S.Amdt. 788

SA 788. Ms. HIRONO (for herself and Mr. Gardner) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 1790, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of part II of subtitle F of title V, add the
following:

SEC. 582. INDEPENDENT STUDY AND REPORT ON MILITARY SPOUSE
UNDEREMPLOYMENT.

(a) Independent Study.--Not later than 30 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense
shall seek to enter into a contract with a Federally funded
research and development center to conduct a study on
underemployment among military spouses. The study shall
consider, at a minimum, the following:
(1) The prevalence of unemployment and underemployment
among military spouses, including differences by Armed Force,
region, State, education level, and income level.
(2) The causes of unemployment and underemployment among
military spouses.
(3) The differences in unemployment and underemployment
between military spouses and civilians.
(4) Barriers to small business ownership and
entrepreneurship faced by military spouses.
(b) Submittal to DoD.--Not later than 240 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Federally funded
research and development center with which the Secretary
contracts pursuant to subsection (a) shall submit to the
Secretary a report containing the results of the study
conducted pursuant to that subsection.
(c) Transmittal to Congress.--Not later than 270 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
transmit to the appropriate committees of Congress the report
under subsection (b), without change.
(d) Appropriate Committees of Congress Defined.--In this
section, the term ``appropriate committees of Congress''
means the following--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, the Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Education and Labor, the Committee on Small Business, and
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
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