21
whose discharge characterization is changed pursu-22
ant to section 527 of the National Defense Author-23
ization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116– 24
92; 10 U.S.C. 1552 note), the date of discharge of 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 10
•HR 6470 IH
the member from the Armed Forces shall be deemed 1
to be the effective date of the change of discharge 2
characterization under that section. 3
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 4
subsection shall be construed to authorize any ben-5
efit to a covered member in connection with the 6
change of discharge characterization of the member 7
under section 527 of the National Defense Author-8
ization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116– 9
92; 10 U.S.C. 1552 note) for any period before the 10
effective date of the change of discharge character-11
ization. 12
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 Nov 28, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6470.IH H6470
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB