I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6462 

To retain Federal employees who are spouses of a member of the Armed 

Forces or the Foreign Service when relocating due to an involuntary 

transfer, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 21, 2023 

Ms. CROCKETT (for herself, Mr. BACON, Ms. HOULAHAN, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. 

RASKIN, Mr. BERGMAN, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. HUDSON, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. 

NEWHOUSE, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. GALLAGHER, Mr. TRONE, and Mrs. 

KIGGANS of Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

A BILL 

To retain Federal employees who are spouses of a member 

of the Armed Forces or the Foreign Service when relocating due to an involuntary transfer, 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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Resilient Employment 

5 and Authorization Determination to Increase the National 

6 Employment of Serving Spouses Act’’ or the ‘‘READI7 NESS Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FLEXIBILITIES FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WHO 

2 ARE ARMED FORCES OR FOREIGN SERVICE 

3 SPOUSES. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 calendar days 

5 after receiving a request from a covered individual, the 

6 head of the agency or instrumentality of the Federal Gov7 ernment employing such covered individual shall— 

8 (1) authorize such covered individual to work 

9 remotely full-time if the head determines that the 

10 duties of such covered individual do not require reg11 ular physical presence of the covered individual in 

12 the workplace; 

13 (2) transfer the covered individual to a position 

14 of equal grade, as qualified, in the agency or instru15 mentality in the commuting area of the new perma16 nent duty location of the spouse of such covered in17 dividual; 

18 (3) transfer the covered individual to a remote 

19 position of equal grade, as qualified, in the agency 

20 or instrumentality; or 

21 (4) in the case of a covered individual who is 

22 not authorized or able to be transferred under para23 graph (1), (2), or (3), place the covered individual 

24 into a nonpay status for the greater of— 


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1 (A) the duration of the service of the 

2 spouse of the covered individual at such perma3 nent duty location; or 

4 (B) the period of 36 consecutive months 

5 following the permanent change of station. 

6 (b) NON-ENCUMBERED NONPAY STATUS.—A posi7 tion held by a covered individual placed into nonpay status 

8 under this section shall not be considered encumbered, and 

9 may be backfilled by a permanent employee. 

10 (c) REPORTS.— 

11 (1) AGENCY REPORTS TO OPM.—Not later than 

12 October 1 of each of the first five fiscal years after 

13 the date of the enactment of this Act, the head of 

14 each agency or instrumentality of the Federal Gov15 ernment shall submit to the Director of the Office 

16 of Personnel Management— 

17 (A) a list of each request received by such 

18 head under subsection (a) during the imme19 diately preceding fiscal year; and 

20 (B) which action was taken by the head 

21 under such subsection with respect to such a re22 quest. 

23 (2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than Oc24 tober 15 of each of the first five fiscal years after 

25 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director 


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1 shall provide a report to Congress detailing the in2 formation received under paragraph (1), sorted by 

3 agency or instrumentality. 

4 (d) COVERED INDIVIDUAL DEFINED.—In this sec5 tion, the term ‘‘covered individual’’ means an individual— 

6 (1) who is the spouse of a member of the 

7 Armed Forces (as defined in section 2101 of title 5, 

8 United States Code) or the Foreign Service; 

9 (2) who is an employee of an agency or instru10 mentality of the Federal Government; and 

11 (3) who relocates because such member receives 

12 a permanent change of station or change in home13 port of a vessel, ship-based squadron or staff, or mo14 bile unit. 

Æ 


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