Title: Promotion Accessibility Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Promotion Accessibility Act
This bill authorizes members of the Foreign Service or the Senior Foreign Service to submit a gap memo in advance of having their performance evaluated by a selection board, and it prohibits members of a selection board from considering such a submission as negative when evaluating a member's performance.
A gap memo is a written record indicating and explaining a gap in the record of a member that is due to personal circumstances, including for health, family, or other reasons.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7798 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7798

 To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 relating to selection boards 
regarding performance evaluations of Foreign Service officers, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2020

    Mr. Castro of Texas (for himself and Ms. Titus) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 relating to selection boards 
regarding performance evaluations of Foreign Service officers, and for 
                            other purposes.

    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 ``Promotion Accessibility Act''.

SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF GAP MEMORANDUM IN SELECTION BOARD PROCESS.

    (a) In General.--Section 603 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 
U.S.C. 4003) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(c)(1) A member of the Service or member of the Senior Foreign 
Service whose performance will be evaluated by a selection board may 
submit to such selection board a gap memo in advance of such 
evaluation.
    ``(2) Members of a selection board may not consider as negative the 
submission of a gap memo by a member described in paragraph (1) when 
evaluating the performance of such member.
    ``(3) In this subsection, the term `gap memo' means a written 
record, submitted to a selection board in a standard format established 
by the Director General of the Foreign Service, which indicates and 
explains a gap in the record of a member of the Service or member of 
the Senior Foreign Service whose performance will be evaluated by such 
selection board, which gap is due to personal circumstances, including 
for health, family, or other reason as determined by the Director 
General in consultation with the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
Senate.''.
    (b) Consultation and Guidance.--
            (1) Consultation.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Director General of the Foreign 
        Service shall consult with the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
        the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
        Relations of the Senate regarding the development of the gap 
        memo under subsection (c) of section 603 of the Foreign Service 
        Act of 1980, as added by subsection (a).
            (2) Definition.--In this subsection, the term ``gap memo'' 
        has the meaning given such term in subsection (c) of section 
        603 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980.
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