Title: Foreign Service Families Act of 2019
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Foreign Service Families Act of 2019
This bill directs the Department of State to include in the Foreign Affairs Manual an updated plan for providing telecommuting employment opportunities for the spouses of overseas Foreign Service Officers.
The State Department shall facilitate employment of such spouses by providing regular career counseling, maintaining a centralized database of the skills of such spouses and available employment opportunities, and offering other employment-related assistance. (Currently, the State Department is authorized to provide such assistance but not required to do so.) The State Department shall establish a program to help such spouses access employment and education opportunities, modeled after already-authorized programs for military spouses.
The State Department shall report to Congress on the status of the implementation of the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps (a program designed to speed up the hiring process for eligible family members of overseas Foreign Service officers), including (1) an update on the implementation of a hiring preference for Corps members, and (2) an accounting of any Corps-eligible individuals who were unable to fill a position at new location due to an inability to transfer a security clearance.
Family members of overseas government employees shall not be held to a higher employment standard for positions customarily filled by Foreign Service officers, Foreign Service personnel, or foreign nationals.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1293 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Service Families Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. TELECOMMUTING OPPORTUNITIES.

    (a) Updated Plan.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall revise Chapter 2360 
of Volume 3 of the Foreign Affairs Manual to include an updated plan 
for providing telecommuting opportunities for spouses of Foreign 
Service officers who are stationed overseas. The Secretary of State may 
revise the Personnel Operations Handbook and the International 
Cooperative Administrative Support Services Handbook to reflect the 
updated plan.
    (b) Elements.--The updated plan developed under subsection (a) 
shall include--
            (1) arranging telecommuting options with Federal agencies 
        for spouses already employed at agencies as civilian employees 
        before moving overseas; and
            (2) encouraging Federal contractors to make telecommuting 
        opportunities available to qualified eligible spouses.

SEC. 3. EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR SPOUSES OF FOREIGN 
              SERVICE OFFICERS.

    Section 706(b)(1) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 
4026(b)(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The Secretary may'' and inserting ``The 
        Secretary shall'';
            (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (3) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as subparagraph (D); 
        and
            (4) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
                    ``(C) establishing a program for assisting spouses 
                of Foreign Service officers to access employment and 
                education opportunities, which shall be modeled after 
                the programs authorized under sections 1784 and 1784a 
                of title 10, United States Code, and based on 
                regulations modeled after those prescribed pursuant to 
                subsection (b) of such section 1784; and''.

SEC. 4. REPORTING ON FOREIGN SERVICE FAMILY RESERVE CORPS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the 
appropriate congressional committees a report on the status of 
implementation of the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps.
    (b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a) shall 
include the following elements:
            (1) A description of the status of implementation of the 
        Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps (FSFRC).
            (2) An assessment of the extent to which implementation was 
        impacted by the Department of State hiring freeze and a 
        detailed explanation of the effect of any such impacts.
            (3) A description of the status of implementation of a 
        hiring preference for the FSFRC.
            (4) A detailed accounting of any individuals eligible for 
        membership in the FSFRC who were unable to begin working at a 
        new location as a result of being unable to transfer their 
        security clearance, including an assessment of whether they 
        would have been able to port their clearance as a member of the 
        FSFRC if the program had been fully implemented.
            (5) An estimate of the number of individuals who are 
        eligible to join the FSFRC worldwide and which of the three 
        categories, as detailed in the Under Secretary for Management's 
        guidance dated May 3, 2016, under which those individuals would 
        enroll.
            (6) An estimate of the number of individuals who are 
        enrolled in the FSFRC worldwide and which of the three 
        categories, as detailed in the Under Secretary for Management's 
        guidance dated May 3, 2016, under which those individuals 
        enrolled.
            (7) An estimate of the number of individuals who were 
        enrolled in each phase of the implementation of the FSFRC as 
        detailed in guidance issued by the Under Secretary for 
        Management of the Department of State.
            (8) An estimate of the number of individuals enrolled in 
        the FSFRC who have successfully transferred a security 
        clearance to a new post since implementation of the program 
        began.
            (9) An estimate of the number of individuals enrolled in 
        the FSFRC who have been unable to successfully transfer a 
        security clearance to a new post since implementation of the 
        program began.
            (10) An estimate of the number of individuals who have 
        declined in writing to apply to the FSFRC.
    (c) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the Senate; and
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the House of Representatives.

SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS OF FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS SEEKING 
              POSITIONS CUSTOMARILY FILLED BY FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS 
              OR FOREIGN NATIONAL EMPLOYEES.

    Section 311 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3951) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) The Secretary shall hold a family member of a government 
employee described in subsection (a) seeking employment in a position 
described in that subsection to employment standards not higher than 
the employment standards applicable to Foreign Service officers, 
Foreign Service personnel, or foreign national employees seeking the 
same position.''.
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