Establishment of the special review board for impacted service members

(a) Establishment of review board The Secretary of Defense shall convene a special review board under the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to audit religious accommodation requests and disposition and review the personnel records of each service member who filed a religious accommodation request specifically for the COVID–19 vaccine and remained in service (in this section referred to as the Special Review Board). (b) Duties of the review board The Special Review Board shall perform the following duties: (1) Audit scope of religious accommodation decisions since 2020 Conduct a Department of Defense-wide audit to assess the full number of submissions, approvals, and consistency of compliance with the Religious freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.). (2) Assess career impact Determine whether the service member’s career progression, promotions, assignments, retention, or professional development opportunities were negatively affected by their religious accommodation request or COVID–19 vaccine refusal. (3) Adjudicate career restorations Determine and take corrective action if the service member is eligible for— (A) backdated promotion to the rank they would have achieved absent the adverse impact; (B) correction of their Date of Rank (DOR) to align with their peer group; (C) restoration of lost pay and benefits, including back pay, retirement contributions, and applicable bonuses; and (D) reinstatement to service if they left service due to denial of religious accommodation that has since been determined as unlawful. (4) Expungement of adverse actions Ensure that all adverse administrative actions related to refusal of the COVID–19 vaccine (or other protected religious accommodation) are expunged from the service member’s record, including— (A) administrative reprimands; (B) negative or inconsistent evaluations; (C) promotion delays or denials; (D) issuance of Inactive Duty Training points to reserve component personnel so that if affected they shall receive a satisfactory year for participation; and (E) career assignment considerations to improve service-member competitiveness previously impacted solely due to vaccine refusal (or religious accommodation). (5) Review process Establish a mechanism for service members to request review of decisions if they previously submitted a religious accommodation and believe their records or career progression were adversely impacted regardless of accommodation request outcome. (c) Timeline for review and reporting (1) Review The Special Review Board shall complete a full review of all affected military personnel not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act. (2) Report Not later than 60 days after the review is completed, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives a report detailing— (A) the Special Review Board’s findings; (B) the number of cases reviewed; and (C) corrective actions taken. (d) Deadline for compensation The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that service members determined by the Special Review Board to be eligible for backdated reinstatements, promotions, pay, and benefits receive such compensation not later than 60 days after their case-review under subsection (c)(1) is completed.