S.Amdt. 3148

1. Adds SEC. 526. PILOT PROGRAM ON ACCESSION OF CANDIDATES WITH AUDITORY IMPAIRMENTS AS AIR FORCE OFFICERS IN CRITICAL MILITARY SPECIALTIES at the end of subtitle C of title V

   Adds a section

   In S. 3254 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   (4) The views of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

   Inserted: SEC. 526. PILOT PROGRAM ON ACCESSION OF CANDIDATES WITH AUDITORY IMPAIRMENTS AS AIR FORCE OFFICERS IN CRITICAL MILITARY SPECIALTIES.

   Inserted: (a) Pilot Program Required.--Commencing not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Air Force shall carry out a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of permitting individuals with auditory impairments (including deafness) to access as officers of the Air Force in order to fill the needs of the Air Force for officers in critical military specialties.

   Inserted: (b) Candidates.--

   Inserted: (1) Number of candidates.--The number of individuals with auditory impairments who may participate in the pilot program shall be not less than 15 individuals and not more than 20 individuals.

   Inserted: (2) Mix and range of auditory impairments.--The individuals who participate in the pilot program shall include individuals who are deaf and individuals having a range of other auditory impairments.

   Inserted: (3) Qualification for accession.--Any individual who participates in the pilot program shall meet all essential qualifications for accession as an officer in the Air Force, other than those relating to having an auditory impairment.

   Inserted: (c) Basic Training.--The individuals who participate in the pilot program shall undergo, at the election of the Secretary, the Basic Officer Training course or the Commissioned Officer Training course at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

   Inserted: (d) Specialty To Which Assignable.--An individual participating in the pilot program who successfully completes the training course selected for the individual under subsection (c) shall be assigned, at the election of the Secretary, to a specialty for which the individual is otherwise qualified as follows:

   Inserted: (1) Judge advocate.

   Inserted: (2) A specialty performing intelligence functions.

   Inserted: (3) A specialty performing medical functions, dental functions, medical service functions, nursing functions, or biomedical science functions.

   Inserted: (4) A specialty performing chaplain functions.

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   Inserted: (5) Any other critical military specialty of the Air Force specified by the Secretary for purposes of the pilot program.

   Inserted: (e) Report.--Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on the pilot program. The report shall include the following:

   Inserted: (1) A description of the pilot program and the participants in the pilot program.

   Inserted: (2) The outcomes of the pilot program.

   Inserted: (3) Such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Secretary considers appropriate in light of the pilot program.

   Inserted: (f) Appropriate Committees of Congress Defined.--In this section, the term "appropriate committees of Congress" means--

   Inserted: (1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and

   Inserted: (2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.

   Original wording

   At the end of subtitle C of title V, add the following:

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As printed