Promotion Accessibility Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7798 To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 relating to selection boards regarding performance evaluations of Foreign Service officers, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 27, 2020 Mr. CASTRO of Texas (for himself and Ms. TITUS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 relating to selec- tion boards regarding performance evaluations of Foreign Service officers, 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 ‘‘Promotion Accessi- 4 bility Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Aug 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7798.IH H7798 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7798 IH SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF GAP MEMORANDUM IN SE- 1 LECTION BOARD PROCESS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 603 of the Foreign Serv- 3 ice Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4003) is amended by adding 4 at the end the following new subsection: 5 ‘‘(c)(1) A member of the Service or member of the 6 Senior Foreign Service whose performance will be evalu- 7 ated by a selection board may submit to such selection 8 board a gap memo in advance of such evaluation. 9 ‘‘(2) Members of a selection board may not consider 10 as negative the submission of a gap memo by a member 11 described in paragraph (1) when evaluating the perform- 12 ance of such member. 13 ‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘gap memo’ means 14 a written record, submitted to a selection board in a stand- 15 ard format established by the Director General of the For- 16 eign Service, which indicates and explains a gap in the 17 record of a member of the Service or member of the Senior 18 Foreign Service whose performance will be evaluated by 19 such selection board, which gap is due to personal cir- 20 cumstances, including for health, family, or other reason 21 as determined by the Director General in consultation with 22 the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep- 23 resentatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of 24 the Senate.’’. 25 (b) CONSULTATION AND GUIDANCE.— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Aug 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7798.IH H7798 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7798 IH (1) CONSULTATION.—Not later than 30 days 1 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Di- 2 rector General of the Foreign Service shall consult 3 with the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 4 of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 5 Relations of the Senate regarding the development 6 of the gap memo under subsection (c) of section 603 7 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, as added by sub- 8 section (a). 9 (2) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 10 ‘‘gap memo’’ has the meaning given such term in 11 subsection (c) of section 603 of the Foreign Service 12 Act of 1980. 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Aug 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7798.IH H7798 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS