II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2397

To amend title 10, United States Code, to deny Federal educational assistance

funds to local educational agencies that deny the Department of Defense

access to secondary school students or directory information about secondary school students for military recruiting purposes; and for other

purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 11, 2000

Mr. HUTCHINSON (for himself, Mr. THURMOND, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. CRAIG,

Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire, and Mr. INHOFE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on

Armed Services

A BILL

To amend title 10, United States Code, to deny Federal

educational assistance funds to local educational agencies

that deny the Department of Defense access to secondary

school students or directory information about secondary

school students for military recruiting purposes; 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 ‘‘Military Recruiter Ac5 cess Enhancement Act of 2000’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress makes the following findings:

3 (1) The combined effects of the strongest econ4 omy in 40 years, the lowest unemployment rate since

5 the establishment of an all-volunteer force for the

6 Armed Forces, and a declining propensity on the

7 part of America’s youth to serve in the military

8 make the recruitment of persons for the Armed

9 Forces unusually challenging.

10 (2) For the recruitment of high quality men

11 and women, each of the Armed Forces face intense

12 competition from the other branches of the Armed

13 Forces, the private sector, and postsecondary edu14 cational institutions.

15 (3) It is becoming increasingly difficult for the

16 Armed Forces to meet their respective recruiting

17 goals. Despite a variety of innovative approaches

18 taken by recruiters and the extensive programs of

19 benefits that are available for recruits, recruiters

20 have to devote extraordinary time and effort to fill

21 monthly requirements for immediate accessions.

22 (4) Unfortunately, a number of high schools

23 have denied recruiters for the Armed Forces access

24 to the students, or to student directory information,

25 of those high schools. In 1999, there were 4,515 in26 stances of denial of access to the Army, 4,364 in-
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1 stances in the case of the Navy, 4,884 instances in

2 the case of the Marine Corps, and 5,465 instances

3 in the case of the Air Force.

4 (5) As of the beginning of 2000, nearly one5 fourth of all high schools nationwide did not release

6 student directory information to Armed Forces re7 cruiters.

8 (6) In testimony presented to the Committee on

9 Armed Services of the Senate, recruiters of the

10 Armed Forces state that the single biggest obstacle

11 to carrying out their recruiting mission is the denial

12 of access to directory information about students,

13 for a directory listing of high school students is the

14 recruiter’s basic prospecting tool. When directory in15 formation is not provided by schools, recruiters must

16 spend valuable time (otherwise available for pur17 suing recruiting contacts) to construct such a list

18 from school yearbooks and other sources. This dra19 matically reduces both the number of students each

20 recruiter can reach and the time available for com21 municating with the students that the recruiters can

22 eventually locate.

23 (7) The denial of direct access to students and

24 the denial of access to directory information unfairly

25 hurts America’s youth. High schools that deny ac-
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1 cess by military recruiters prevent students from re2 ceiving all of the information on the educational and

3 training incentives offered by the Armed Forces,

4 thus impairing the career decisionmaking process for

5 the students by limiting the availability of complete

6 information on their options.

7 (8) The denial of access for Armed Forces re8 cruiters to students or to directory information ulti9 mately undermines our national defense by making

10 it harder for our Armed Forces to recruit young

11 Americans in the quantity and of the quality nec12 essary for maintaining the readiness of the Armed

13 Forces to provide national defense.

14 SEC. 3. LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES DENYING ACCESS

15 TO SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR MILITARY RE16 CRUITING PURPOSES.

17 (a) DENIAL OF EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE

18 FUNDS.—Section 503 of title 10, United States Code, is

19 amended by adding at the end the following:

20 ‘‘(d) DENIAL OF EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE FUNDS

21 TO UNCOOPERATIVE LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.—

22 (1) Section 983 of this title (other than subsection (a) of

23 such section) shall apply to each local educational agency

24 listed under paragraph (2) as if the local educational agen-
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1 cy were an institution of higher education described in

2 subsection (b) of that section.

3 ‘‘(2) The Secretary of Defense shall maintain a list

4 of local educational agencies that are required under para5 graph (3) to be listed as local educational agencies that

6 deny recruiting access to the armed forces.

7 ‘‘(3)(A) If a local educational agency denies a request

8 for recruiting access that is made by a representative of

9 an armed force, an officer of that armed force designated

10 by the Secretary concerned shall visit the local educational

11 agency for the purpose of arranging for recruiting access.

12 The visit shall occur within 120 days after the date of

13 the denial of the request. An officer designated under this

14 subparagraph shall be a general or flag officer.

15 ‘‘(B) Upon a determination by the Secretary of De16 fense that, after the actions under subparagraph (A) have

17 been taken with respect to a local educational agency, the

18 agency continues to deny recruiting access, the Secretary

19 shall transmit to the Chief Executive of the State in which

20 the local educational agency is located a notification of the

21 denial of access and a request for assistance in obtaining

22 the requested access. The notification shall be transmitted

23 within 60 days after the date of the determination. The

24 Secretary shall provide copies of communications between
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1 the Secretary and a Chief Executive under this subpara2 graph to the Secretary of Education.

3 ‘‘(C) If a local educational agency continues to deny

4 recruiting access one year after the date of the transmittal

5 of a notification regarding that agency under subpara6 graph (B), the Secretary shall determine whether the

7 agency denies recruiting access to at least two of the

8 armed forces (other than the Coast Guard when it is not

9 operating as a service in the Navy) and, upon making an

10 affirmative determination, shall include the agency on the

11 list maintained under paragraph (2).

12 ‘‘(4) In this subsection:

13 ‘‘(A) The term ‘local educational agency’ in14 cludes the governing body of any person owning a

15 private secondary educational institution.

16 ‘‘(B) The term ‘recruiting access’ means access

17 requested under subsection (c).

18 ‘‘(C) The term ‘State’ includes the District of

19 Columbia, American Samoa, the Federated States of

20 Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Is21 lands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

22 Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Re23 public of Palau, and the United States Virgin Is24 lands.’’.
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1 (b) TRANSITION PROVISIONS.—(1) In the case of a

2 local educational agency that, as of the date of the enact3 ment of this Act, is listed by the Department of Defense

4 as an educational agency that denies recruiting access—

5 (A) the local educational agency shall be

6 deemed to have first denied recruiting access on that

7 date;

8 (B) the visit required under paragraph (3)(A)

9 of section 503(d) of title 10, United States Code (as

10 added by subsection (a)), shall be made by a general

11 or flag officer of any armed force that is appropriate

12 under that paragraph, as determined by the Sec13 retary of Defense;

14 (C) any notification required under paragraph

15 (3)(B) of such section 503(d) shall be transmitted

16 within 90 days (instead of 60 days) after the Sec17 retary of Defense makes a determination under that

18 paragraph; and

19 (D) paragraph (1) of such section 503(d) shall

20 not apply to the agency unless and until the date on

21 which the Secretary of Defense is required under

22 paragraph (3)(C) of that section to include the agen23 cy on the list of local educational agencies that deny

24 recruiting access to the Armed Forces.
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1 (2) In this subsection, the terms ‘‘local educational

2 agency’’ and ‘‘recruiting access’’ have the meanings given

3 those terms in section 503(d)(4) of title 10, United States

4 Code (as added by subsection (a)).

5 (c) TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.—Section 503 of title

6 10, United States Code, as amended by subsection (a),

7 is further amended—

8 (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘RECRUITING

9 CAMPAIGNS.—’’ after ‘‘(a)’’;

10 (2) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘COMPILA11 TION OF DIRECTORY INFORMATION.—’’ after ‘‘(b)’’;

12 and

13 (3) in subsection (c), by inserting ‘‘RECRUITING

14 ACCESS TO SECONDARY SCHOOLS.—’’ after ‘‘(c)’’;

15 (d) REPEAL OF DUPLICATIVE AUTHORITY REGARD16 ING GRANTS AND CONTRACTS TO UNCOOPERATIVE INSTI17 TUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—Section 8120 of the

18 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2000 (Public

19 Law 106–79; 113 Stat. 1260; 10 U.S.C. 983 note) is re20 pealed.

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