Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “National Guard Technician Equity Act”.
National Guard Technician Equity Act
A BILL
To amend titles 5, 10, and 32, United States Code, to eliminate inequities in the treatment of National Guard technicians, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Titles 10 and 32, United States Code, amendments regarding National Guard technicians and related provisions
Authority To employ technician as non-Dual status technician after 20 years of creditable service— Subsection (c) of section 709 of title 32, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
“(c) A person shall have the right to be employed under subsection (a) as a non-dual status technician (as defined by section 10217 of title 10) if—
“(1) the technician position occupied by the person has been designated by the Secretary concerned to be filled only by a non-dual status technician; or
“(2) the person occupying the technician position has at least 20 years of creditable service as a military technician (dual status).”
Exception to dual-Status employment condition of membership in Selected Reserve— Section 10216 of title 10, United States Code, is amended—
in subsection (a)(1)(B), by inserting “subject to subsection (d),” before “is required”; and
in subsection (d)(1), by striking “Unless specifically exempted by law” and inserting “Except as provided in section 709(c)(2) of title 32 or as otherwise specifically exempted by law”.
Continued compensation after loss of membership in Selected Reserve— Subsection (e) of section 10216 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
“(e) Continued compensation after loss of membership in Selected Reserve—Funds appropriated for the Department of Defense may continue to be used to provide compensation to a military technician who was hired as a military technician (dual status), but who is no longer a member of the Selected Reserve.”
Exemption of military technicians from review by Army Qualitative Retention Program or Air Force Selective Retention Program— Subsection (f) of such section is amended to read as follows:
“(f) Exemption from consideration by Armed Forces retention boards—A military technician (dual status) who is fully qualified in the technician's military technician (dual status) position and is properly performing the technician's military technician duties in such position—
“(1) shall be retained in the armed forces;
“(2) may not be considered for involuntary separation by a retention board of the armed force concerned; and
“(3) shall be entitled to re-enlist as an enlisted member so as to maintain eligibility for continued employment as a military technician (dual status).”
Repeal of permanent limitations on number of non-Dual status technicians— Section 10217 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking subsection (c).
Technician restricted right of appeal and adverse actions covered—
Rights of grievance, arbitration, appeal, and review beyond AG— Section 709 of title 32, United States Code, is amended—
in subsection (f)—
in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking “Notwithstanding any other provision of law and under” and inserting “Under”; and
in paragraph (4), by striking “a right of appeal” and inserting “subject to subsection (j), a right of appeal”; and
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(j)
“(1) Notwithstanding subsection (f)(4) or any other provision of law, a technician and a labor organization that is the exclusive representative of a bargaining unit including the technician shall have the rights of grievance, arbitration, appeal, and review extending beyond the adjutant general of the jurisdiction concerned and to the Merit Systems Protection Board and thereafter to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in the same manner as provided in sections 4303, 7121, and 7701–7703 of title 5, with respect to a performance-based or adverse action imposing removal, suspension for more than 14 days, furlough for 30 days or less, or reduction in pay or pay band (or comparable reduction).
“(2) This subsection does not apply to a technician who is serving under a temporary appointment or in a trial or probationary period.”
Adverse actions covered— Section 709(g) of title 32, United States Code, is amended by striking “7511, and 7512”.
Conforming amendment— Section 7511(b) of title 5, United States Code, is amended—
by striking paragraph (5); and
by redesignating paragraphs (6) through (10) as paragraphs (5) through (9), respectively.
Repeal of prohibition against overtime pay for National Guard technicians— Section 709(h) of title 32, United States Code, is amended by striking the second sentence and inserting the following new sentence: “Notwithstanding section 5542 or 5543 of title 5 or any other provision of law, the Secretary concerned shall pay a technician for irregular or overtime work at a rate equal to the rate of basic pay applicable to the technician, except that, at the request of the technician, the Secretary may grant the technician, instead of such pay, an amount of compensatory time off from the technician’s scheduled tour of duty equal to the amount of time spent in such irregular or overtime work.”.
Sec. 3 Title 5, United States Code, amendment regarding National Guard technicians and related matters
Leave—
in paragraph (1), by striking “paragraph (2)” and inserting “paragraphs (2) and (3)”;
by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and
by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph (3):
“(3) An employee described in paragraph (1) who volunteers for active Guard and Reserve duty (as described in section 101(d)(6) of title 10) or training or duty under section 502(f) of title 32 shall not accrue leave under this subsection.”
Report— Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report setting forth the following:
A description of the average number of hours per fiscal year that a Federal employee who is also a member of the National Guard spends in any type of leave status (including leave without pay) in order to cover periods of active duty for training or inactive-duty training (as defined in section 101 of title 37, United States Code), or to engage in other training under sections 502–505 of title 32, United States Code.
An assessment whether leave provided under section 6323(a) of title 5, United States Code (as amended by paragraph (1)), is adequate to cover the operational tempo of the National Guard.
Comptroller General of the United States report on health care benefits—
In general— Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report setting forth the following:
An evaluation of the feasibility of converting military technicians from FEHBP coverage to coverage provided under the TRICARE Reserve Select option of the TRICARE program.
A description of any problems associated with the conversion of military technicians from FEHBP coverage to coverage provided under chapter 55 of title 10, United States Code, during contingency operations.
Definitions— In this subsection:
The term contingency operation has the meaning given that term in section 101(a)(13) of title 10, United States Code.
The term FEHBP coverage means coverage provided under chapter 89 of title 5, United States Code.