‘‘(7) Advise and assist commanders in address-
ing crisis and suicide prevention initiatives.’’. 
(2) CHAPLAINS.—Section 8221 of title 10, 
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘§ 8221. Duties, responsibilities, requirements, and 
protections for chaplains in the Navy, 
Marine Corps and Coast Guard 
‘‘(a) DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES
AND
REQUIRE-
MENTS.— 
‘‘(1) A chaplain in the Navy, Marine Corps and 
Coast Guard shall do the following: 
‘‘(A) Meet the religious requirements and 
care for the spiritual needs of service members, 
other authorized persons and their dependents. 
‘‘(B) Assist Armed Services Commanders 
by serving as an adviser to all religious accom-
modation requests and by providing advice on 
spiritual readiness, and matters concerning reli-
gion, morals, ethics, well-being, and morale. 
‘‘(C) Have a primary role in providing for 
the free exercise of religion and other religious 
requirements associated with the free exercise 
of religion. 
‘‘(D) Personally meet the religious require-
ments of persons in their assigned military 
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units, potentially in isolated or combat environ-
ments. 
‘‘(E) Conduct religious ministry activities 
consistent with the tenets of their religious-en-
dorsing organizations. 
‘‘(F) Advise Combatant Commands, com-
manding officers, and organizations, as appro-
priate, on religion, morals, ethics, well-being, 
morale, and spiritual readiness in the unit, in-
cluding religion’s impact on military operations. 
‘‘(G) Facilitate meeting the religious needs 
and requirements for those persons to whom 
they cannot directly minister. 
‘‘(H) Maintain confidentiality of privileged 
communications. 
‘‘(2) In carrying out subparagraph (G) of para-
graph (1), a chaplain in the Navy, Marine Corps 
and Coast Guard may do the following: 
‘‘(A) Connect the person with a different 
chaplain, or a chaplain of the person’s faith, 
who can directly provide for their needs. 
‘‘(B) Equip the person with the tools or 
materials necessary to meet their own needs. 
‘‘(C) Coordinate the appointment of faith 
group-specific religious lay leaders. 
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‘‘(D) Offer information on how to draw 
from local, civilian, or other resources. 
‘‘(3) The tasks of a chaplain in the Navy, Ma-
rine Corps and Coast Guard may include, but are 
not limited to, the following: 
‘‘(A) Performing rites, rituals, ordinances, 
and ceremonies. 
‘‘(B) Visiting workspaces. 
‘‘(C) Counseling, meeting, advising and 
praying with individuals or groups. 
‘‘(D) Providing crisis prevention and re-
sponse. 
‘‘(E) Conducting religious services, cere-
monies, and observances (e.g., memorials, wed-
dings, retirements, sermons, worship, burials). 
‘‘(F) Providing spiritual ministrations and 
activities. 
‘‘(G) Advising on religious accommodation 
requests. 
‘‘(H) Providing religious training and edu-
cation. 
‘‘(b) PROTECTIONS.— 
‘‘(1) A chaplain’s responsibilities and require-
ments, as outlined in subsection (a), must be con-
ducted in a manner consistent with the chaplain’s 
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sincerely held religious beliefs and tenets of their re-
ligious-endorsing organization. 
‘‘(2) Chaplains shall have the right to conduct 
public worship, provide counseling, teach, deliver ser-
mons, advise, minister, and offer prayer in accord-
ance with the chaplain’s sincerely held religious be-
liefs and tenets of their religious-endorsing organiza-
tion. These activities must be free from censorship, 
undue restriction, or fear of retribution. 
‘‘(3) No member of the Armed Forces may— 
‘‘(A) require or assign a chaplain to per-
form any rite, ritual, ceremony, procedure, ser-
mon, speech, or other task or action contrary to 
the sincerely held religious beliefs of the chap-
lain, or to the tenets of their religious-endorsing 
organization; or 
‘‘(B) retaliate, discriminate or take any ad-
verse personnel action against a chaplain, in-
cluding denial of promotion, schooling, training, 
assignment, or financial recoupment; issuance 
of letters of reprimand; or any other adverse ac-
tions or entries in their record, based on the 
chaplain’s refusal to comply with a requirement 
prohibited under subsection (b). 
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‘‘(4) Chaplains must uphold their duty to pro-
tect confidential, sacramental, and privileged com-
munications, including those recognized under appli-
cable laws and policies. 
‘‘(c) ASSISTANCE
BY COMMANDING OFFICERS.— 
Each officer shall furnish facilities, including necessary 
transportation, to any chaplain assigned to the command 
of the officer, to assist the chaplain in performing the du-
ties, responsibilities, and requirements of the chaplain. 
‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this section: 
‘‘(1) ADVERSE PERSONNEL ACTION.—The term 
‘adverse personnel action’ means any action taken 
against a service member that affects or has the po-
tential to affect their current position or career, in-
cluding promotion, disciplinary actions, transfers, 
performance evaluations, pay, benefits, awards, 
training, relief, removal, separation, discharge, or 
mental health evaluations. 
‘‘(2) 
CENSORSHIP.—The 
term 
‘censorship’ 
means any governmental action taken to suppress or 
restrict information, ideas, or expression. 
‘‘(3) CHAPLAIN.—The term ‘chaplain’ means a 
fully qualified member of the clergy from a religious 
tradition who— 
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