S.Amdt. 3932

SA 3932. Ms. HASSAN (for herself, Ms. Ernst, and Mr. Coons) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 3867 submitted by

[[Page S7429]]

Mr. Reed and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 4350, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2022 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 subtitle G of title V, add the following:

SEC. 596. MODIFICATIONS TO MILITARY SERVICE UNIFORM
REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES.

(a) Establishment of Consistent Criteria.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, acting
through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness and in coordination with the Secretaries concerned
with respect to the Armed Forces under their jurisdiction,
shall establish consistent criteria for determining which
uniform or clothing items across the services are considered
uniquely military for purposes of calculating the standard
cash clothing replacement allowances, in part to reduce
differences in out-of-pocket costs incurred by enlisted
members of the Armed Forces across the military services and
by gender within a military service.
(2) Review.--The Under Secretary shall review the criteria
established under paragraph (1) every 5 years thereafter and
recommend adjustments to enlisted clothing allowances if they
are insufficient to pay for uniquely military items.
(b) Additional Reviews.--The Secretary of Defense, acting
through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness and in coordination with the Secretaries of the
military departments, shall--
(1) periodically review all uniform clothing plans of the
military services to identify data and requirements needed to
facilitate cost discussions and to recommend adjustments as
appropriate;
(2) periodically review items in the military services'
calculations of the enlisted standard cash clothing
replacement allowances, at a minimum, every 5 years and
develop a standard by which to identify significant cost
differences that warrant being addressed;
(3) periodically review all plans of the military services
for changing uniform items to determine if the planned
changes will result in significant out of pocket cost
differences among the services or among genders; and
(4) periodically review initial officer clothing
allowances, at a minimum, every 10 years and identify
requirements needed to facilitate cost discussions and
adjustment recommendations as appropriate.
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the cost of like items between genders should be the same for
members of the Armed Forces.
(d) Report.--Not later than December 31, 2022, the
Department of Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries
of the military departments, shall submit to the Committees
on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of
Representatives a report on the estimated production and
average retail costs of military clothing items for members
of each Armed Force, including both officer and enlisted
uniforms, and a comparison of costs for both male and female
military clothing items for members of each of the respective
services.
______