Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Purposefully Expanding and Reinforcing the Statutes we Insist Support our Troops Against Military Sexual Trauma Act” or the “PERSIST Against MST Act”.
Purposefully Expanding and Reinforcing the Statutes we Insist Support our Troops Against Military Sexual Trauma Act
A BILL
To improve the ability of the Department of Defense to address sexual offenses, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Oversight of registered sex offender management program
Designation of official or entity— The Secretary of Defense shall designate a single official or entity within the Office of the Secretary of Defense to have the principle responsibility in the Department of Defense for providing oversight of the registered sex offender management program of the Department.
Duties— The official or entity designated under subsection (a) shall—
monitor compliance with Department of Defense Instruction 5525.20;
compile data on service members who have been convicted of a qualifying sex offense, including data on the sex offender registration status of each member;
maintain statistics of the total number of service members, by military department, who are required to register as sex offenders; and
perform such other duties as the Secretary of Defense may require.
Briefing required— Not later than June 1, 2019, the Secretary of Defense shall provide to the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives a briefing on—
the compliance of the military departments with the policies of the Department of Defense related to registered sex offenders;
the results of the data compiled under subsection (b); and
any other matters determined to be appropriate by the Secretary.
Sec. 3 Policy on expedited transfers
The Secretary of Defense shall issue policy guidance to clarify that section 673 of title 10, United States Code (relating to expedited transfers for members of the armed forces who are victims of a sexual assault or related offense), applies to all active duty service members of who are victims of sexual assault or a related offense under article 120, 120a, or 120c of the Uniform Code of Military Justices regardless of whether the service member’s sexual assault report is handled by the Sexual Assault Prevention Program or the Family Advocacy Program.
Sec. 4 Information from Federal agencies
Section 546 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (Public Law 113–291; 10 U.S.C. 1561 note) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(f) Information from Federal agencies—Upon request by the chair of a panel, a department or agency of the Federal Government shall provide information that the panel considers necessary to carry out its duties under this section.”