STAND Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4921 To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to require a certain appointments of chiefs of mission to be from Foreign Service or Civil Service of the Department of State, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 30, 2019 Mr. BERA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to require a certain appointments of chiefs of mission to be from Foreign Service or Civil Service of the Department of State, 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 ‘‘Strengthening Tradi- 4 tional American Diplomacy Act’’ or the ‘‘STAND Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:30 Nov 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4921.IH H4921 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4921 IH SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT RELATING TO APPOINTMENT AS A 1 CHIEF OF MISSION. 2 Paragraph (2) of section 304(a) of the Foreign Serv- 3 ice Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3944(a)) is amended— 4 (1) by inserting ‘‘or Civil Service of the Depart- 5 ment of State’’ after ‘‘be accorded to career mem- 6 bers of the Service’’; and 7 (2) by adding at the end the following new sen- 8 tence: ‘‘Not less than 70 percent of appointments 9 and assignments under this section shall be of career 10 members of Service or Civil Service of the Depart- 11 ment, except that this requirement may be waived if 12 the President certifies in writing, on a case by case 13 basis, to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 14 House of Representatives and the Committee on 15 Foreign Relations of the Senate, that a reduction in 16 such percentage is vital to the national security in- 17 terests of the United States.’’. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:30 Nov 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4921.IH H4921 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS