PANORAMA Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6574 To direct the Secretary of Defense to standardize, collect, and analyze infor- mation on the demographics of applicants to military service academies, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 21, 2020 Mr. BROWN of Maryland (for himself, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. HOULAHAN, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. VELA, Ms. HAALAND, and Mr. CARBAJAL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL To direct the Secretary of Defense to standardize, collect, and analyze information on the demographics of appli- cants to military service academies, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Public Accountability 4 on Nominations Offered that Result in Admissions to Mili- 5 tary Academies Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘PANORAMA Act 6 of 2020’’. 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6574 IH SEC. 2. INFORMATION ON NOMINATIONS AND APPLICA- 1 TIONS FOR MILITARY SERVICE ACADEMIES. 2 (a) CONGRESSIONAL NOMINATIONS PORTAL.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 4 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec- 5 retary, in consultation with the Superintendents of 6 the military service academies, shall ensure that 7 there is a uniform online portal for all military serv- 8 ice academies that enables Members of Congress to 9 nominate individuals for appointment to each acad- 10 emy through a secure website. 11 (2) INFORMATION COLLECTION AND REPORT- 12 ING.—The online portal established under paragraph 13 (1) shall— 14 (A) collect, from each Member of Con- 15 gress, the demographic information described in 16 subsection (b) for each individual nominated by 17 the Member; and 18 (B) collect the information required to be 19 included in each annual report of the Secretary 20 under subsection (c) in a manner that enables 21 the Secretary to automatically compile such in- 22 formation when preparing the report. 23 (3) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION.—The por- 24 tal shall allow Members of Congress and their des- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6574 IH ignees to view past nomination records for all appli- 1 cation cycles. 2 (b) STANDARD CLASSIFICATIONS FOR COLLECTION 3 OF DEMOGRAPHIC DATA.— 4 (1) STANDARDS REQUIRED.—The Secretary, in 5 consultation with the Superintendents of the military 6 service academies, shall establish standard classifica- 7 tions that cadets, midshipmen, and applicants to the 8 academies may use to self-identify gender, race, and 9 ethnicity and to provide other demographic informa- 10 tion in connection with admission to or enrollment in 11 an academy. 12 (2) CONSISTENCY WITH OMB GUIDANCE.—The 13 standard classifications established under paragraph 14 (1) shall be consistent with the standard classifica- 15 tions specified in Office of Management and Budget 16 Directive No. 15 (pertaining to race and ethnic 17 standards for Federal statistics and administrative 18 reporting) or any successor directive. 19 (3) INCORPORATION INTO APPLICATIONS AND 20 RECORDS.—Not later than 180 days after the date 21 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall in- 22 corporate the standard classifications established 23 under paragraph (1) into— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6574 IH (A) applications for admission to the mili- 1 tary service academies; and 2 (B) the military personnel records of ca- 3 dets and midshipmen enrolled in such acad- 4 emies. 5 (c) ANNUAL REPORT ON THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF 6 MILITARY SERVICE ACADEMY APPLICANTS.— 7 (1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than Sep- 8 tember 30 of each year beginning after the date of 9 the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 10 to the congressional defense committees a report on 11 the demographics of applicants to military service 12 academies for the most recently concluded applica- 13 tion year. 14 (2) ELEMENTS.—Each report under paragraph 15 (1) shall include, with respect to each military serv- 16 ice academy, the following: 17 (A) The number of individuals who sub- 18 mitted an application for admission to the acad- 19 emy in the application year covered by the re- 20 port. 21 (B) Of the individuals who submitted an 22 application for admission to the academy in 23 such year— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6574 IH (i) the overall demographics of appli- 1 cant pool, disaggregated by the classifica- 2 tions established under subsection (b) and 3 by Member of Congress; 4 (ii) the number and percentage who 5 received a nomination, disaggregated by 6 the classifications established under sub- 7 section (b) and by Member of Congress; 8 (iii) the number and percentage who 9 received an offer for appointment to the 10 academy, disaggregated by the classifica- 11 tions established under subsection (b) and 12 by Member of Congress; and 13 (iv) the number and percentage who 14 accepted an appointment to the academy, 15 disaggregated by the classifications estab- 16 lished under subsection (b) and by Member 17 of Congress. 18 (3) CONSULTATION.—In preparing each report 19 under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult 20 with the Superintendents of the military service 21 academies. 22 (4) AVAILABILITY OF REPORTS AND DATA.— 23 The Secretary shall— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 6574 IH (A) make the results of each report under 1 paragraph (1) available on a publicly accessible 2 website of the Department of Defense; and 3 (B) ensure that any data included with the 4 report is made available in a machine-readable 5 format that is downloadable, searchable, and 6 sortable. 7 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 8 (1) The term ‘‘application year’’ means the pe- 9 riod beginning on January 1 of one year and ending 10 on June 1 of the following year. 11 (2) The term ‘‘congressional defense commit- 12 tees’’ has the meaning given that term in section 13 101(a)(16) of title 10, United States Code. 14 (3) The term ‘‘machine-readable’’ has the 15 meaning given that term in section 3502(18) of title 16 44, United States Code. 17 (4) The term ‘‘military service academy’’ 18 means— 19 (A) the United States Military Academy; 20 (B) the United States Naval Academy; and 21 (C) the United States Air Force Academy. 22 (5) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 23 of Defense. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:18 May 05, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6574.IH H6574 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS