‘‘(1) providing services to victims and survivors 
of domestic violence, sexual assault, family violence, 
intimate partner violence, or stalking; 
‘‘(2) a communication to a Member of Congress 
or an Inspector General; 
‘‘(3) a communication with a military law en-
forcement officer or official, a military criminal in-
vestigator, a judge advocate, or an officer in the 
chain of command; 
‘‘(4) a communication with civilian law enforce-
ment, county, State, or United States attorneys, 
court officials, probation officers, or victim service 
providers; or 
‘‘(5) any other person or organization, including 
any person or organization in the chain of command, 
in the course of providing services to a victim or sur-
vivor. 
‘‘(c) PROHIBITED PERSONNEL ACTIONS.—Any ac-
tion prohibited by subsection (b), including the threat to 
take any unfavorable action and the withholding or threat 
to withhold any favorable action, shall be considered for 
the purposes of this section to be a personnel action pro-
hibited by this section. 
‘‘(d) INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGATIONS OF PROHIB-
ITED PERSONNEL ACTIONS.—(1) If a victim advocate 
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submits to an Inspector General an allegation that a per-
sonnel action prohibited by subsection (b) has been taken 
or threatened against the victim advocate with respect to 
a communication described in paragraph (2), the Inspec-
tor General shall take the action required in this section. 
‘‘(2) A communication described in this paragraph is 
a communication in which the victim advocate reasonably 
believes constitutes evidence of any of the following: 
‘‘(A) A violation of law or regulation, including 
a law or regulation prohibiting domestic violence, 
sexual assault, family violence, or stalking. 
‘‘(B) Gross mismanagement, an abuse of au-
thority, or a substantial danger to community safety 
or public health. 
‘‘(3)(A) If the Inspector General receiving such an 
allegation is an Inspector General within a military de-
partment, that Inspector General shall promptly notify the 
Inspector General of the Department of Defense of the 
allegation. Such notification shall be made in accordance 
with regulations prescribed under subsection (e). 
‘‘(B) An Inspector General of the Department of De-
fense receiving an allegation as described in this section 
shall expeditiously determine, in accordance with regula-
tions prescribed under subsection (e), whether there is suf-
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ficient evidence to warrant an investigation of the allega-
tion. 
‘‘(C) Upon determining that an investigation of an 
allegation under this section is warranted, the Inspector 
General making the determination shall expeditiously in-
vestigate the allegation. 
‘‘(4) The Inspector General of the Department of De-
fense shall ensure that the Inspector General conducting 
the investigation of an allegation under this subsection is 
outside the immediate chain of command of both the vic-
tim advocate submitting the allegation and the individual 
or individuals alleged to have taken the retaliatory action. 
‘‘(5) Upon receiving an allegation under this sub-
section, the Inspector General shall conduct a separate in-
vestigation of the information that the victim advocate 
making the allegation believes constitutes evidence of 
wrongdoing as described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of 
paragraph (2) if there previously has not been such an 
investigation or if the Inspector General determines that 
the original investigation was biased or otherwise inad-
equate. 
‘‘(6)(A) After completion of an investigation under 
paragraphs (3), (4), or (5), the Inspector General con-
ducting the investigation shall submit a report on the re-
sults of the investigation to the Secretary of Defense and 
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the Director of the Office of the Victims’ Advocate and 
shall transmit a copy of the report on the results of the 
investigation to the victim advocate who made the allega-
tion investigated. The report shall be transmitted to the 
Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Office of the 
Victims’ Advocate, and the copy of the report shall be 
transmitted to the victim advocate, not later than 30 days 
after the completion of the investigation. 
‘‘(B) In the copy of the report transmitted to the vic-
tim advocate, the Inspector General shall ensure that the 
maximum disclosure of information possible, with the ex-
ception of information that is not required to be disclosed 
under section 552 of title 5. However, the copy need not 
include summaries of interviews conducted, nor any docu-
ment acquired, during the course of the investigation. 
Such items shall be transmitted to the victim advocate, 
if the victim advocate requests the items, with the copy 
of the report or after the transmittal to the victim advo-
cate of the copy of the report, regardless of whether the 
request for those items is made before or after the copy 
of the report is transmitted to the victim advocate. 
‘‘(C) If, in the course of an investigation of an allega-
tion under this section, the Inspector General determines 
that it is not possible to submit the report required by 
subparagraph (A) within 180 days after the date of receipt 
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