You are given two reports by the government agency.  

Report 1:
Article I, Section 6, of the U.S. Constitution, states that the compensation of Members of Congress shall be "ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States." Additionally, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the Constitution states, "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." This amendment was submitted to the states on September 25, 1789, along with 11 other proposed amendments, 10 of which were ratified and became the Bill of Rights. It was not ratified until May 7, 1992. Since FY1983, Member salaries have been funded in a permanent appropriations account. The most recent pay adjustment for Members of Congress was in January 2009. Since then, the compensation for most Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico has been $174,000. The only exceptions include the Speaker of the House ($223,500) and the President pro tempore of the Senate and the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate ($193,400). This report provides historical tables on the rate of pay for Members of Congress since 1789; details on enacted legislation with language prohibiting the automatic annual pay adjustment since the most recent adjustment; the adjustments projected by the Ethics Reform Act as compared with actual adjustments in Member pay; and Member pay in constant and current dollars since 1992. Additional CRS products also address pay and benefits for Members of Congress: For information on actions taken each year since the establishment of the Ethics Reform Act adjustment procedure, see CRS Report 97-615, Salaries of Members of Congress: Congressional Votes, 1990-2018 , by Ida A. Brudnick. Members of Congress only receive salaries during the terms for which they are elected. Following their service, former Members of Congress may be eligible for retirement benefits, which are discussed in CRS Report RL30631, Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress , by Katelin P. Isaacs. For information on health insurance options available to Members, see CRS Report R43194, Health Benefits for Members of Congress and Designated Congressional Staff: In Brief , by Ada S. Cornell. For an overview of compensation, benefits, allowances, and selected limitations, see CRS Report RL30064, Congressional Salaries and Allowances: In Brief , by Ida A. Brudnick. There are three basic ways to adjust Member pay. Specific legislation was enacted to adjust Member pay prior to 1968. It has been used periodically since, most recently affecting pay for 1991. The second method by which Member pay can be increased is pursuant to recommendations from the President, based on those made by a quadrennial salary commission. In 1967, Congress established the Commission on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Salaries to recommend salary increases for top-level federal officials (P.L. 90-206). Three times (in 1969, 1977, and 1987) Congress received pay increases made under this procedure; on three occasions it did not. Effective with passage of the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 ( P.L. 101-194 ), the commission ceased to exist. Its authority was assumed by the Citizens' Commission on Public Service and Compensation. Although the first commission under the 1989 act was to have convened in 1993, it did not meet. The third method by which the salary of Members can be changed is by annual adjustments. Prior to 1990, the pay of Members, and other top-level federal officials, was tied to the annual comparability increases provided to General Schedule (GS) federal employees. This procedure was established in 1975 ( P.L. 94-82 ). Such increases were recommended by the President, subject to congressional acceptance, disapproval, or modification. Congress accepted 5 such increases for itself—in 1975, 1979 (partial), 1984, 1985, and 1987—and declined 10 (1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1988, and 1989). The Ethics Reform Act of 1989 changed the method by which the annual adjustment is determined for Members and other senior officials. This procedure employs a formula based on changes in private sector wages and salaries as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI). The annual adjustment automatically goes into effect unless 1. Congress statutorily prohibits the adjustment; 2. Congress statutorily revises the adjustment; or 3. The annual base pay adjustment of GS employees is established at a rate less than the scheduled adjustment for Members, in which case Members would be paid the lower rate. Under this revised method, annual adjustments were accepted 13 times (adjustments scheduled for January 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009) and denied 16 times (adjustments scheduled for January 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019). Although discussion of the Member pay adjustment sometimes occurs during consideration of annual appropriations bills, these bills do not contain funds for the annual salaries or pay adjustment for Members. Nor do they contain language authorizing an increase. The use of appropriations bills as vehicles for provisions prohibiting the automatic annual pay adjustments for Members developed by custom. A provision prohibiting an adjustment to Member pay could be offered to any bill, or be introduced as a separate bill. The maximum potential January 2020 Member pay adjustment of 2.6%, or $4,500, was known when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data for the change in the Employment Cost Index (ECI) during the 12-month period from December 2017 to December 2018 on January 31, 2019. Each year, the adjustment takes effect automatically unless it is either denied or modified statutorily by Congress, or limited by the General Schedule (GS) base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The maximum potential January 2019 Member pay adjustment of 2.3%, or $4,000, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2016 to December 2017 on January 31, 2018. Each year, the adjustment takes effect automatically unless it is either denied or modified statutorily by Congress, or limited by the GS base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The 2019 GS base pay adjustment was 1.4%, automatically limiting any Member pay adjustment to $2,400. The House-passed ( H.R. 5894 ) and Senate-reported versions ( S. 3071 ) of the FY2019 legislative branch appropriations bill both contained provisions to prevent this adjustment. The Member pay provision was included in the bills as introduced and no separate votes were held on this provision. Division B of P.L. 115-244 , enacted September 21, 2018, included the pay freeze provision. The maximum potential January 2018 member pay adjustment of 1.8%, or $3,100, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2015 to December 2016 on January 31, 2017. Each year, the adjustment takes effect automatically unless it is either denied or modified statutorily by Congress, or limited by the GS base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The 2018 GS base pay adjustment was 1.4%, automatically limiting any Member pay adjustment to $2,400. The House-passed ( H.R. 3162 ) and Senate-reported versions ( S. 1648 ) of the FY2018 legislative branch appropriations bill both contained provisions to prevent this adjustment. The Member pay provision was included in the bills as introduced and no separate votes were held on this provision. Neither bill was enacted prior to the start of FY2018, and legislative branch activities were initially funded through a series of continuing appropriations resolutions (CRs) ( P.L. 115-56 , through December 8, 2017; P.L. 115-90 , through December 22, 2017; P.L. 115-96 , through January 19, 2018; P.L. 115-120 , through February 8, 2018; P.L. 115-123 , through March 23, 2018). P.L. 115-56 contained a provision, extended in the subsequent CRs, continuing "section 175 of P.L. 114-223 , as amended by division A of P.L. 114-254 ." This provision prohibited a Member pay adjustment in FY2017. Section 7 of the FY2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act ( P.L. 115-141 ) prohibited the adjustment for the remainder of the year. The maximum potential January 2017 Member pay adjustment of 1.6%, or $2,800, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2014 to December 2015 on January 30, 2016. Both the House-passed ( H.R. 5325 ) and Senate-reported ( S. 2955 ) versions of the FY2017 legislative branch appropriations bill—which would provide approximately $4.4 billion in funding for the activities of the House of Representatives, Senate, and legislative branch support agencies —contained a provision that would prohibit this adjustment. The Member pay provision was included in the bills as introduced and no separate votes were held on this provision. No further action was taken on H.R. 5325 or S. 2955 , but the pay prohibition language was included in the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017 ( P.L. 114-254 ). Absent the statutory prohibition on a Member pay adjustment, Members of Congress would have automatically been limited to a 1.0% ($1,700) salary increase to match the increase in base salaries for GS employees. The maximum potential January 2016 Member pay adjustment of 1.7%, or $3,000, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2013 to December 2014 on January 30, 2015. The House-passed and Senate-reported versions of the FY2016 legislative branch appropriations bill ( H.R. 2250 ) both contained a provision prohibiting this adjustment. The pay adjustment prohibition was subsequently included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 ( P.L. 114-113 ). Absent the statutory prohibition on a Member pay adjustment, Members of Congress would have automatically been limited to a 1.0% ($1,700) salary increase to match the increase in base salaries for GS employees. The maximum potential January 2015 pay adjustment of 1.6%, or $2,800, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2012 to December 2013 on January 31, 2014. Each year, the adjustment takes effect automatically unless it is either denied statutorily by Congress, or limited by the GS base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The FY2015 legislative branch appropriations bill ( H.R. 4487 ), as reported by the Committee on Appropriations and passed by the House on May 1, 2014, contained a provision prohibiting this adjustment. This provision was continued in the House-passed and Senate-reported versions of this bill, with no separate vote on the Member pay provision. No further action on this bill was taken, but the provision was subsequently included in Section 8 of Division Q of the FY2015 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, which was enacted on December 16, 2014. On August 29, 2014, President Obama issued an "alternative pay plan for federal civilian employees," which called for a 1.0% increase in base salaries for General Schedule employees. Absent the statutory prohibition on a Member pay adjustment, Members of Congress would have automatically been limited to a 1.0% ($1,700) salary increase. The maximum potential 2014 pay adjustment of 1.2%, or $2,100, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2011 to December 2012 on January 31, 2013. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 ( P.L. 113-46 , enacted October 17, 2013), however, prohibited the scheduled 2014 pay adjustment for Members of Congress. Each year, the adjustment takes effect automatically unless it is either denied statutorily by Congress, or limited by the GS base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The scheduled January 2014 across-the-board increase in the base pay of GS employees under the annual adjustment formula was 1.3%. A scheduled GS annual pay increase may be altered only if the President issues an alternative plan or if a different increase, or freeze, is enacted. The President issued an alternate pay plan for civilian federal employees on August 30, 2013. This plan called for a January 2014 across-the-board pay increase of 1.0% for federal civilian employees, the same percentage as proposed in the President's FY2014 budget. Legislation was not enacted to prohibit or alter the GS adjustment, and Executive Order 13655, issued on December 23, 2013, implemented a 1.0% increase for GS employees. Had the Member pay adjustment not been prohibited by law, the GS base pay adjustment would have automatically limited a salary adjustment for Members of Congress to 1.0% ($1,700). The maximum potential 2013 pay adjustment of 1.1%, or $1,900, was known when the BLS released data for the change in the ECI during the 12-month period from December 2010 to December 2011 on January 31, 2012. The adjustment takes effect automatically unless (1) denied statutorily by Congress or (2) limited by the GS base pay adjustment, since the percentage increase in Member pay is limited by law to the GS base pay percentage increase. The President's budget, submitted on February 13, 2012, proposed an average (i.e., base and locality) 0.5% adjustment for GS employees. President Obama later stated in a letter to congressional leadership on August 21, 2012, that the current federal pay freeze should extend until FY2013 budget negotiations are finalized. Section 114 of H.J.Res. 117 , the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2013, which was introduced on September 10, 2012, extended the freeze enacted by P.L. 111-322 through the duration of this continuing resolution. H.J.Res. 117 was passed by the House on September 13 and the Senate on September 22. It was signed by the President on September 28, 2012 ( P.L. 112-175 ). A delay in the implementation of pay adjustments for GS employees automatically delays any scheduled Member pay adjustment. On December 27, 2012, President Obama issued Executive Order 13635, which listed the rates of pay for various categories of officers and employees that would be effective after the expiration of the freeze extended by P.L. 112-175 . The executive order included a 0.5% increase for GS base pay, which automatically lowered the maximum potential Member pay adjustment from 1.1% to 0.5%. As in prior years, schedule 6 of the 2012 executive order listed the pay rate for Members of Congress for the upcoming year. This executive order indicated that an annual adjustment would take effect after the expiration of the freeze included in P.L. 112-175 . As stated above, the annual adjustments take effect automatically if legislation is not enacted preventing them. The executive order, however, by establishing the GS pay adjustment at a lower rate than the scheduled Member pay adjustment, automatically lowered the Member pay adjustment rate since by law Member pay adjustments cannot be higher than GS pay adjustments. Subsequently, a provision in H.R. 8 , the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was enacted on January 2, 2013 ( P.L. 112-240 ), froze Member pay at the 2009 level for 2013. The language was included in S.Amdt. 3448 , a substitute amendment agreed to by unanimous consent. The bill, as amended, passed the Senate (89-8, vote #251) and the House (257-167, roll call #659) on January 1, 2013. This freeze was subsequently reflected in Executive Order 13641, which was signed April 5, 2013. This represented the second time, the first being in 2006, that Member pay was statutorily frozen for only a portion of the following year at the time of the issuance of the executive order. In both instances, the executive order listed new pay rates and indicated an effective date following the expiration of the statutory freeze. Pay adjustments in both years were further frozen pursuant to subsequent laws. As stated above, projected Member pay adjustments are calculated based on changes in the ECI. The projected 2011 adjustment of 0.9% was known when the BLS released data for the ECI change during the 12-month period from December 2008 to December 2009 on January 29, 2010. This adjustment would have equaled a $1,600 increase, resulting in a salary of $175,600. The 2011 pay adjustment was prohibited by the enactment of H.R. 5146 ( P.L. 111-165 ) on May 14, 2010. H.R. 5146 was introduced in the House on April 27 and was agreed to the same day (Roll no. 226). It was agreed to in the Senate the following day by unanimous consent. Other legislation was also introduced to prevent the scheduled 2011 pay adjustment. Additionally, P.L. 111-322 , which was enacted on December 22, 2010, prevents any adjustment in GS base pay before December 31, 2012. Since the percentage adjustment in Member pay may not exceed the percentage adjustment in the base pay of GS employees, Member pay is also frozen during this period. If not limited by GS pay, Members could have received a salary adjustment of 1.3% in January 2012 under the ECI formula. Pay for Members of Congress remained $174,000. Under the formula established in the Ethics Reform Act, Members were originally scheduled to receive a pay adjustment in January 2010 of 2.1%. This adjustment was denied by Congress through a provision included in the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. Section 103 of Division J of the act states, "Notwithstanding any provision of section 601(a)(2) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31(2)), the percentage adjustment scheduled to take effect under any such provision in calendar year 2010 shall not take effect." Had this provision not been enacted, the 2.1% projected adjustment would have been automatically reduced to 1.5% to match the 2010 GS base pay adjustment. As in previous Congresses, legislation was introduced in the 116 th Congress to repeal the automatic pay adjustment provision (for example, H.R. 751 and H.R. 1466 ); change the procedure by which pay for Members of Congress is adjusted or disbursed by linking it to congressional actions or economic indicators, including passage of a budget resolution, passage of appropriations, or reaching the debt limit (for example, S. 39 , S. 44 , S. 949 , H.R. 86 , H.R. 102 , H.R. 129 , H.R. 236 , H.R. 298 , H.R. 834 , H.R. 1172 , H.R. 1178 , H.R. 1466 , H.R. 1612 , H.J.Res. 10 , and H.J.Res. 51 ); and prohibit pay for Members of Congress during a lapse in appropriations resulting in a government shutdown (for example, S. 74 , S. 949 , H.R. 26 , H.R. 211 , H.R. 845 , and H.R. 1612 ). Legislation was introduced in the 115 th Congress to prohibit adjustments in pay (for example, H.R. 342 ); repeal the automatic pay adjustment provision (for example, H.R. 668 and H.R. 5946 ); change the procedure by which pay for Members of Congress is adjusted or disbursed by linking it to congressional actions or economic indicators, including passage of a budget resolution or reaching the debt limit (for example, H.R. 429 , H.R. 536 , H.R. 646 , H.R. 1779 , H.R. 1951 , H.R. 2153 , H.R. 2665 , H.R. 3675 , H.R. 4512 , and H.R. 5946 , and S. 14 ); reduce the pay of Members of Congress (for example, H.R. 1786 and H.R. 5539 ); and prohibit pay for Members of Congress during a lapse in appropriations resulting in a government shutdown (for example, H.R. 1789 , H.R. 1794 , H.R. 2214 , H.R. 4852 , H.R. 4870 , and S. 2327 ). Legislation was introduced in the 114 th Congress to prohibit adjustments in pay (for example, H.R. 109 and H.R. 302 ); repeal the automatic pay adjustment provision (for example, H.R. 179 , H.R. 513 , H.R. 688 , H.R. 1585 , and S. 17 ); change the procedure by which pay for Members of Congress is adjusted or disbursed by linking it to congressional actions or economic indicators, including the passage of a budget resolution or existence of a deficit (for example, H.Con.Res. 27 , S.Con.Res. 11 , H.R. 92 , H.R. 110 , H.R. 174 , H.R. 187 , H.R. 3757 , H.R. 4814 , H.R. 4476 , and S. 39 ); reduce the pay of Members of Congress (for example, H.R. 179 and H.R. 688 ); and prohibit or reduce pay for Members of Congress during a lapse in appropriations resulting in a government shutdown (for example, S. 2074 , H.R. 3562 , H.R. 2023 , and H.R. 1032 ). The House budget resolution for FY2016, H.Con.Res. 27 , included a policy statement that Congress should agree to a concurrent budget resolution each year by April 15, and if not, congressional salaries should be held in escrow (Section 819). The statement proposed that salaries would be released from the escrow account either when a chamber agrees to a concurrent resolution on the budget or the last day of the Congress, whichever is earlier. The House agreed to this resolution on March 25, 2015, and no further action was taken. The Senate agreed to its resolution on the FY2016 budget, S.Con.Res. 11 , on March 27, 2015, without this language. The conference report for S.Con.Res. 11 —agreed to in the House on April 30 and in the Senate on May 5, 2015—contains a "Policy Statement on 'No Budget, No Pay'" (Section 6216), which refers to actions by the House. Legislation was introduced in the 113 th Congress to prohibit adjustments in pay (for example, H.R. 54 , H.R. 243 , H.R. 636 , S. 18 , S. 30 ); repeal the automatic pay adjustment provision (for example, H.R. 134 , H.R. 150 , H.R. 196 , S. 65 , and H.R. 398 ); change the procedure by which pay for Members of Congress is adjusted or disbursed by linking it to congressional actions or economic indicators, including passage of a budget resolution or reaching the debt limit (for example, H.R. 108 , H.R. 167 , H.R. 284 , H.R. 308 , H.R. 310 , H.R. 325 , H.R. 372 , H.R. 397 , H.R. 396 , H.R. 522 , H.R. 593 , H.R. 1884 , H.R. 2335 , H.R. 3234 , S. 18 , S. 30 , and S. 263 ); reduce the pay of Members of Congress (for example, H.R. 37 , H.R. 150 , H.R. 391 , H.R. 396 , H.R. 398 , and H.R. 1467 ); prohibit pay for Members of Congress during a lapse in appropriations resulting in a government shutdown (for example, H.R. 3160 , H.R. 3215 , H.R. 3224 , H.R. 3234 , and H.R. 3236 ); and apply any sequester to Member pay (for example, S. 436 , H.R. 1181 , H.R. 1478 , and H.R. 2677 ). H.R. 325 , which (1) included language holding congressional salaries in escrow if a concurrent resolution on the budget was not agreed to by April 15, 2013, and (2) provided for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling through May 18, 2013, was introduced on January 21, 2013. Salaries would have been held in escrow for Members in a chamber if that chamber had not agreed to a concurrent resolution by that date. Salaries would have been released from the escrow account either when that chamber agreed to a concurrent resolution on the budget or the last day of the 113 th Congress, whichever was earlier. H.R. 325 was agreed to in the House on January 23, 2013, and the Senate on January 31, 2013. It was enacted on February 4, 2013 ( P.L. 113-3 ). Both the House and Senate agreed to a budget resolution prior to that date, however, and salaries were not held in escrow. H.R. 807 , the Full Faith and Credit Act, was introduced in the House on February 25, 2013. The bill would have prioritized certain payments in the event the debt reaches the statutory limit. An amendment, H.Amdt. 61 , was offered on May 9, 2013, that would clarify that these obligations would not include compensation for Members of Congress. It was agreed to the same day. The bill passed the House on May 13, 2013. No further action was taken in the 113 th Congress. The House-passed version of H.J.Res. 59 , the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014, also contained a provision addressing actions by the Secretary of the Treasury in the event that the debt limit is reached and not raised. The provision (Section 138) would, in part, prohibit borrowing to provide pay for Members of Congress in the event that the debt reaches the statutory limit prior to December 15, 2014. The bill passed the House on September 20, 2013. It was enacted on December 26, 2013, without this section. Legislation was introduced in the 112 th Congress to repeal the automatic pay adjustment provision (for example, S. 133 , S. 148 , H.R. 187 , H.R. 235 , H.R. 246 , H.R. 343 , H.R. 431 , H.R. 3673 ); change the procedure by which pay for Members of Congress is adjusted or disbursed by linking it to other action or economic indicators (for example, H.R. 124 , H.R. 172 , H.R. 236 , H.R. 994 , H.R. 1454 , H.R. 3136 , H.R. 3565 , H.R. 3774 , H.R. 3799 , H.R. 3883 , H.R. 4036 , H.R. 6438 , S. 1442 ); reduce the pay of Members of Congress (for example, H.R. 204 , H.R. 270 , H.R. 335 , H.R. 1012 , H.R. 4399 ); otherwise alter or restrict pay for Members under certain conditions (for example, H.R. 6108 ); and freeze Member pay (for example, S. 1931 , S. 1936 , S. 2065 , S. 2079 , S. 2210 , H.R. 3858 , H.R. 6474 , H.R. 6720 , H.R. 6721 , H.R. 6722 ). Legislation was also introduced in the 112 th Congress that would have affected Member pay in the event of a lapse of appropriations resulting in a government shutdown. These included H.R. 819 , H.R. 1255 , H.R. 1305 , H.Con.Res. 56 , and S. 388 . The Senate passed S. 388 on March 1, 2011. The bill would have prohibited Members of the House and Senate from receiving pay, including retroactive pay, for each day that there is a lapse in appropriations or the federal government is unable to make payments or meet obligations because of the public debt limit. The House passed H.R. 1255 on April 1, 2011. The bill would have prohibited the disbursement of pay to Members of the House and Senate during either of these situations. No further action was taken on either bill. On April 8, 2011, the Speaker of the House issued a "Dear Colleague" letter indicating that in the event of a shutdown, Members of Congress would continue to be paid pursuant to the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, which as stated above, states: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened"—although Members could elect to return any compensation to the Treasury. Additional legislation to prohibit any Member pay adjustment in 2013 was introduced but not enacted in the 112 th Congress, including the following: Section 5421(b)(1) of H.R. 3630 , as introduced in the House, would have prohibited any adjustment for Members of Congress prior to December 31, 2013. Section 706 of the motion to recommit also contained language freezing Member pay. On December 13, 2011, the motion to recommit failed (183-244, roll call #922), and the bill passed the House (234-193, roll call #923). The House-passed version of the bill was titled the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011." The Senate substitute amendment, which did not address pay adjustments, passed on December 17. It was titled the "Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011." The bill was enacted on February 22, 2012 ( P.L. 112-96 ), without the pay freeze language. H.R. 3835 , introduced on January 27, 2012, also would have extended the pay freeze for federal employees, including Members of Congress, to December 31, 2013. This bill passed the House on February 1, 2012. H.R. 6726 , introduced on January 1, 2013, would have extended the pay freeze for federal employees, including Members of Congress, to December 31, 2013. This bill passed the House on January 2, 2013. Table 1 provides a history of the salaries of Members of Congress since 1789. For each salary rate, both the effective date and the statutory authority are provided. Table 2 provides information on pay adjustments for Members since 1992, which was the first full year after the Ethics Reform Act that Representatives and Senators received the same salary. The table provides the projected percentage changes under the formula based on the Employment Cost Index and the actual percentage adjustment. The differences between the projected and actual Member pay adjustments resulted from the enactment of legislation preventing the increase (adjustments for 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019); limits on the percentage increase of Member pay because of the percentage increase in GS base pay (adjustments for 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019); and a combination of the above. In some years, the percentage adjustment for Member pay would have been lowered to match the percentage adjustment in GS base pay if Congress had not passed legislation denying the adjustment (adjustments for 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019). If Members of Congress had received every adjustment prescribed by the ECI formula since 1992, and the 2 U.S.C. §4501 limitation regarding the percentage base pay increase for GS employees remained unchanged, the 2019 salary would be $210,900. Table 3 lists the laws which have previously delayed or prohibited Member pay adjustments, the dates these laws were enacted, and the text of the provision. While many of the bills in this list are appropriations bills, a prohibition on Member pay adjustments could be included in any bill, or be introduced as a separate bill. Figure 1 , which follows, shows the salary of Members of Congress in current and constant (inflation adjusted) dollars since 1992. It shows that Member salaries, when adjusted for inflation, decreased 15% from 2009 until 2019.

 

 Report 2:
DOD has defined various types of unwanted sexual behaviors, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Sexual assault: DOD defines sexual assault as intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, threats, intimidation, abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent. The term includes a broad category of sexual offenses consisting of the following specific Uniform Code of Military Justice offenses: rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, forcible sodomy (forced oral or anal sex), or attempts to commit these acts. Sexual harassment: DOD defines sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination that involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person’s job, pay, or career; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by a person is used as a basis for career or employment decisions affecting that person; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. However, as noted earlier, a provision of the NDAA for FY 2017 changed the definition of sexual harassment for the military for purposes of investigations by commanding officers so that it is no longer defined solely as a form of sex discrimination, but is recognized as an adverse behavior on the spectrum of behavior that can contribute to an increase in the incidence of sexual assault. We discuss this changed definition of sexual harassment later in this report. Domestic violence: DOD defines domestic violence as an offense under the United States Code, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or state law involving the use, attempted use, or threatened use of force or violence against a person, or a violation of a lawful order issued for the protection of a person who is a current or former spouse, a person with whom the abuser shares a child in common or a current or former intimate partner with whom the abuser shares or has shared a common domicile. Sexual assault of spouses and intimate partners is a subset of domestic violence. Various offices and organizations within DOD play a role in addressing unwanted sexual behaviors in the military. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is responsible for developing the overall policy and guidance for the department’s efforts to prevent and respond to instances of sexual assault, except for criminal investigative policy matters assigned to the DOD Inspector General and legal processes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness oversees the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which serves as the department’s single point of authority, accountability, and oversight for its sexual assault prevention and response program. The responsibilities of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and SAPRO with regard to sexual assault prevention and response include providing the military services with guidance and technical support and facilitating the identification and resolution of issues; developing programs, policies, and training standards for the prevention of, reporting of, and response to sexual assault; developing strategic program guidance and joint planning objectives; overseeing the department’s collection and maintenance of data on reported alleged sexual assaults involving servicemembers; establishing mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of the department’s sexual assault prevention and response program; and preparing the department’s mandated annual reports to Congress on sexual assaults involving servicemembers. The Secretaries of the military departments are responsible for establishing policies for preventing and responding to sexual assault within their respective military service, and for ensuring compliance with DOD’s policy. Further, they are responsible for establishing policies that ensure commander accountability for program implementation and execution. Each military service has established an office that is responsible for overseeing and managing the military service’s sexual assault prevention and response program. Each military service also maintains a primary policy document on its sexual assault prevention and response program. Much like DOD’s directive and instruction on sexual assault prevention and response, the military service policies outline responsibilities of relevant stakeholders, including commanders, sexual assault response coordinators, and victim advocates and training requirements for all personnel. The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has responsibility for developing the overall policy for DOD’s military equal opportunity program and monitoring compliance with the department’s policy. According to the policy, all servicemembers are afforded equal opportunity in an environment free from harassment, including sexual harassment, and unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender), and sexual orientation. The chain of command is used as the primary and preferred channel to (1) identify and correct unlawful discrimination practices, (2) process and resolve complaints of unlawful discrimination or harassment, to include sexual, and (3) ensure that military equal opportunity matters are taken seriously and acted on as necessary. The Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity (ODMEO) oversees the department’s efforts to promote equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion management, and to help prevent unlawful discrimination and harassment throughout DOD. The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute develops training and studies on equal opportunity. Behaviors under the purview of the military equal opportunity program include unlawful discrimination on the basis of color, national origin, race, religion, or sex. The Secretaries of the military departments are responsible for developing policies to prevent unlawful discrimination and harassment, (including sexual harassment), ensuring compliance with DOD’s policy, and establishing both formal and informal means of resolving complaints. The chain of command is the primary and preferred channel for identifying and correcting discriminatory practices and resolving servicemembers’ complaints of sexual harassment. The military services encourage servicemembers to resolve any complaints of sexual harassment they may have at the lowest possible level first. For servicemembers who wish to report a complaint of sexual harassment, DOD provides two complaint options—formal and informal. A formal complaint is an allegation of sexual harassment that a complainant submits in writing to the authority designated for the receipt of such complaints in military service implementing guidance. Formal complaints require specific actions to be taken, are subject to timelines, and require documentation of the actions taken, in accordance with federal law. In contrast, an informal complaint is an allegation of sexual harassment, made either orally or in writing, which is not submitted as a formal complaint. Informal complaints may be resolved directly by the complainant, such as by confronting the individual or by involving another individual or the chain of command. Servicemembers who elect to resolve their complaints informally may submit a formal complaint if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the informal process. In 2014, DOD directed the military services to develop implementing instructions and mechanisms for reporting instances of sexual harassment anonymously. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy under the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is responsible for the development and oversight of policy for the military departments to implement a coordinated community response approach to addressing domestic abuse. The DOD Family Advocacy Program (FAP) office provides guidance and technical assistance to the military departments and DOD components to support their efforts to address, among other things, domestic abuse. The Secretaries of the military departments are responsible for developing military service-wide policies, supplementary standards, and instructions to provide for the requirements within their respective installations FAPs. Each military service has established a FAP that is responsible for overseeing and managing, among other things, the installation-level FAPs and the military service’s domestic violence and domestic abuse prevention and response programs. When domestic abuse does occur, the military service installation FAP conducts a risk assessment and works to ensure the safety of the victims and help military families overcome the effects as well as change destructive patterns. CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services, which serves as the federal government’s principal agency for protecting the health of U.S. citizens. As part of its health-related mission, CDC serves as the national focal point for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and education activities. CDC, among other things, conducts research to enhance prevention, develops and advocates public health policies, implements prevention strategies, promotes healthy behaviors, fosters safe and healthful environments, and provides associated training. In 1992, CDC established the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control as the lead federal organization for violence prevention. The center’s Division of Violence Prevention focuses on stopping violence, including sexual violence, before it begins and works to achieve this by conducting research on the factors that put people at risk for violence, examining the effective adoption and dissemination of prevention strategies, and evaluating the effectiveness of violence prevention programs. In 2004, CDC published a framework for effective sexual violence prevention strategies. This framework includes prevention concepts and strategies, such as identifying risk and protective factors (i.e., factors that may put a person at risk for committing sexual assault or that, alternatively, may prevent harm). CDC’s framework defines sexual violence as including non-contact unwanted sexual behaviors, sexual harassment, and physical sexual assault. DOD has acknowledged that connections exist across the continuum of unwanted sexual behaviors including sexual harassment and sexual assault and that this continuum of harm is reflected in key documents that guide prevention and response activities. For example, SAPRO has also reported that certain behavior and activities, such as hazing, can lead to sexual assault. Additionally, DOD’s Prevention Roundtable and 2014- 2016 Sexual Assault Prevention Strategy have both adopted CDC’s definition of “prevention” as it applies to sexual violence. CDC defines sexual violence to include sexual harassment and sexual assault. In 2014 and 2017, DOD contracted with RAND to conduct independent assessments of behaviors across the continuum of harm, including sexual assault and sexual harassment. In its 2014 report, RAND found that (1) 34 percent of male servicemembers who were surveyed reported that the sexual assault was part of a hazing incident, (2) servicemembers who experienced sexual harassment or gender discrimination in the past year also experienced higher rates of sexual assault, and (3) approximately one-third of servicemembers who are sexually assaulted stated the offender sexually harassed them before the assault. In its 2017 report, RAND found that (1) people are more likely to engage in problematic behaviors, such as sexual harassment, if that person perceives that peers and leaders condone those actions and (2) some organizations responsible for addressing unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment lack adequate policies, plans, information systems, and resources needed to establish a departmental approach to certain behavioral issues, inform senior leadership about these problems, and ensure that leadership’s decisions about problematic behaviors are uniformly enforced. CDC research revealed that behaviors such as bullying and homophobic teasing in early adolescence are significant predictors of sexual harassment over time. According to the CDC, these youth are at an increased potential to perpetrate sexual violence and engage in sexually harassing behavior. In response, CDC recommends that communities work to prevent all types of violence from occurring and coordinate and integrate responses to violence in a way that recognizes these connections. CDC’s research has also established that survivors of one form of violence are more likely to be victims of other forms of violence, that survivors of violence are at higher risk for behaving violently, and that people who behave violently are more likely to commit other forms of violence. Further, CDC states that violence prevention and intervention efforts that focus on only one form of violence can be broadened to address multiple, connected forms of violence to increase the public health impact. DOD’s policies on sexual harassment include some but not all of CDC’s principles and most relevant legislative elements. OSD and military service-specific sexual harassment policies generally include prevention strategies that CDC has identified in its principles for sexual violence prevention but leave out risk and protective factors, as well as risk domains. Additionally, DOD’s sexual harassment policies include most elements identified in section 579 of the NDAA for FY 2013, but do not consistently include mechanisms for anonymous reporting. ODMEO officials stated that they plan to issue a new policy that is intended to focus on sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, but it is too early to know whether that policy will include all the CDC principles or mechanisms for anonymous reporting. We also noted during our review that most existing policies have not yet been updated to reflect a provision in the fiscal year 2017 NDAA that redefined sexual harassment for certain purposes so it is no longer defined solely as a form of sex discrimination but is recognized also as an adverse behavior on the spectrum of behaviors that can contribute to an increase in the incidence of sexual assault. DOD’s sexual harassment policies include some of the principles that have been developed by CDC as part of a framework for preventing sexual violence, but other principles are not included. OSD includes sexual harassment as part of its broader military equal opportunity policy. It addresses, among other things, processes for preventing and responding to cases of discrimination, including sexual harassment; education and training in equal opportunity; and complaints processing. The military services’ policies on sexual harassment cover similar topics, such as chain of command responsibilities, complaint processing, and definitions for sexual harassment; however, they have some differences. For example, while all policies include provisions on sexual harassment prevention training, the Army’s and the Navy’s policies include specific characteristics of effective training. Both policies also specify what should be included in trainings for different levels of the chain of command. The Marine Corps and Air Force policies simply state that commanders must conduct sexual harassment prevention training. CDC’s framework defines sexual violence as including non-contact unwanted sexual behaviors, sexual harassment, and physical sexual assault. We applied six principles for sexual violence prevention from CDC’s framework to DOD’s sexual harassment policies. These principles are: Risk factors: Factors that may put people at risk for sexual violence perpetration or victimization, such as an organizational climate that either explicitly or implicitly condones sexual harassment. Protective factors: Factors that may protect high-risk people from harm, such as an organizational climate that promotes respect amongst personnel at all levels. Primary strategies for prevention: Strategies that occur before sexual violence takes place to prevent initial perpetration, such as sexual harassment prevention training. Secondary strategies for prevention: Immediate responses after sexual violence has occurred to address the early identification of victims and the short-term consequences of violence, such as mechanisms for reporting instances of sexual harassment and immediate interventions. Tertiary strategies for prevention: Long-term responses after sexual violence has occurred to address the lasting consequences of violence and sex-offender treatment interventions, such as long-term treatment of the victim and perpetrator. Risk domains: Levels at which risk and protective factors should be categorized, including: individual, relationship, community, and societal. In its sexual assault prevention strategy, DOD adapted risk domains to the military population, using the levels of: individual, relationship, leaders at all levels, military community, and society. Our comparison of DOD sexual harassment policies with CDC’s framework for preventing sexual violence showed that the policies include some of the principles in the framework but not others (see table 1.) Our analysis showed that the OSD and the Air Force policies each include two of the six principles in CDC’s framework, and the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps policies include three principles. Specifically, the policies generally identify sexual harassment prevention training for the armed forces, a primary strategy for prevention. In addition, the policies generally outline mechanisms for reporting and responding to sexual harassment, considered a secondary strategy for prevention. The Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps policies outline counseling support and referral services, as well as specifying the options available for administrative or judicial punishment, including discharge from service for perpetrators, which can be considered to be tertiary strategies for prevention. Common elements missing from DOD’s sexual harassment policies are risk factors and protective factors, which identify conditions or behaviors that might heighten or lower the risk of sexual harassment victimization or perpetration, respectively. Examples of risk factors for sexual violence identified by the CDC include, but are not limited to, alcohol and drug use, hypermasculinity, emotionally unsupportive family environments, general tolerance of sexual violence within the community, and societal norms that support male superiority and sexual entitlement. Examples of protective factors from the CDC include emotional health and connectedness, and empathy and concern for how one’s actions affect others. Additionally, RAND identified an organizational climate that is oppositional to sexual violence as a protective factor. The policies also did not include risk domains, which would categorize risk and protective factors at the individual, relationship, community, and society levels. ODMEO officials told us that they are familiar with the CDC framework and are considering using it as a source of best practices for a new sexual harassment prevention strategy. DOD has previously used CDC’s sexual violence prevention framework to guide its sexual assault prevention strategy. In the absence of more comprehensive policies on sexual harassment that fully include principles in the CDC framework for sexual violence prevention, DOD may be missing opportunities to address and potentially reduce incidents of sexual harassment in the military population based on risk and protective factors and effective, tested strategies. Specifically, DOD may be missing the opportunity to identify risk factors, which would help to recognize situations where individuals and populations may be at a higher risk of sexual harassment perpetration or victimization; identify protective factors to lower the risk of sexual harassment; develop mechanisms to address sexual harassment across risk domains—at the individual, relationship, community, and society levels; and develop tertiary strategies, or long-term responses after sexual violence has occurred to address the lasting consequences of violence and sex- offender treatment interventions. DOD’s sexual harassment policies include three elements required by section 579 of the NDAA for FY 2013 but some do not include one element involving the anonymous reporting of incidents. Section 579 mandated that DOD, among other things, develop a comprehensive sexual harassment policy that includes the following elements: (1) prevention training for members of the armed forces; (2) mechanisms for reporting sexual harassment, including mechanisms for anonymous reporting; and (3) mechanisms for resolving sexual harassment that include the prosecution of perpetrators. In 2014, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness issued a policy memorandum addressing the provisions of Section 579 and directed the military services to develop implementing instructions that include mechanisms for anonymous reporting. We compared DOD’s policies with the required elements in section 579 and found that OSD and military service policies generally include required elements except for the element focused on DOD including anonymous reporting in its policies for sexual harassment. The OSD, Army, and Marine Corps policies do not include anonymous reporting, while the Air Force policy and a new Navy policy do. Officials from ODMEO said that providing an option for anonymous reporting is important because it increases the odds that incidents will be reported. ODMEO officials also told us that the services have hotlines that servicemembers can use to anonymously report complaints of sexual harassment, and the Air Force and Navy policies note that their respective military servicemembers have options for anonymous reporting. While the military services may have mechanisms in place for anonymous reporting of sexual harassment, these mechanisms are not included in OSD’s policy—as required by section 579—or the policies of two of the Services, those of the Army and the Marine Corps. Without including anonymous reporting of sexual harassment complaints in DOD’s sexual harassment policies, the statutory requirement for anonymous reporting may be interpreted and applied inconsistently throughout the military services, or left unmet. OSD is developing a new policy—planned to be issued in fiscal year 2018—that will specifically focus on various forms of harassment, including sexual harassment, hazing, and bullying. ODMEO officials who are developing the new policy stated that it is intended, among other things, to enhance oversight of sexual harassment prevention and response within the department. However, because the policy is under development, it is too early to determine how the policy will address the CDC principles and anonymous reporting, as discussed earlier. Further, it is unclear how OSD plans to improve oversight and whether it intends to include performance goals, objectives, milestones, and metrics as we previously recommended in 2011. Although OSD in 2014 directed the military services to improve their oversight of sexual harassment, none of the military services were able to demonstrate that they had implemented all the required elements. Specifically, DOD’s 2014 policy memorandum addressing the provisions of section 579 also directs the military services to develop a sexual harassment oversight framework to be reviewed quarterly by a senior leadership forum that includes long-term goals, objectives, and milestones; criteria for measuring progress; results-oriented performance measures to assess effectiveness of service sexual harassment policies and programs; standards for holding leaders accountable for promoting, supporting, and enforcing policies, plans and programs; and strategies to implement the oversight framework. While some of the military services have included elements of the oversight framework directive from the 2014 policy memorandum, none of them were able to provide information that demonstrated that they had fulfilled all requirements set forth by that policy memorandum. For instance, when asked, none of the military services were able to provide details that they have senior leader forums that review their oversight efforts on a quarterly basis. Officials from the Air Force told us that they were waiting for ODMEO to release a new sexual harassment policy before establishing the oversight framework. Officials from the Navy referred us to their July 2017 sexual harassment policy, which instructs the Navy Sexual Harassment Prevention and Equal Opportunity Office to develop and implement standards for holding leaders accountable for promoting, supporting, and enforcing sexual harassment prevention and response policies, plans, and programs, and to develop results-oriented performance measures to assess the effectiveness of sexual harassment prevention and response policies and programs. Officials from the Army referred us to their SHARP Campaign Plan, which outlines methods to hold leaders accountable for taking appropriate action to address sexual harassment; goals and objectives for the program; and ways to measure program effectiveness. The Marine Corps did not respond to our request for information regarding an oversight framework for sexual harassment. A new department-wide policy on sexual harassment could be helpful to the military services as they review and update their respective policies. As noted earlier, military service policies have some differences in how they address aspects of sexual harassment. The Marine Corps told us that they have been waiting for additional guidance from OSD before updating their sexual harassment policies. However, following publicized incidents of Marines posting inappropriate photos on line of female servicemembers without their consent, the Marine Corps updated its guidance in May 2017 adding “the distribution or broadcasting of an intimate image, without consent” to its list of sexual harassment incidents that mandate separation processing. Additionally, in May 2017, a Marine Corps official said the service was revising its sexual harassment policy. The Navy updated its sexual harassment policy in July 2017 without additional guidance from OSD. We also noted during our review that most existing policies have not yet been updated to reflect a provision in the fiscal year 2017 NDAA that redefined sexual harassment for certain purposes so it is no longer defined solely as a form of sex discrimination but is recognized also as an adverse behavior on the spectrum of behavior that can contribute to an increase in the incidence of sexual assault. We asked DOD officials from several offices about the implications of this change. They identified some actions they will take, but the full implications, if any, of the change are unclear. Officials from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness said that there are no significant implications of the sexual harassment definition change beyond making conforming revisions to policy documents and guidance. ODMEO officials said that adjusting to the new definition of sexual harassment would not significantly affect their work at the OSD level, since they are already updating their sexual harassment policy to reflect this change and since sexual harassment is expected to remain within the responsibilities of ODMEO. They added that the military services will likely have to adjust to the new definition of sexual harassment, but did not offer details in how they would have to adjust. The Navy’s new policy dated July 2017 reflects the new definition, but the other military services have yet to incorporate the change. Officials from SAPRO said that they are working with ODMEO to revise surveys on unwanted sexual behaviors to reflect the new definition. SAPRO officials further stated that sexual harassment should remain under ODMEO’s purview since ODMEO personnel are trained specifically in sexual harassment response. Officials from the Army’s SHARP program said that the new definition means that sexual harassment will more often be considered misconduct, and taken more seriously. Since OSD is in the process of updating its policy, we are not making any recommendations. However, it will be important for OSD and the military services to address our prior recommendation regarding improving the oversight framework as well as incorporating the new definition of sexual harassment required by the fiscal year 2017 NDAA while updating their policies. DOD has processes for maintaining and reporting consistent data on sexual assault incidents and domestic violence incidents that involve sexual assault, but the department does not have similar assurance of consistent data on incidents of sexual harassment. SAPRO and FAP each use centralized databases that enable them to maintain and report consistent data on those incidents that fall under their purview. In contrast, DOD relies on military service-specific databases on sexual harassment incidents and does not have assurance of consistent data from these databases because it has not established standard data elements and definitions to guide the military services in maintaining and reporting these data. DOD uses centralized databases to maintain and report data on sexual assault incidents in the military and domestic violence incidents involving sexual assault. Specifically, SAPRO and the military services use the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database (DSAID), and FAP uses the DOD Central Registry. These databases maintain data on incidents that are included in statutorily required annual reports to Congress on sexual assaults in the military. In 2011, Congress mandated that DOD provide annual reports that include: the number of sexual assaults committed against and by members of the armed forces that were reported to military officials, including unsubstantiated and substantiated reports with a synopsis of each substantiated case organized by offense and the action taken, including disciplinary actions; the policies, processes, and procedures implemented by the Secretary concerned during the year covered by the report in response to incidents of sexual assaults; the number of substantiated sexual assault cases in which the victim is deployed where the assailant is a foreign national; and a description of the implementation of the accessibility plan, including a description of the steps taken to ensure that trained personnel, appropriate supplies, and transportation resources are available to deployed units. The most recent DOD annual report on sexual assault was issued in May 2017 and covered fiscal year 2016. The report includes data on the number of both restricted and unrestricted reports of sexual assault involving servicemembers. The report also contains separate enclosures for the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), the Air Force, and the National Guard, as well as annexes on the Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members (WGRA) and the Military Investigation and Justice Experience Survey (MIJES). The WGRA annex discusses topics including the continuum of harm and the MIJES annex contains information on closed cases of sexual assault. SAPRO and FAP both contributed sexual assault incident data to the fiscal year 2016 report, and our review of the underlying databases found that data elements and definitions were defined and management was able to process the data into consistent information. Specifically, the two databases used are the: DSAID Data on Sexual Assault Incidents: DSAID captures DOD-wide data on certain incidents of sexual assault that involve a servicemember or in some cases, when a sexual assault involves a servicemember’s spouse or adult family member or a DOD civilian or contractor. However, FAP-related sexual assault incidents are not captured in DSAID. Using information generated by DSAID, SAPRO includes both substantiated and unsubstantiated reports of sexual assault in its annual report. In 2017, we reviewed DSAID and found that DOD had taken steps to ensure the quality and consistency of data in DSAID as well as to monitor the data entered into the system. In addition, OSD had provided the military services with definitions for required data elements in the database, which include details on the incident, victim, and alleged offender. In addition, we identified several technical challenges with the system, including issues with the system’s speed and ease of use; interfaces with other external DOD databases; and users’ ability to query data and generate reports. At the time of the report’s release, DOD had plans to modify DSAID. As of July 2017, DOD officials told us that they are still in the process of making modifications to DSAID to resolve or alleviate the technical challenges for users. DOD Central Registry Data on Domestic Abuse Incidents Involving Sexual Assault: The DOD Central Registry captures DOD-wide data on reports of domestic abuse on populations within FAP’s purview, including on family members of servicemembers as well as on their intimate partners. The DOD Central Registry includes details of each case such as the status of cases, the demographics of the perpetrator and victim, the specific type of abuse, and other details surrounding the incident. FAP officials explained that they do not use the “substantiated” and “unsubstantiated” terminology like SAPRO does. Rather, FAP, which is not responsible for determining criminal or legal disposition, uses the terms “met criteria” and “not met criteria” for maltreatment. This difference in terminology has to do with FAP’s process for determining if an incident meets the clinical criteria to be classified as abuse for the purpose of developing an intervention/treatment plan for both the victim and the offenders involved in the allegations of domestic violence. Incidents that are determined as having met criteria are entered into the DOD Central Registry. We reviewed the DOD Central Registry and found that it includes well defined data elements and descriptions for collecting data on cases of domestic violence including those that involve sexual assault. The data in the DOD Central Registry includes 46 discrete data elements, including the relationship between the victim and perpetrator, the timeline of the case, and actions taken and treatments administered in response to the incident. The elements are defined and described in an OSD policy. In its annual reporting to Congress, FAP provides the number of domestic violence incidents involving sexual assault that met criteria and the total number of instances of domestic violence that did not meet criteria. However, FAP does not maintain or report data on the total number of reported domestic violence incidents that specifically involve sexual assault. That is because only the details of cases that meet criteria are recorded in the DOD Central Registry. A FAP official said that the military services likely have more detailed information about cases that did not meet the criteria, but it does not collect these data in the DOD Central Registry. A provision in the NDAA for FY 2017 requires DOD to submit an annual report on child abuse and domestic abuse incident data, including the number of incidents reported during the year involving the physical or sexual abuse of a spouse, intimate partner, or child. This report is to be submitted simultaneously with submission of DOD’s annual sexual assault report to Congress. FAP officials told us that they are currently working with SAPRO to ensure that all reported incidents of domestic violence involving sexual assault, including those that did not meet the criteria, are included in the annual sexual assault report. Though not required to do so, DOD has included sexual harassment incident data in an appendix of its annual report on sexual assault in the military. The appendix provides information on the total number of sexual harassment reports over the fiscal year and the total number of substantiated sexual harassment reports. It also breaks down complaints by sex, service, and pay grade. ODMEO generates the reported data through annual data calls to each military service; however, it does not have assurance that the services maintain consistent data on sexual harassment incidents consistent with federal standards of internal control. The military services maintain sexual harassment incident data in military service-specific databases, and there is no centralized database similar to DSAID or the Central Registry. The military service databases are intended to collect data on formal complaints. According to the military services, the Army, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps use web-based systems, and the Navy tracks data using an Excel spreadsheet. Each service has a discrete process for entering and performing quality checks on sexual harassment incident data in its respective database, as shown in table 2. Although the military services perform some data quality checks as shown in table 2, ODMEO does not have assurance the military services are maintaining consistent data because it has not defined standard data elements and definitions for the information in their databases. Rather, the individual military services have established their own data elements and definitions. We compared data elements and definitions from each of the military services and found that there are several data elements that remain consistent throughout the services. For example, each military service records whether the complainant and offender are in the same unit, what their relationship is to each other, and the disposition of cases. However, we also found inconsistencies in data fields and their definitions across the military services, and some of the military services have data fields and definitions that do not exist in other databases. For example, the Marine Corps records whether or not the incident involves alcohol or drug use, which the rest of the military services do not record, and the military services record dates differently between their respective databases. For example, the Air Force records an initial date, the date the complaint form was signed, the date the general court martial was sent, the date the legal review was completed, and the final review date. The Marine Corps records the date the incident was reported, the date the incident occurred and whether the incident occurred over multiple dates; the dates associated with notifications and status updates to general courts martial proceedings; the dates associated with steps in the investigation, including any extensions; the dates associated with dispositions; and the dates associated with appeals. Additionally, the military services have different ways of categorizing sexual harassment incidents, as shown in table 3. As shown in table 3, while some data descriptions are similar—for instance, each of the military services include crude/offensive behavior, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion—there are differences as well. The Air Force also categorizes sexual harassment into verbal, nonverbal, physical, and other, for example, whereas the other military services’ top-level categories are different. The Navy has a “not applicable” category that it describes as sexual harassment complaints that do not fall under sexual harassment, and only the Air Force has an “other” category. Because the military services have different descriptors for similar data fields, DOD cannot ensure that the services are categorizing similar types of sexual harassment in the same way. In addition, we found that the Army is more detailed in characterizing different types of sexual harassment. Specifically, as shown in table 4, the Army has an additional data field that provides more detailed descriptions of three types of sexual harassment; the other military services’ respective databases do not have this level of detail. Because the Army has this additional data field, it can capture information on multiple types of harassment that may occur in a single incident. The other military services, in contrast, do not have this capability in their respective databases. To illustrate, if one case of sexual harassment involved both verbal and nonverbal forms of sexual harassment, the Army could choose a more specific characterization to describe the incident, while the other military services would characterize the incident in more general terms. ODMEO officials are considering adapting an existing system to track instances of sexual harassment department-wide. That system, called Force Risk Reduction (FR2), is currently used to track safety issues like military injuries, civilian workers’ compensation claims, and casualty notifications at DOD. ODMEO recently completed a pilot of the system with the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Army to test whether it would be useable for adaptation for sexual harassment data, and is planning a second pilot to include the Air Force and the National Guard Bureau. According to ODMEO officials, their adaptation of FR2 is intended to collect aggregate-level sexual harassment data from the military services, and the military services will continue to operate and rely on their individual databases to maintain more detailed case-level information on incidents. For example, ODMEO’s adaptation of FR2 would not have details such as descriptions of specific incidents, or information on dates associated with investigations or appeals. These types of data will continue to be maintained in the service systems. ODMEO officials told us that their new data system, if implemented, is not designed to collect case-level details in order to avoid personally identifiable information. Federal internal control standards state that management should define the identified information requirements at the relevant level and requisite specificity for appropriate personnel. Management should also process the obtained data into quality information. Consistency of information meets the identified information requirements when relevant data from reliable sources are used. While DOD is exploring implementing a system to track instances of sexual harassment department-wide, as currently planned this system will not collect case-level details and individual military service systems will continue to be relied upon for this type of information. Inconsistencies in data elements and definitions among the military services generally mean that one military service may be maintaining sexual harassment data that are more or less detailed than sexual harassment data maintained by other military services, or that is simply different from the data maintained by other military services. Additionally, inconsistent data elements and definitions may create difficulties in reporting sexual harassment data from the military services to OSD for a department-wide report, since ODMEO has to adapt data from the services to fit reporting requirements. Without standard data elements and definitions for sexual harassment data, DOD will continue to lack assurance about the consistency of these data across the military services. DOD has several overarching efforts to address unwanted sexual behaviors across the continuum of harm. Specifically, the department established an office to oversee the integration and coordination of unwanted sexual behaviors in 2015 and is in the process of developing an overarching prevention strategy. However, because the strategy is under development, it is unclear whether it will contain key elements for long-term and results-oriented strategic planning. DOD also has ongoing collaborative efforts to address unwanted sexual behaviors along the continuum of harm. Specifically, we identified 15 collaborative efforts, including regular meetings, Integrated Product Teams, and working groups that involve multiple entities that address unwanted sexual behaviors. DOD has taken steps to integrate activities related to the continuum of harm and is in the process of developing an overarching prevention strategy. Based on its research, DOD has sought to understand and define the continuum of harm, including the shared characteristics that contribute to increased unwanted sexual behaviors along the continuum and implications for prevention and response efforts. Also, in November 2015, DOD established a new entity—the Office of the Executive Director for Force Resiliency, within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness—to oversee policies and initiatives related to the continuum of harm. Specifically, the Executive Director for Force Resiliency was expected to provide senior leader policy guidance and oversight on high visibility departments that include SAPRO and ODMEO. In November 2016, the Office of the Executive Director for Force Resiliency was absorbed under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness. According to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, the functions of the Office of the Executive Director for Force Resiliency remain and coordination of the efforts of several offices that address the continuum of harm continues. Officials from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and SAPRO told us that they are drafting an overarching prevention strategy to encompass behaviors along the continuum of harm. However, because the strategy is still under development, its contents and timelines are unclear. We have previously identified six elements of strategic management planning that are key for establishing a long-term, results- oriented strategic planning framework: (1) a mission statement, (2) long- term goals, (3) strategies to achieve goals, (4) external factors that could affect goals, (5) the use of metrics to gauge progress, and (6) evaluations of the plan to monitor goals and objectives. By incorporating the elements of a comprehensive and results-oriented strategy into its overarching prevention strategy, the department will be better positioned to effectively coordinate and integrate prevention activities and reduce unwanted sexual behaviors. A mission statement, along with long-term goals and strategies to achieve those goals, should help to focus efforts in integrating prevention activities, and metrics and evaluations will allow the department to gauge progress and make changes as necessary, while also accounting for external factors that may impact progress towards goals. Our review identified 15 collaborative efforts that DOD has used to address behaviors along the continuum of harm, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence involving sexual assault. Three of these efforts are cross-cutting between all three of the key OSD stakeholders—ODMEO, FAP, and SAPRO—and five involve cross-cutting efforts by at least two of the key stakeholders. Figure 1 lists DOD’s 15 collaborative efforts. Regarding the three cross-cutting efforts involving all three of the key stakeholders, The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Integrated Product Team provides a forum for OSD, the military departments, and the National Guard Bureau to address sexual assault prevention efforts. The team meets bimonthly and serves as the implementation and oversight arm for DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program. The team also coordinates new policies; reviews existing SAPR policies and programs to ensure they are consistent with applicable instructions; and monitors the progress of program elements including DOD’s SAPR strategic plan tasks, DOD’s sexual assault prevention strategy tasks, and implementation of NDAA- related sexual assault issues. SAPRO leads this effort. The Prevention Collaboration Forum and working group develops coordinated prevention approaches that address factors impacting personnel readiness such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence involving sexual assault. According to its proposed charter, the focus of the forum is on enhancing the health of military unit and family climates as well as strengthening and promoting the resiliency and readiness of the total force through a coordinated effort around integrated policies, collaborative direction of research, alignment of resources, analysis of gaps, and synchronization of activities. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness leads this effort with SAPRO providing administrative and facilitation support. The Victim Assistance Leadership Council advises the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness on policies and practices related to victim assistance across DOD. According to its charter, the council provides a forum for senior leaders to exchange information and collaborate on issues affecting victims of all forms of crime and harassment within DOD, including but not limited to victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence involving sexual abuse. Leadership rotates between SAPRO, FAP, and ODMEO and other offices. Regarding the cross-cutting efforts involving two of the three key stakeholders, the Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Working Group is led by ODMEO and includes SAPRO. The group was established to evaluate how to best position sexual harassment prevention and response policy and oversight and to leverage technology to automate annual reporting requirements. The four other cross-cutting efforts are (1) the hazing and bullying working group, (2) retaliation working groups created under the SAPR Integrated Process Team, (3) domestic abuse rapid improvement events, and (4) ODMEO and SHARP meetings. The remaining collaborative efforts we identified are specific to FAP, SAPRO, and ODMEO. For example, the Sexual Assault Prevention Roundtable is a forum for representatives from OSD, the military departments, and the National Guard Bureau to share information on sexual assault prevention efforts and requirements. According to its charter, the roundtable’s activities include, among other things, sharing promising practices and prevention updates; discussing challenges in prevention program implementation, including servicemember training, and identifying approaches to address them; identifying metrics to assess the impact and effectiveness of prevention efforts, and opportunities to collaborate on research projects; and tracking the implementation of prevention tasks identified in the DOD SAPR strategy. SAPRO leads this effort. The Defense Diversity Working Group is an ODMEO-specific group that collaborates with various OSD and military service offices on military and civilian diversity and inclusion issues and implements mandated diversity plans and programs. Studies by DOD and others have shown that unwanted sexual behaviors do not exist in isolation but are part of a range of interconnected, inappropriate behaviors that are connected to the occurrence of a sexual assault. While DOD has policies and procedures to prevent and respond to these types of unwanted behaviors, some of the policies do not include key elements like anonymous reporting of sexual harassment and principles in the CDC framework for sexual violence prevention. Fully including these elements in the department’s policies can help ensure that the military services are interpreting and applying prevention and response efforts consistently and may also decrease the risk of perpetration or victimization related to instances on unwanted sexual behaviors. Further, DOD has developed reliable data systems for collecting and reporting data on some of the unwanted sexual behaviors including sexual assault and instances of domestic violence with sexual assault. However, inconsistencies in sexual harassment data elements and definitions may be creating difficulties in developing department-wide reports on unwanted sexual behaviors. Improving and standardizing data collection efforts will not only improve the quality of data that DOD and the military services collect but may also increase the ability for DOD to further develop its understanding of the connection between unwanted sexual behaviors. Finally, DOD officials have stated that they are in the early stages of developing an overarching strategy to address the interconnected nature of the range of unwanted sexual behaviors. To ensure that the department is appropriately concentrating its efforts to prevent and respond to the full range of unwanted behaviors, it is important that DOD include elements of a long-term, results-oriented strategy into its overarching prevention strategy. In doing so, DOD will be in a better position to effectively coordinate and integrate prevention activities and ultimately reduce instances of unwanted sexual behaviors. We are making the following four recommendations to DOD: The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness should fully include in the new policy for sexual harassment the principles in the Centers for Disease Control’s framework for sexual violence prevention, including risk and protective factors, risk domains, and tertiary strategies. (Recommendation 1) The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness should include in the new policy for sexual harassment mechanisms for anonymous reporting of incidents consistent with section 579 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2013. (Recommendation 2) The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness should (1) direct the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity to develop standard data elements and definitions for maintaining and reporting information on sexual harassment incidents at the military service level, and (2) direct the military services to incorporate these data elements and definitions into their military service-specific databases. (Recommendation 3) The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness should direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness to incorporate in its continuum of harm prevention strategy all the elements that are key for establishing a long-term, results-oriented strategic planning framework. The elements are (1) a mission statement, (2) long-term goals, (3) strategies to achieve goals, (4) external factors that could affect goals, (5) use of metrics to gauge progress, and (6) evaluations of the plan to monitor goals and objectives. (Recommendation 4) We provided a draft of this report to DOD and CDC for review and comment. In its written comments, DOD concurred with three recommendations and partially concurred with one, noting planned actions to address this recommendation. DOD’s comments are reprinted in their entirety in appendix II. DOD and CDC also provided technical comments, which we incorporated into the report as appropriate. DOD concurred with our three recommendations that DOD fully include in the new policy for sexual harassment the principles in the CDC's framework for sexual violence prevention, that DOD also include in the new sexual harassment policy mechanisms for anonymous reporting, and that DOD incorporate in its continuum of harm strategy all the elements that are key for establishing a long-term, results-oriented strategic planning framework. With regard to our recommendation that DOD develop standard data elements and definitions for maintaining and reporting information on sexual harassment incidents and direct the military services to incorporate these into their databases, DOD partially concurred and stated that while a 2013 policy memorandum provides standard data elements and definitions, the services collect other data elements based on their unique needs. DOD stated that ODMEO will conduct a review to determine compliance with DOD reporting requirements and identify emerging policy modifications or changes/additions to standard definitions. We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Defense, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO website http://www.gao.gov. If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report are listed in appendix III. To determine the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) has policies on sexual harassment that include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) principles and relevant legislative elements, we obtained and reviewed Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and service-level sexual harassment policies. We compared the policies with a framework developed by the CDC for preventing sexual violence, which CDC defines as including non-contact unwanted sexual behaviors, sexual harassment, and physical sexual assault. CDC’s model is based on the concept of addressing the health of a given population based on common risk and protective factors and effective, tested strategies. We reviewed CDC’s framework for preventing sexual violence as well as our report on DOD’s sexual assault prevention strategy to identify six principles that an organization can include in a sexual violence prevention strategy or policy: Risk factors: Factors that may put people at risk for sexual violence perpetration or victimization, such as an organizational climate that either explicitly or implicitly condones sexual harassment; Protective factors: Factors that may protect high-risk people from harm, such as an organizational climate that promotes respect among personnel at all levels; Primary strategies for prevention: Strategies that occur before sexual violence takes place to prevent initial perpetration, such as sexual harassment prevention training; Secondary strategies for prevention: Immediate responses after sexual violence has occurred to address the early identification of victims and the short-term consequences of violence, such as reporting mechanisms and immediate interventions; Tertiary strategies for prevention: Long-term responses after sexual violence has occurred to address the lasting consequences of violence and sex-offender treatment interventions, such as the long- term treatment of the victim and perpetrator; and Risk domains: Levels at which risk and protective factors should be categorized, including: individual, relationship, community, and society. DOD has previously adapted risk domains to the military population, using the levels of: individual, relationship, leaders at all levels, military community, and society. DOD previously used CDC’s framework for preventing sexual violence in the department’s 2014-2016 Sexual Assault Prevention Strategy. In addition, we reviewed the OSD and service-level sexual harassment policies to determine the extent to which they included three elements identified in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2013, which directed DOD to develop a comprehensive policy that includes sexual harassment prevention training for the armed forces; mechanisms for reporting incidents, including mechanisms for anonymous reporting; and mechanisms for responding to and resolving instances of sexual harassment, including for the prosecution of perpetrators. Two GAO analysts independently reviewed the policies and determined whether or not each element was included. Any discrepancies were resolved through discussion and consultation with a third analyst. We interviewed officials in the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness’ Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, who oversee department- wide policy on sexual harassment, to obtain an understanding of their roles and processes regarding sexual harassment as well as the status of policy development in that area. We also interviewed officials from military equal opportunity offices in the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, as well as officials from the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Office to obtain an understanding of the service sexual harassment offices and roles, as well as the status of updates to their respective policies. To determine the extent to which DOD has processes for maintaining and reporting consistent data on incidents of unwanted sexual behaviors, we reviewed DOD reports to Congress that provide incident data regarding unwanted sexual behaviors, including DOD’s most recent annual report on sexual assault in the military. We identified the databases that generate the reported data and evaluated the processes for assuring the quality and consistency of data in those databases—including the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database, which maintains sexual assault data; the Central Registry database, which maintains data on domestic violence involving sexual assault; and various military service- level databases that maintain sexual harassment data. To evaluate DOD’s reported data we reviewed pertinent statutory provisions, DOD guidance, and the Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government that address agencies’ use of quality data and our prior reports evaluating sexual assault data. In evaluating the reported data, we obtained and reviewed statutory provisions with reporting requirements, as well as DOD guidance on data collection for sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence involving sexual abuse. With regard to DOD efforts to collect and maintain sexual assault data, we met with OSD, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps officials in their respective Sexual Assault Prevention and Response offices as well as officials in the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention office. We also reviewed our prior report on DOD’s Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database and our prior report that evaluated sexual assault data across agencies. To determine whether DOD has processes for collecting and maintaining consistent data for domestic violence with sexual assault, we obtained and compared data elements and processes from DOD’s Central Registry database, which contains data for domestic violence throughout the department. We also obtained and reviewed policies that outline processes for collecting and reporting domestic violence involving sexual abuse data, and interviewed officials from Family Advocacy Program offices in OSD and the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force to determine data reliability and comprehensiveness. To determine the extent to which reports of sexual assault, including reports of sexual assault among servicemembers and reports of domestic abuse involving sexual assault, meet statutory requirements for reporting, we reviewed DOD reports to Congress that provide sexual assault incident data, including DOD’s most recent annual report on sexual assault in the military and compared those reports with requirements in the NDAA for FY 2011, which directs DOD to report the total number of substantiated and unsubstantiated sexual assault incidents, among other things. With regard to sexual harassment data, we interviewed officials in the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness’ Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, as well as officials from the Military Equal Opportunity offices in the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy, and officials from the Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention office. We collected and compared data fields and data definitions from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force offices that address sexual harassment. We compared the data elements to determine whether the data elements and definitions across the services are consistent. To identify the extent to which DOD has overarching efforts, including a prevention strategy, to address unwanted sexual behaviors across the continuum of harm, we met with officials in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office. We reviewed our prior work and provisions from the Government Performance and Results Act to identify key elements that should be included in strategic plans as well as standards for coordinating within agencies. Key elements include (1) mission statement, (2) long-term goals, (3) strategies to achieve goals, (4) external factors that could affect goals, (5) use of metrics to gauge progress, and (6) evaluations of the plan to monitor goals and objectives. We identified and reviewed coordinating mechanisms used by OSD and the service offices that guide and oversee efforts to address unwanted sexual behaviors. We reviewed DOD, RAND Corporation, and CDC reports that addressed the continuum of harm and the relationship between the various forms of unwanted sexual behaviors. We interviewed officials from OSD and service-level Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, Family Advocacy, and Military Equal Opportunity offices and the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention to identify the various efforts in which they participate. We also collected and reviewed charters and meeting notes for integrated product teams and working groups to identify their intended purposes, their activities, their membership, and whether they involved multiple offices addressing unwanted sexual behaviors. In identifying DOD’s collaborative efforts, we also reviewed our prior work on collaboration among federal agencies but we did not assess the effectiveness of department’s collaborative efforts. We conducted this performance audit from August 2016 to December 2017 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. In addition to the staff named above, key contributors to this report include Thomas Gosling (Assistant Director); Isabel Band; Matthew Bond; Vincent Buquicchio; Caroline DeCelles; Mae Jones; Kirsten Lauber; and Brian Pegram. Sexual Assault: Better Resource Management Needed to Improve Prevention and Response in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. GAO-17-217. Washington, D.C.: February 27, 2017. Military Personnel: DOD Has Processes for Operating and Managing Its Sexual Assault Incident Database. GAO-17-99. Washington, D.C.: January 10, 2017. Sexual Violence Data: Actions Needed to Improve Clarity and Address Differences Across Federal Data Collection Efforts. GAO-16-546. Washington, D.C.: July 19, 2016. DOD and Coast Guard: Actions Needed to Increase Oversight and Management Information on Hazing Incidents Involving Servicemembers. GAO-16-226. Washington, D.C.: February 9, 2016. Sexual Assault: Actions Needed to Improve DOD’s Prevention Strategy and to Help Ensure It Is Effectively Implemented. GAO-16-61. Washington, D.C.: November 4, 2015. Military Personnel: Actions Needed to Address Sexual Assaults of Male Servicemembers. GAO-15-284. Washington, D.C.: March 19, 2015. Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Take Further Actions to Prevent Sexual Assault during Initial Military Training. GAO-14-806. Washington, D.C.: September 9, 2014. Military Personnel: DOD Has Taken Steps to Meet the Health Needs of Deployed Servicewomen, but Actions Are Needed to Enhance Care for Sexual Assault Victims. GAO-13-182. Washington, D.C.: January 29, 2013. Preventing Sexual Harassment: DOD Needs Greater Leadership Commitment and an Oversight Framework. GAO-11-809. Washington, D.C.: September 21, 2011. Military Justice: Oversight and Better Collaboration Needed for Sexual Assault Investigations and Adjudications. GAO-11-579. Washington, D.C.: June 22, 2011. Military Personnel: DOD’s and the Coast Guard’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Programs Need to Be Further Strengthened. GAO-10-405T. Washington, D.C.: February 24, 2010. Military Personnel: Additional Actions Are Needed to Strengthen DOD’s and the Coast Guard’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Programs. GAO-10-215. Washington, D.C.: February 3, 2010. Military Personnel: DOD’s and the Coast Guard’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Programs Face Implementation and Oversight Challenges. GAO-08-924. Washington, D.C.: August 29, 2008. Military Personnel: The DOD and Coast Guard Academies Have Taken Steps to Address Incidents of Sexual Harassment and Assault, but Greater Federal Oversight Is Needed. GAO-08-296. Washington, D.C.: January 17, 2008.

Question: Write a one-page summary of the report 1.

Answer: Congress is required by Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution to determine its own pay. In the past, Congress periodically enacted specific legislation to alter its pay; the last time this occurred affected pay in 1991. More recently, pay has been determined pursuant to laws establishing formulas for automatic adjustments. The Ethics Reform Act of 1989 established the current automatic annual adjustment formula, which is based on changes in private sector wages as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI). The adjustment is automatic unless denied statutorily, although the percentage may not exceed the percentage base pay increase for General Schedule (GS) employees. Member pay has since been frozen in two ways: (1) directly, through legislation that freezes salaries for Members but not for other federal employees, and (2) indirectly, through broader pay freeze legislation that covers Members and other specified categories of federal employees. Members of Congress last received a pay adjustment in January 2009. At that time, their salary was increased 2.8%, to $174,000. A provision in P.L. 111-8 prohibited any pay adjustment for 2010. Under the pay adjustment formula, Members were originally scheduled to receive an adjustment in January 2010 of 2.1%, although this would have been revised downward automatically to 1.5% to match the GS base pay adjustment. Members next were scheduled to receive a 0.9% pay adjustment in 2011. The pay adjustment was prohibited by P.L. 111-165. Additionally, P.L. 111-322 prevented any adjustment in GS base pay before December 31, 2012. Since the percentage adjustment in Member pay may not exceed the percentage adjustment in the base pay of GS employees, Member pay was also frozen during this period. If not limited by GS pay, Member pay could have been adjusted by 1.3% in 2012. The ECI formula established a maximum potential pay adjustment in January 2013 of 1.1%. P.L. 112-175 extended the freeze on GS pay rates for the duration of this continuing resolution, which also extended the Member freeze since the percentage adjustment in Member pay may not exceed the percentage adjustment in GS base pay. Subsequently, Member pay for 2013 was further frozen in P.L. 112-240. The maximum potential 2014 pay adjustment of 1.2%, or $2,100, was denied by P.L. 113-46. The maximum potential January 2015 Member pay adjustment was 1.6%, or $2,800. President Obama proposed a 1.0% increase in the base pay of GS employees, which would automatically have limited any Member pay adjustment to 1.0%. P.L. 113-235 contained a provision prohibiting any Member pay adjustment. The maximum potential January 2016 pay adjustment of 1.7%, or $3,000, would have been limited to 1.0%, or $1,700, due to the GS base pay increase. Member pay for 2016 was frozen by P.L. 114-113. The maximum potential January 2017 pay adjustment of 1.6%, or $2,800, would have been limited to 1.0%, or $1,700, due to the GS base pay increase. Member pay for 2017 was frozen by P.L. 114-254. The maximum potential January 2018 pay adjustment of 1.8%, or $3,100, was automatically limited to 1.4%, or $2,400, before being frozen by P.L. 115-141. The maximum potential January 2019 pay adjustment of 2.3%, or $4,000, was automatically limited to 1.4%, or $2,400, before being frozen at the 2009 level by P.L. 115-244. The maximum potential January 2020 pay adjustment is 2.6%, or $4,500. If Members of Congress had received every adjustment prescribed by the ECI formula since 1992, and the 2 U.S.C. §4501 limitation regarding the percentage base pay increase for GS employees remained unchanged, the 2019 salary would be $210,900. When adjusted for inflation, Member salaries have decreased 15% since the last pay adjustment in 2009. Both the automatic annual adjustments and funding for Members' salaries are provided pursuant to other laws (2 U.S.C. §4501)—not the annual appropriations bills—and a provision prohibiting a scheduled adjustment could be included in any bill, or introduced as a separate bill.