119-hr3240

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3240 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 3240

 To restore fairness to service members who filed religious 
 accommodation requests and ensure their career progression is justly 
 reviewed.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 May 7, 2025

Mr. Jackson of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred 
 to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To restore fairness to service members who filed religious 
 accommodation requests and ensure their career progression is justly 
 reviewed.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Reaffirming Every Servicemembers' 
Trust Of Religious Exemptions Act'' or the ``RESTORE Act''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SPECIAL REVIEW BOARD FOR IMPACTED SERVICE 
 MEMBERS.

    (a) Establishment of Review Board.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
convene a special review board under the Deputy Under Secretary of 
Defense for Personnel and Readiness to audit religious accommodation 
requests and disposition and review the personnel records of each 
service member who filed a religious accommodation request specifically 
for the COVID-19 vaccine and remained in service (in this section 
referred to as the ``Special Review Board'').

    (b) Duties of the Review Board.--The Special Review Board shall 
perform the following duties:

    (1) Audit scope of religious accommodation decisions since 
 2020.--Conduct a Department of Defense-wide audit to assess the 
 full number of submissions, approvals, and consistency of 
 compliance with the Religious freedom Restoration Act of 1993

    (RFRA) (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.).

    (2) Assess career impact.--Determine whether the service 
 member's career progression, promotions, assignments, 
 retention, or professional development opportunities were 
 negatively affected by their religious accommodation request or 
 COVID-19 vaccine refusal.

    (3) Adjudicate career restorations.--Determine and take 
 corrective action if the service member is eligible for--
        (A) backdated promotion to the rank they would have 
 achieved absent the adverse impact;
        (B) correction of their Date of Rank

    (DOR) to align 
 with their peer group;
            (C) restoration of lost pay and benefits, including 
 back pay, retirement contributions, and applicable 
 bonuses; and
            (D) reinstatement to service if they left service 
 due to denial of religious accommodation that has since 
 been determined as unlawful.

    (4) Expungement of adverse actions.--Ensure that all 
 adverse administrative actions related to refusal of the COVID-
 19 vaccine (or other protected religious accommodation) are 
 expunged from the service member's record, including--
        (A) administrative reprimands;
        (B) negative or inconsistent evaluations;
            (C) promotion delays or denials;
            (D) issuance of Inactive Duty Training points to 
 reserve component personnel so that if affected they 
 shall receive a satisfactory year for participation; 
 and
        (E) career assignment considerations to improve 
 service-member competitiveness previously impacted 
 solely due to vaccine refusal (or religious 
 accommodation).

    (5) Review process.--Establish a mechanism for service 
 members to request review of decisions if they previously 
 submitted a religious accommodation and believe their records 
 or career progression were adversely impacted regardless of 
 accommodation request outcome.
            (c) Timeline for Review and Reporting.--

    (1) Review.--The Special Review Board shall complete a full 
 review of all affected military personnel not later than one 
 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

    (2) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the review is 
 completed, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel 
 and Readiness shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services 
 of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House 
 of Representatives a report detailing--
        (A) the Special Review Board's findings;
        (B) the number of cases reviewed; and
            (C) corrective actions taken.
            (d) Deadline for Compensation.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
ensure that service members determined by the Special Review Board to 
be eligible for backdated reinstatements, promotions, pay, and benefits 
receive such compensation not later than 60 days after their case-
review under subsection
            (c) (1) is completed.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

    (a) Report of Initial 

=== Findings ===
-Not later than 90 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 
submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the 
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives a report 
with initial findings of the audit directed in 

section 2

    (a) . The report 
should provide statistical analysis of the affected service member 
population, assess compliance of Department of Defense with RFRA, and 
provide plans to address identified areas of opportunity.

    (b) Quarterly Reports.--The Secretary of Defense shall provide 
quarterly reports to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and 
the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives 
detailing--

    (1) the number of cases reviewed by the Special Review 
 Board;

    (2) the number of service members granted back pay, 
 promotions, or restored benefits;

    (3) the number of adverse actions expunged from military 
 records;

    (4) statistics on the performance of identified service 
 member populations with respect to boards, career progression, 
 and competitive assignment; and

    (5) recommendations for further legislative action to 
 ensure fairness in military personnel policies.
            (c) Inspector General Audit.--Not later than 18 months after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Department of Defense Inspector 
General shall conduct an independent audit and compliance review of the 
implementation of this Act. The Inspector General shall review overall 
data of religious accommodations and determine if RFRA was applied 
consistently across the Department of Defense.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

 In this Act:

    (1) Adverse action.--The term ``adverse action'' includes--
        (A) administrative reprimands;
        (B) denial or delay of promotions;
            (C) negative performance evaluations;
            (D) forced involuntary separation;
        (E) coerced voluntary separation; and
        (F) denial of career-enhancing assignments.

    (2) Religious accommodation.--The term ``religious 
 accommodation'' refers to a formally submitted request for 
 exemption from a military order, policy, or directive on 
 religious grounds, in accordance with the respective service 
 branch's religious accommodation policies.

    (3) Service member.--The term ``service member'' means a 
 member of the Armed Forces total force serving on active duty, 
 reserve (to include Individual Ready Reserve

    (IRR) ), or 
 National Guard status in any branch of the Department of 
 Defense.

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

 There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 
necessary to carry out this Act. The Secretary of Defense shall 
allocate necessary resources to support the Special Review Board.
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