II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1120
To establish an Interagency Council on Service to promote and strengthen
opportunities for military service, national service, and public service
for all people of the United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH25, 2025
Mr. R
EED(for himself, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. COONS) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To establish an Interagency Council on Service to promote
and strengthen opportunities for military service, na-
tional service, and public service for all people of the
United States, 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 ‘‘Unity through Service 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON SERVICE. 6
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 7
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(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established an 1
Interagency Council on Service (in this section re-2
ferred to as the ‘‘Council’’). 3
(2) F
UNCTIONS.—The Council shall— 4
(A) advise the President with respect to 5
promoting, strengthening, and expanding oppor-6
tunities for military service, national service, 7
and public service for all people of the United 8
States; and 9
(B) review, assess, and coordinate holistic 10
recruitment strategies and initiatives of the ex-11
ecutive branch to foster an increased sense of 12
service and civic responsibility among all people 13
of the United States and to explore ways of en-14
hancing connectivity of interested applicants to 15
national service programs and opportunities. 16
(b) C
OMPOSITION.— 17
(1) M
EMBERSHIP.—The Council shall be com-18
posed of members who are representatives of— 19
(A) the Secretary of State; 20
(B) the Secretary of Defense; 21
(C) the Attorney General; 22
(D) the Secretary of the Interior; 23
(E) the Secretary of Commerce; 24
(F) the Secretary of Labor; 25
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(G) the Secretary of Health and Human 1
Services; 2
(H) the Secretary of Education; 3
(I) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; 4
(J) the Secretary of Homeland Security; 5
(K) the Director of the Office of Manage-6
ment and Budget; 7
(L) the Director of National Intelligence; 8
(M) the Director of the Office of Personnel 9
Management; 10
(N) the Director of the Peace Corps; 11
(O) the Director of the Selective Service 12
System; 13
(P) the Chief Executive Officer of the Cor-14
poration for National and Community Service; 15
and 16
(Q) such other officers as the President 17
may designate. 18
(2) C
HAIR.—The President shall annually des-19
ignate to serve as the Chair of the Council a member 20
of the Council under paragraph (1), the appointment 21
of whom as an officer or employee of the Federal 22
Government was made by the President by and with 23
the advice and consent of the Senate. 24
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(3) MEETINGS.—The Council shall meet on a 1
quarterly basis or more frequently as the Chair of 2
the Council may direct. 3
(c) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF THE COUNCIL.—The 4
Council shall— 5
(1) assist and advise the President in the estab-6
lishment of strategies, goals, objectives, and prior-7
ities to promote service and civic responsibility 8
among all people of the United States; 9
(2) develop and recommend to the President 10
common recruitment strategies and outreach oppor-11
tunities for increasing the participation, and propen-12
sity of people of the United States to participate, in 13
military service, national service, and public service 14
in order to address national security and domestic 15
investment; 16
(3) serve as a forum for Federal officials re-17
sponsible for military service, national service, and 18
public service programs to, as feasible and prac-19
ticable— 20
(A) coordinate and share best practices for 21
service recruitment; and 22
(B) develop common interagency, cross- 23
service initiatives and pilots for service recruit-24
ment; 25
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(4) lead a strategic, interagency coordinated ef-1
fort on behalf of the Federal Government to develop 2
joint awareness and recruitment, retention, and mar-3
keting initiatives involving military service, national 4
service, and public service; 5
(5) consider approaches for assessing impacts 6
of service on the needs of the United States and in-7
dividuals participating in and benefitting from such 8
service; 9
(6) consult, as the Council considers advisable, 10
with representatives of non-Federal entities, includ-11
ing State, local, and Tribal governments, State and 12
local educational agencies, State Service Commis-13
sions, institutions of higher education, nonprofit or-14
ganizations, faith-based organizations, philanthropic 15
organizations, and the private sector, in order to 16
promote and develop initiatives to foster and reward 17
military service, national service, and public service; 18
(7) not later than 2 years after the date of en-19
actment of this Act, and quadrennially thereafter, 20
prepare and submit to the President and Congress 21
a Service Strategy, which shall set forth— 22
(A) a review of programs and initiatives of 23
the Federal Government relating to the man-24
date of the Council; 25
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(B) a review of Federal Government online 1
content relating to the mandate of the Council, 2
including user experience with such content; 3
(C) current and foreseeable trends for 4
service to address the needs of the United 5
States; 6
(D) recommended service recruitment 7
strategies and branding opportunities to ad-8
dress outreach and communication deficiencies 9
identified by the Council; and 10
(E) to the extent practical, a joint service 11
messaging strategy for military service, national 12
service, and public service; 13
(8) identify any notable initiatives by State, 14
local, and Tribal governments and by public and 15
nongovernmental entities to increase awareness of 16
and participation in national service programs; and 17
(9) perform such other functions as the Presi-18
dent may direct. 19
SEC. 3. JOINT MARKET RESEARCH TO ADVANCE MILITARY 20
AND NATIONAL SERVICE. 21
(a) P
ROGRAMAUTHORIZED.—The Secretary of De-22
fense, the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for 23
National and Community Service, and the Director of the 24
Peace Corps may carry out a joint market research, mar-25
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ket studies, recruiting, and advertising program to com-1
plement the existing programs of the military depart-2
ments, the national service programs administered by the 3
Corporation, and the Peace Corps. 4
(b) I
NFORMATION SHARINGPERMITTED.—Section 5
503 of title 10, United States Code, shall not be construed 6
to prohibit sharing of information among, or joint mar-7
keting efforts of, the Department of Defense, the Corpora-8
tion for National and Community Service, and the Peace 9
Corps to carry out this section. 10
SEC. 4. TRANSITION OPPORTUNITIES FOR MILITARY 11
SERVICEMEMBERS AND NATIONAL SERVICE 12
PARTICIPANTS. 13
(a) E
MPLOYMENTASSISTANCE.—Section 1143(c)(1) 14
of title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting 15
‘‘the Corporation for National and Community Service,’’ 16
after ‘‘State employment agencies,’’. 17
(b) E
MPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE, JOBTRAININGAS-18
SISTANCE, ANDOTHERTRANSITIONALSERVICES: DE-19
PARTMENT OFLABOR.—Section 1144 of title 10, United 20
States Code, is amended— 21
(1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the 22
following: 23
‘‘(11) Provide information on public service op-24
portunities, training on public service job recruiting, 25
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and the advantages of careers with the Federal Gov-1
ernment.’’; and 2
(2) in subsection (f)(1)(D)— 3
(A) by redesignating clause (v) as clause 4
(vi); and 5
(B) by inserting after clause (iv) the fol-6
lowing new clause: 7
‘‘(v) National and community service, 8
taught in conjunction with the Chief Executive 9
Officer of the Corporation for National and 10
Community Service.’’. 11
(c) A
UTHORITIES ANDDUTIES OF THECHIEFEXEC-12
UTIVEOFFICER.—Section 193A(b) of the National and 13
Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12651d(b)) 14
is amended— 15
(1) in paragraph (24), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 16
end; 17
(2) in paragraph (25), by striking the period at 18
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 19
(3) by adding at the end the following new 20
paragraph: 21
‘‘(26) ensure that individuals completing a par-22
tial or full term of service in a program under sub-23
title C or E or part A of title I of the Domestic Vol-24
unteer Service Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 4951 et seq.) 25
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receive information about military and public service 1
opportunities for which they may qualify or in which 2
they may be interested.’’. 3
SEC. 5. JOINT REPORT TO CONGRESS ON INITIATIVES TO 4
INTEGRATE MILITARY AND NATIONAL SERV-5
ICE. 6
(a) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 4 7
years after the date of enactment of this Act and quadren-8
nially thereafter, the Chair of the Interagency Council on 9
Service, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, the 10
Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National 11
and Community Service, and the Director of the Peace 12
Corps, shall submit a joint report on cross-service mar-13
keting, research, and promotion, including recommenda-14
tions for increasing joint advertising and recruitment ini-15
tiatives for the Armed Forces, programs administered by 16
the Corporation for National and Community Service, and 17
the Peace Corps, to the following congressional commit-18
tees: 19
(1) The Committee on Homeland Security and 20
Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 21
(2) The Committee on Homeland Security of 22
the House of Representatives. 23
(3) The Committee on Oversight and Account-24
ability of the House of Representatives. 25
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(4) The Committee on Armed Services of the 1
Senate. 2
(5) The Committee on Armed Services of the 3
House of Representatives. 4
(6) The Committee on Foreign Relations of the 5
Senate. 6
(7) The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 7
House of Representatives. 8
(8) The Committee on Health, Education, 9
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 10
(9) The Committee on Education and Work-11
force of the House of Representatives. 12
(b) C
ONTENTS OFREPORT.—Each report under sub-13
section (a) shall include the following: 14
(1) The number of Peace Corps volunteers and 15
participants in national service programs adminis-16
tered by the Corporation for National and Commu-17
nity Service, who previously served as a member of 18
the Armed Forces. 19
(2) The number of members of the Armed 20
Forces who previously served in the Peace Corps or 21
in a program administered by the Corporation for 22
National and Community Service. 23
(3) An assessment of existing (as of the date of 24
the report submission) joint recruitment and adver-25
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tising initiatives undertaken by the Department of 1
Defense, the Peace Corps, or the Corporation for 2
National and Community Service. 3
(4) An assessment of the feasibility and cost of 4
expanding such existing initiatives. 5
(5) An assessment of ways to improve the abil-6
ity of the reporting agencies to recruit individuals 7
from the other reporting agencies. 8
(6) A description of the information and data 9
used to develop any initiative or campaign intended 10
to advance military service or national service, in-11
cluding with respect to any activity carried out 12
under section 3. 13
(c) C
ONSULTATION.—The Chair of the Interagency 14
Council on Service, the Secretary of Defense, the Chief 15
Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and 16
Community Service, and the Director of the Peace Corps 17
shall undertake studies of recruiting efforts that are nec-18
essary to carry out the provisions of this section. Such 19
studies may be conducted using any funds appropriated 20
to those entities under Federal law other than this Act. 21
SEC. 6. REPORTS TO CONGRESS ON LESSONS LEARNED RE-22
GARDING RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT. 23
The Chair of the Interagency Council on Service 24
shall— 25
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(1) conduct a study on— 1
(A) the effectiveness of past advertising 2
campaigns for military service, national service, 3
and public service; and 4
(B) the role of vaccine requirements on the 5
retention and recruitment of individuals for 6
military service, national service, and public 7
service; and 8
(2) not later than 270 days after the date of 9
enactment of this Act, submit a report on the find-10
ings of and lessons learned from the study under 11
paragraph (1) to— 12
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 13
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 14
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 15
of the House of Representatives. 16
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 17
In this Act: 18
(1) I
NTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON SERVICE .—The 19
term ‘‘Interagency Council on Service’’ means the 20
Interagency Council on Service established by sec-21
tion 2(a). 22
(2) M
ILITARY DEPARTMENT .—The term ‘‘mili-23
tary department’’ means each of the military depart-24
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ments listed in section 102 of title 5, United States 1
Code. 2
(3) M
ILITARY SERVICE.—The term ‘‘military 3
service’’ means active service (as defined in sub-4
section (d)(3) of section 101 of title 10, United 5
States Code) or active status (as defined in sub-6
section (d)(4) of such section) in one of the Armed 7
Forces (as defined in subsection (a)(4) of such sec-8
tion). 9
(4) N
ATIONAL SERVICE.—The term ‘‘national 10
service’’ means participation, other than military 11
service or public service, in a program that— 12
(A) is designed to enhance the common 13
good and meet the needs of communities, the 14
States, or the United States; 15
(B) is funded or facilitated by— 16
(i) an institution of higher education 17
as defined in section 101 of the Higher 18
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001); 19
or 20
(ii) the Federal Government or a 21
State, Tribal, or local government; and 22
(C) is a program authorized in— 23
(i) the Peace Corps Act (22 U.S.C. 24
2501 et seq.); 25
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(ii) section 171 of the Workforce In-1
novation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 2
3226) relating to the YouthBuild Program; 3
(iii) the Domestic Volunteer Service 4
Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 4950 et seq.); or 5
(iv) the National and Community 6
Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12501 et 7
seq.). 8
(5) P
UBLIC SERVICE.—The term ‘‘public serv-9
ice’’ means civilian employment in the Federal Gov-10
ernment or a State, Tribal, or local government. 11
(6) S
ERVICE.—The term ‘‘service’’ means a 12
personal commitment of time, energy, and talent to 13
a mission that contributes to the public good by pro-14
tecting the Nation and the citizens of the United 15
States, strengthening communities, States, or the 16
United States, or promoting the general social wel-17
fare. 18
(7) S
TATE SERVICE COMMISSION .—The term 19
‘‘State Service Commission’’ means a State Commis-20
sion on National and Community Service maintained 21
by a State pursuant to section 178 of the National 22
and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 23
12638). 24
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SEC. 8. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS. 1
No additional funds are authorized to be appro-2
priated for the purpose of carrying out this Act. 3
SEC. 9. GAO REPORT. 4
Not later than 30 months after the date of enactment 5
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 6
shall report to Congress on the effectiveness of this Act 7
and the amendments made by this Act. 8
Æ
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