I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1169
To enhance the benefits and protections for members of the reserve compo-
nents of the Armed Forces who are called or ordered to extended active 
duty, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 8, 2005
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut (for himself, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, and Mr. TAYLOR 
of Mississippi) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committees on En-
ergy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce, and Ways and 
Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To enhance the benefits and protections for members of 
the reserve components of the Armed Forces who are 
called or ordered to extended active duty, and for other 
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reserves Pay and Ben-
efits Modernization Act’’.
SEC. 2. PERIODS OF DEPLOYMENTS OF RESERVES OVER-
SEAS. 
(a) UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND DEPLOY-
MENTS.—
(1) LIMITATION.—During a period when there 
is in effect a policy of assigning units or members 
of one or more of the active components of the 
Armed Forces to duty in the area of responsibility 
of the United States Central Command for a speci-
fied period of time of not less than one year, the 
Secretary of Defense shall provide that the length of 
such an assignment in the case of members of the 
reserve components of the Armed Forces may not 
exceed the length of such period for the cor-
responding active component reduced by the period 
of time between the date of entry of the reserve com-
ponent members onto active duty and the date of the 
deployment of such members for such assignment. 
(2) TRANSITION.—Paragraph (1) applies to 
members of reserve components assigned to duty in 
the area of responsibility of the United States Cen-
tral Command on or after the date of the enactment 
of this Act and to such members assigned to such 
duty before such date who as of the date of the en-
actment of this Act have more than 90 days remain-
ing in such assignment.
(b) COMMUNICATION OF LENGTHS OF DEPLOYMENT 
PERIODS
TO RESERVES
IN OPERATION IRAQI FREE-
DOM.—
(1) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following 
findings: 
(A) Members of all components of the 
Armed Forces, active and reserve, exhibit a re-
markable commitment and willingness to serve 
their country in Iraq and Afghanistan and in 
other United States military efforts around the 
world and, in so doing, frequently face grave 
risks and difficulties. 
(B) While the members of the Armed 
Forces have clearly and consistently dem-
onstrated their dedication to duty, much uncer-
tainty has arisen among them about the lengths 
of their deployments and about when they will 
be returned to their loved ones. This confusion 
impairs morale and places undue strain on the 
families of servicemembers and, in the case of 
members of the reservce components, on their 
civilian employers. 
(C) Fairness to the members of the Armed 
Forces deployed overseas requires that the De-
partment of Defense—
(i) 
have 
clear 
policies 
regarding 
lengths of deployment periods; and 
(ii) communicate these policies and 
other deployment-related information to 
them and their families. 
(D) While many military units were de-
ployed months before Operation Iraqi Freedom 
was launched on March 19, 2003, the Depart-
ment of Defense did not announce a policy 
about the length of deployments until August 
2003. 
(E) Even after the Department of Defense 
issued its so-called ‘‘one year boots-on-the-
ground’’ policy regarding lengths of deployment 
periods, many of the members of units deployed 
overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom learned 
shortly before their scheduled return dates that 
their deployments would be extended for 
months beyond the one-year period provided 
under that policy. 
(2) REPORT.—
(A) REQUIREMENT
FOR
REPORT.—Not 
later than January 15, 2006, the Secretary of 
Defense shall submit to the Committees on 
Armed Services of the Senate and the House of