Foreign Service Families Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1293 To expand employment opportunities for spouses of Foreign Service officers. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 2, 2019 Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To expand employment opportunities for spouses of Foreign Service officers. 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 ‘‘Foreign Service Fami- 4 lies Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. TELECOMMUTING OPPORTUNITIES. 6 (a) UPDATED PLAN.—Not later than 90 days after 7 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 8 State shall revise Chapter 2360 of Volume 3 of the For- 9 eign Affairs Manual to include an updated plan for pro- 10 viding telecommuting opportunities for spouses of Foreign 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1293 IS Service officers who are stationed overseas. The Secretary 1 of State may revise the Personnel Operations Handbook 2 and the International Cooperative Administrative Support 3 Services Handbook to reflect the updated plan. 4 (b) ELEMENTS.—The updated plan developed under 5 subsection (a) shall include— 6 (1) arranging telecommuting options with Fed- 7 eral agencies for spouses already employed at agen- 8 cies as civilian employees before moving overseas; 9 and 10 (2) encouraging Federal contractors to make 11 telecommuting opportunities available to qualified el- 12 igible spouses. 13 SEC. 3. EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR 14 SPOUSES OF FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS. 15 Section 706(b)(1) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 16 (22 U.S.C. 4026(b)(1)) is amended— 17 (1) by striking ‘‘The Secretary may’’ and in- 18 serting ‘‘The Secretary shall’’; 19 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 20 the end; 21 (3) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as sub- 22 paragraph (D); and 23 (4) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the fol- 24 lowing: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1293 IS ‘‘(C) establishing a program for assisting 1 spouses of Foreign Service officers to access 2 employment and education opportunities, which 3 shall be modeled after the programs authorized 4 under sections 1784 and 1784a of title 10, 5 United States Code, and based on regulations 6 modeled after those prescribed pursuant to sub- 7 section (b) of such section 1784; and’’. 8 SEC. 4. REPORTING ON FOREIGN SERVICE FAMILY RE- 9 SERVE CORPS. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 11 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 12 shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 13 a report on the status of implementation of the Foreign 14 Service Family Reserve Corps. 15 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub- 16 section (a) shall include the following elements: 17 (1) A description of the status of implementa- 18 tion of the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps 19 (FSFRC). 20 (2) An assessment of the extent to which imple- 21 mentation was impacted by the Department of State 22 hiring freeze and a detailed explanation of the effect 23 of any such impacts. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1293 IS (3) A description of the status of implementa- 1 tion of a hiring preference for the FSFRC. 2 (4) A detailed accounting of any individuals eli- 3 gible for membership in the FSFRC who were un- 4 able to begin working at a new location as a result 5 of being unable to transfer their security clearance, 6 including an assessment of whether they would have 7 been able to port their clearance as a member of the 8 FSFRC if the program had been fully implemented. 9 (5) An estimate of the number of individuals 10 who are eligible to join the FSFRC worldwide and 11 which of the three categories, as detailed in the 12 Under Secretary for Management’s guidance dated 13 May 3, 2016, under which those individuals would 14 enroll. 15 (6) An estimate of the number of individuals 16 who are enrolled in the FSFRC worldwide and 17 which of the three categories, as detailed in the 18 Under Secretary for Management’s guidance dated 19 May 3, 2016, under which those individuals enrolled. 20 (7) An estimate of the number of individuals 21 who were enrolled in each phase of the implementa- 22 tion of the FSFRC as detailed in guidance issued by 23 the Under Secretary for Management of the Depart- 24 ment of State. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1293 IS (8) An estimate of the number of individuals 1 enrolled in the FSFRC who have successfully trans- 2 ferred a security clearance to a new post since im- 3 plementation of the program began. 4 (9) An estimate of the number of individuals 5 enrolled in the FSFRC who have been unable to suc- 6 cessfully transfer a security clearance to a new post 7 since implementation of the program began. 8 (10) An estimate of the number of individuals 9 who have declined in writing to apply to the 10 FSFRC. 11 (c) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE- 12 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres- 13 sional committees’’ means— 14 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 15 the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and 16 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 17 Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep- 18 resentatives. 19 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1293 IS SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS OF FOREIGN 1 SERVICE OFFICERS SEEKING POSITIONS CUS- 2 TOMARILY FILLED BY FOREIGN SERVICE OF- 3 FICERS OR FOREIGN NATIONAL EMPLOYEES. 4 Section 311 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 5 U.S.C. 3951) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 6 lowing: 7 ‘‘(e) The Secretary shall hold a family member of a 8 government employee described in subsection (a) seeking 9 employment in a position described in that subsection to 10 employment standards not higher than the employment 11 standards applicable to Foreign Service officers, Foreign 12 Service personnel, or foreign national employees seeking 13 the same position.’’. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:12 May 07, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1293.IS S1293 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS