II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1293 

To expand employment opportunities for spouses of Foreign Service officers. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 2, 2019 

Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To expand employment opportunities for spouses of Foreign 

Service officers. 

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 ‘‘Foreign Service Fami5 lies Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TELECOMMUTING OPPORTUNITIES. 

7 (a) UPDATED PLAN.—Not later than 90 days after 

8 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 

9 State shall revise Chapter 2360 of Volume 3 of the For10 eign Affairs Manual to include an updated plan for pro11 viding telecommuting opportunities for spouses of Foreign 


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1 Service officers who are stationed overseas. The Secretary 

2 of State may revise the Personnel Operations Handbook 

3 and the International Cooperative Administrative Support 

4 Services Handbook to reflect the updated plan. 

5 (b) ELEMENTS.—The updated plan developed under 

6 subsection (a) shall include— 

7 (1) arranging telecommuting options with Fed8 eral agencies for spouses already employed at agen9 cies as civilian employees before moving overseas; 

10 and 

11 (2) encouraging Federal contractors to make 

12 telecommuting opportunities available to qualified el13 igible spouses. 

14 SEC. 3. EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR 

15 SPOUSES OF FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS. 

16 Section 706(b)(1) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 

17 (22 U.S.C. 4026(b)(1)) is amended— 

18 (1) by striking ‘‘The Secretary may’’ and in19 serting ‘‘The Secretary shall’’; 

20 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 

21 the end; 

22 (3) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as sub23 paragraph (D); and 

24 (4) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the fol25 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(C) establishing a program for assisting 

2 spouses of Foreign Service officers to access 

3 employment and education opportunities, which 

4 shall be modeled after the programs authorized 

5 under sections 1784 and 1784a of title 10, 

6 United States Code, and based on regulations 

7 modeled after those prescribed pursuant to sub8 section (b) of such section 1784; and’’. 

9 SEC. 4. REPORTING ON FOREIGN SERVICE FAMILY RE10 SERVE CORPS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 

12 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 

13 shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 

14 a report on the status of implementation of the Foreign 

15 Service Family Reserve Corps. 

16 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub17 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

18 (1) A description of the status of implementa19 tion of the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps 

20 (FSFRC). 

21 (2) An assessment of the extent to which imple22 mentation was impacted by the Department of State 

23 hiring freeze and a detailed explanation of the effect 

24 of any such impacts. 


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1 (3) A description of the status of implementa2 tion of a hiring preference for the FSFRC. 

3 (4) A detailed accounting of any individuals eli4 gible for membership in the FSFRC who were un5 able to begin working at a new location as a result 

6 of being unable to transfer their security clearance, 

7 including an assessment of whether they would have 

8 been able to port their clearance as a member of the 

9 FSFRC if the program had been fully implemented. 

10 (5) An estimate of the number of individuals 

11 who are eligible to join the FSFRC worldwide and 

12 which of the three categories, as detailed in the 

13 Under Secretary for Management’s guidance dated 

14 May 3, 2016, under which those individuals would 

15 enroll. 

16 (6) An estimate of the number of individuals 

17 who are enrolled in the FSFRC worldwide and 

18 which of the three categories, as detailed in the 

19 Under Secretary for Management’s guidance dated 

20 May 3, 2016, under which those individuals enrolled. 

21 (7) An estimate of the number of individuals 

22 who were enrolled in each phase of the implementa23 tion of the FSFRC as detailed in guidance issued by 

24 the Under Secretary for Management of the Depart25 ment of State. 


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1 (8) An estimate of the number of individuals 

2 enrolled in the FSFRC who have successfully trans3 ferred a security clearance to a new post since im4 plementation of the program began. 

5 (9) An estimate of the number of individuals 

6 enrolled in the FSFRC who have been unable to suc7 cessfully transfer a security clearance to a new post 

8 since implementation of the program began. 

9 (10) An estimate of the number of individuals 

10 who have declined in writing to apply to the 

11 FSFRC. 

12 (c) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE13 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres14 sional committees’’ means— 

15 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 

16 the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and 

17 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 

18 Committee on Appropriations of the House of Rep19 resentatives. 


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1 SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS OF FOREIGN 

2 SERVICE OFFICERS SEEKING POSITIONS CUS3 TOMARILY FILLED BY FOREIGN SERVICE OF4 FICERS OR FOREIGN NATIONAL EMPLOYEES. 

5 Section 311 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 

6 U.S.C. 3951) is amended by adding at the end the fol7 lowing: 

8 ‘‘(e) The Secretary shall hold a family member of a 

9 government employee described in subsection (a) seeking 

10 employment in a position described in that subsection to 

11 employment standards not higher than the employment 

12 standards applicable to Foreign Service officers, Foreign 

13 Service personnel, or foreign national employees seeking 

14 the same position.’’. 

Æ 


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