I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5104 
To permit the Secretary of Defense to reimburse contractors for paid leave 
costs incurred by such contractors during periods of work interruption 
in order to keep the employees and subcontractors of such contractors 
working or ready to resume work, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 24, 2021 
Mr. WITTMAN (for himself and Mr. BROWN) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To permit the Secretary of Defense to reimburse contractors 
for paid leave costs incurred by such contractors during 
periods of work interruption in order to keep the employ-
ees and subcontractors of such contractors working or 
ready to resume work, 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 ‘‘Just In Case Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. SPECIAL EMERGENCY REIMBURSEMENT AUTHOR-
ITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 134 of 
title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following new section: 
‘‘§ 2265. Special emergency reimbursement authority 
‘‘(a) SPECIAL EMERGENCY REIMBURSEMENT AU-
THORITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the Secretary of Defense may, in 
accordance with this paragraphs (2) and subsection 
(c), modify the terms and conditions of a covered 
contract, without consideration, to reimburse a con-
tractor for the cost of any paid leave, including sick 
leave, that such contractor provides to the employees 
or subcontractors (at any tier) of such contractor in 
response to a covered emergency to keep such em-
ployees or subcontractors in a ready state with re-
spect to such covered contract. 
‘‘(2) REIMBURSEMENT REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE
EMPLOYEE
AND
SUB-
CONTRACT COSTS.—Reimbursements under this 
subsection may be made only with respect to 
employees of a contractor or employees of sub-
contractors (at any tier) of a contractor which, 
for the relevant covered contract— 
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‘‘(i) are unable to perform work on a 
covered site due to facility closures or 
other restrictions; and 
‘‘(ii) cannot telework because the du-
ties of such employee or contractor cannot 
be performed remotely. 
‘‘(B) AVERAGE
HOURS.—The number of 
hours of paid leave for which the cost may be 
reimbursement under this subsection may not 
exceed an average of 40 hours per week per em-
ployee described in subparagraph (A). 
‘‘(C) BILL RATE.—The minimum applica-
ble contract billing rate under the relevant cov-
ered contract shall be used to calculate reim-
bursements under this subsection. 
‘‘(b) ENHANCED REIMBURSEMENT FOR SMALL BUSI-
NESS CONTRACTORS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any reim-
bursement under subsection (a), the Secretary of 
Defense may, in accordance with paragraph (2) and 
subsection (c), modify the terms and conditions of a 
covered contract, without consideration, to reimburse 
a small business contractor for costs, other than 
costs reimbursable under subsection (a), that are di-
rect costs of a covered emergency with respect to 
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which reimbursement is permitted under subsection 
(a). 
‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS.—The Secretary of Defense 
may reimburse a small business contractor under 
this subsection to the extent that the relevant con-
tracting officer determines in writing that— 
‘‘(A) such reimbursement is necessary to 
ensure the continuation of contractor perform-
ance during, or the resumption of contractor 
performance after, the covered emergency; 
‘‘(B) the small business contractor miti-
gated the costs that may be reimbursed under 
this subsection to the extent practicable; and 
‘‘(C) it is in the best interest of the United 
States to reimburse such costs. 
‘‘(c) REIMBURSEMENT CONDITIONS.— 
‘‘(1) COST IDENTIFICATION.—A cost is eligible 
for reimbursement under subsection (a) or (b) only 
if the relevant contracting officer determines that 
the records of the contractor to identify such cost as 
a cost described in either such subsection such that 
such contracting officer may audit such cost. 
‘‘(2) OTHER FEDERAL BENEFIT OFFSET.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Any reimbursement 
under subsection (a) or (b) shall be reduced by 
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an amount equal to the total amount of any 
other Federal payment, allowance, or tax or 
other credit received for a cost that is reimburs-
able under such subsection. 
‘‘(B) NOTIFICATION.—A contractor that 
receives a payment, allowance, or credit de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) for a cost which 
such contractor seeks reimbursement under 
subsection (a) or (b) shall submit to the rel-
evant contracting officer a notice of the receipt 
of such payment, allowance, or credit— 
‘‘(i) prior to the execution of a con-
tract modification providing such reim-
bursement; and 
‘‘(ii) not later than 30 days after such 
receipt. 
‘‘(C) POST
REIMBURSEMENT.—A con-
tractor that receives a payment, allowance, or 
credit described in subparagraph (A) for a cost 
after the execution of a contract modification 
under subsection (a) or (b) reimbursing such 
cost, or that is unable to provide the notice re-
quired under subparagraph (B) in accordance 
with clause (i) of such subparagraph, shall— 
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‘‘(i) not later than 30 days after the 
receipt of the payment, allowance, or cred-
it, notify the relevant contracting officer in 
writing of such receipt; and 
‘‘(ii) agree to execute a contract modi-
fication to reduce the amount reimbursed 
under subsections (a) and (b) by the 
amount of such payment, allowance, or 
credit. 
‘‘(3) APPROPRIATIONS
AVAILABILITY.—Reim-
bursements under subsections (a) and (b) shall be 
subject to the availability of appropriations. 
‘‘(d) COST ACCOUNTING STANDARDS.—For the pur-
poses of this section, a cognizant Federal agency official 
shall provide a contractor subject to the cost accounting 
standards issued pursuant to section 1502 of title 41, 
United States Code, and required to submit one or more 
disclosure statements, a reasonable opportunity to amend 
any such disclosure statements to reflect any costs that 
are reimbursable under subsection (a). 
‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) COGNIZANT
FEDERAL
AGENCY
OFFI-
CIAL.—The term ‘cognizant Federal agency official’ 
has the meaning given such term in section 30.001 
of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations. 
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‘‘(2) COVERED CONTRACT.—The term ‘covered 
contract’ means any contract, including a fixed-price 
or cost-reimbursement contract, or any other agree-
ment for the procurement of goods or services by or 
for the Department of Defense. 
‘‘(3) COVERED
EMERGENCY.—The term ‘cov-
ered emergency’ means an emergency or disaster, in-
cluding an emergency or major disaster as defined 
in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 
5122), which prevents the employees of a contractor 
of the Department of Defense or the employees of 
a subcontractor (at any tier) of such a contractor 
from performing work under a covered contract, as 
determined by the Secretary. 
‘‘(4) COVERED SITE.—The term ‘covered site’ 
means any government-owned, government-leased, 
contractor-owned, or contractor-leased facility ap-
proved by the Federal government for contract per-
formance. 
‘‘(5) DISCLOSURE STATEMENT.—The term ‘dis-
closure statement’ means a Disclosure Statement de-
scribed in section 9903.202–1(a) of title 48, Code of 
Federal Regulations. 
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‘‘(6) MINIMUM APPLICABLE CONTRACT BILLING 
RATE.—The term ‘minimum applicable contract bill-
ing rate’ means a rate capturing the financial im-
pact incurred as a consequence of keeping the em-
ployees or subcontractors (at any tier) of the con-
tractor in a ready state, including the base hourly 
pay rate such employees and employees of such sub-
contractors, indirect costs, general and administra-
tive expenses, and other relevant costs. 
‘‘(7) READY
STATE.—The term ‘ready state’ 
means able to mobilize in a timely manner to per-
form under a covered contract. 
‘‘(8) SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACT.—The term 
‘small business contractor’ means a contractor that 
is a small business concern (as such term is defined 
under section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 
U.S.C. 632).’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for subchapter II of chapter 134 of title 10, United States 
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
item: 
‘‘2265. Special emergency reimbursement authority.’’. 
Æ 
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