No Back Pay for Bergdahl Act

Bill: 115-hr-4413
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Pearce, Stevan [R-NM-2]
Introduced: 2017-11-15
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Military law

Military operations and strategy

Military personnel and dependents
Latest action: action_date: 2017-12-07
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-11-15
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>No Back Pay for Bergdahl Act</b></p> <p>This bill amends the Uniform Code of Military Justice to deny payments or benefits to any person found guilty of desertion or attempted desertion for any period during which the person is treated as being in a missing or captive status after the date the person was first determined to be absent without authority.</p> <p>The Department of Defense shall use payments or benefits denied to a deserter under this bill to provide compensation to members of the Armed Forces who were wounded or injured while searching for the deserter and to representatives of members killed while searching for the deserter. </p>

tv_txt: I 115th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4413 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 15, 2017 Mr. Pearce introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL To amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to prevent the receipt of unpaid pay and allowances by Bowe Bergdahl and other members of the Armed Forces who are guilty of desertion and to reserve such unpaid pay and allowances to provide additional compensation to members of the Armed Forces who are killed, wounded, or injured while searching for a missing member of the Armed Forces who turns out to have deserted.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the No Back Pay for Bergdahl Act . 2. Prohibition on receipt of unpaid pay and allowances by members of the Armed Forces guilty of desertion (a) Prohibition Section 885 of title 10, United States Code (article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice), is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: (d) (1) Any person found guilty of desertion or an attempt to desert is not entitled to any payments or benefits otherwise provided under section 552 or 559 of title 37 for any period during which the person is treated as being in a missing or captive status after the date on which the person was first determined to be absent from the person’s post of duty without authority. (2) If payments or benefits described in paragraph (1) have already been made for that period, the person is indebted to the United States for the full amount of such payments or benefits. (3) The punishment under paragraph (1) is in addition to the punishments authorized under subsection (c). (4) The Secretary of Defense shall use amounts unpaid by reason of operation of paragraph (1) or recovered under paragraph (2) to provide compensation, in such amounts as the Secretary considers appropriate, to— (A) any members of the armed forces who were wounded or injured while searching for the person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert; and (B) the designated representatives of any members of the armed forces who were killed while searching for the person. (5) In the absence of members of the armed forces described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (4), the Secretary of Defense shall use the amounts as provided in section 2601(b) of this title. . (b) Application of amendment to Bowe Bergdahl Subsection (d) of section 885 of title 10, United States Code (article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice), as added by subsection (a), shall apply with respect to Bowe Bergdahl.