I 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5344 

To prevent and respond to hazing incidents involving members of the Armed 

Forces, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 7, 2012 

Ms. CHU (for herself, Mr. CUMMINGS, and Mr. HONDA) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To prevent and respond to hazing incidents involving 

members of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. COMPREHENSIVE ARMED FORCES POLICY ON 

4 PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TO HAZING IN5 VOLVING MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES. 

6 (a) HAZING DEFINED.—The Secretary of Defense, in 

7 consultation with the Secretaries of the military depart8 ments and the Secretary of Homeland Security (with re9 spect to the Coast Guard), shall assess and develop a uni10 form definition of hazing applicable to members of the 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 5344 IH

1 Armed Forces for inclusion in the Uniform Code of Mili2 tary Justice. The Secretary of Defense shall submit the 

3 definition to the designated congressional committees not 

4 later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this 

5 Act. It is the sense of Congress that the definition should 

6 cover, at a minimum, any situation in which a member 

7 of the Armed Forces suffers, or is exposed to, any cruelty, 

8 indignity, humiliation, hardship, harm, harassment, or op9 pression, or the deprivation or abridgement of any right 

10 by another member of the Armed Forces. 

11 (b) COMPREHENSIVE ARMED FORCES POLICY RE12 QUIRED.— 

13 (1) POLICY REQUIRED.—Not later than one 

14 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

15 Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secre16 taries of the military departments and the Secretary 

17 of Homeland Security, shall develop and implement 

18 a comprehensive policy on the prevention of and re19 sponse to hazing involving members of the Armed 

20 Forces. 

21 (2) CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS.— 

22 In developing this policy, the Secretaries shall con23 sider the recommendations made and findings of the 

24 Inspectors General of the Department of Defense 

25 and the Department of Homeland Security in reVerDate Mar 15 2010 06:14 May 10, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5344.IH H5344

jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 5344 IH

1 ports investigating hazing involving members of the 

2 Armed Forces and the recommendations of the 

3 Comptroller General of the United States under sub4 section (e). 

5 (3) USE OF DEFINITION.—The policy shall re6 flect the comprehensive definition of hazing deter7 mined pursuant to subsection (a). 

8 (c) INFORMATION DATABASE ON HAZING INCI9 DENTS.— 

10 (1) DATABASE REQUIRED.—The Secretary of 

11 Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security 

12 shall develop and implement a centralized, case-level 

13 database for the collection and maintenance of infor14 mation regarding hazing involving a member of the 

15 Armed Services, including hazing incidents occurring 

16 at officer candidate schools, military academies, mili17 tary academy preparatory schools, and basic training 

18 and professional schools for enlisted members. The 

19 collection and maintenance of information in the 

20 database shall be conducted in a manner consistent 

21 with Department of Defense and the Department of 

22 Homeland Security regulations for restricted report23 ing. 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 5344 IH

1 (2) SCOPE OF DATABASE.—The database shall 

2 provide the following information with respect to 

3 each Armed Force: 

4 (A) Description of each hazing complaint. 

5 (B) Substantiated incidents of hazing. 

6 (C) The nature and date of the hazing. 

7 (D) The victim, including race, gender, 

8 and rank. 

9 (E) The alleged offender, including race, 

10 gender, and rank. 

11 (F) The branch and division in which the 

12 hazing incident occurred, along with whether it 

13 took place during a contingency operation. 

14 (G) Actions taken to resolve hazing, in15 cluding disciplinary action, transfer of an of16 fender as a result or related to the offense, and 

17 training, policy, and internal guideline changes 

18 to address hazing. 

19 (H) The outcome of any legal proceedings 

20 in connection with the hazing. 

21 (3) IMPLEMENTATION.— 

22 (A) PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION.—Not 

23 later than 90 days after the date of the enact24 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and 

25 the Secretary of Homeland Security shall subVerDate Mar 15 2010 06:14 May 10, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5344.IH H5344

jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 5344 IH

1 mit to the designated congressional committees 

2 a plan to provide for the implementation of the 

3 database. 

4 (B) RELATION TO DEFENSE INCIDENT5 BASED REPORTING SYSTEM.—Not later than 

6 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 

7 Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to 

8 the designated congressional committees a re9 port containing— 

10 (i) a description of the current status 

11 of the Defense Incident-Based Reporting 

12 System; and 

13 (ii) an explanation of how the Defense 

14 Incident-Based Reporting System will re15 late to the database. 

16 (C) COMPLETION.—Not later than 15 

17 months after the date of the enactment of this 

18 Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary 

19 of Homeland Security shall complete implemen20 tation of the database. 

21 (d) ANNUAL REPORTING REQUIREMENT.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—The database required by 

23 subsection (c) shall be used to develop and imple24 ment an annual congressional report. 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 5344 IH

1 (2) REPORTS REQUIRED.—Not later than Janu2 ary 15 of each year, the Secretary of Defense and 

3 the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to 

4 the designated congressional committees a report on 

5 the hazing incidents involving members of the 

6 Armed Forces during the preceding year. 

7 (3) ELEMENTS.—Each report shall include the 

8 following: 

9 (A) An assessment by the Secretaries of 

10 the implementation during the preceding year 

11 of the policies and procedures of each Armed 

12 Force on the prevention of and response to haz13 ing involving members of the Armed Forces in 

14 order to determine the effectiveness of such 

15 policies and procedures. 

16 (B) Data on the number of alleged and 

17 substantiated hazing incidents within each 

18 Armed Force that occurred that year, including 

19 the race, gender and Armed Force of the victim 

20 and offender, the nature of the hazing, and ac21 tions taken to resolve and address the hazing. 

22 (e) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT.— 

23 (1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than one 

24 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 

25 Comptroller General of the United States shall subVerDate Mar 15 2010 06:14 May 10, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5344.IH H5344

jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 5344 IH

1 mit to the designated congressional committees a re2 port on the policies to prevent hazing and systems 

3 initiated to track incidents of hazing in each of the 

4 Armed Forces, including officer cadet schools, mili5 tary academies, military academy preparatory 

6 schools, and basic training and professional schools 

7 for enlisted members. 

8 (2) ELEMENTS.—The report required by para9 graph (1) shall include the following: 

10 (A) An evaluation of the definition of haz11 ing developed under subsection (a). 

12 (B) A description of the criteria used, and 

13 the methods implemented, in the systems to 

14 track incidents of hazing in the Armed Forces. 

15 (C) An assessment of the following: 

16 (i) The scope of hazing in each Armed 

17 Force. 

18 (ii) The policies in place and the 

19 training on hazing provided to members 

20 throughout the course of their careers for 

21 each Armed Force. 

22 (iii) The actions taken to mitigate 

23 hazing incidents in each Armed Force. 

24 (iv) The effectiveness of the training 

25 and policies in place regarding hazing. 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 5344 IH

1 (v) The number of alleged and sub2 stantiated incidents of hazing over the last 

3 five years for each Armed Force, the na4 ture of these cases and actions taken to 

5 address such matters through non-judicial 

6 and judicial action. 

7 (D) An evaluation of the additional ac8 tions, if any, the Secretary of Defense and the 

9 Secretary of Homeland Security propose to take 

10 to further address the incidence of hazing in 

11 the Armed Forces. 

12 (E) Such recommendations as the Comp13 troller General considers appropriate for im14 proving hazing prevention programs, policies, 

15 and other actions taken to address hazing with16 in the Armed Forces. 

17 (f) DESIGNATED CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE18 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘designated congres19 sional committees’’ means— 

20 (1) the Committee on Armed Services, the 

21 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 

22 and the Committee on Commerce, Science and 

23 Transportation of the Senate; and 

24 (2) the Committee on Armed Services, the 

25 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 5344 IH

1 and the Committee on Transportation and Infra2 structure of the House of Representatives. 

Æ 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with BILLS