10 USC 991 - Management of Deployments of Members and Measurement and Data Collection of Unit Operating and Personnel Tempo

(a) Management Responsibilities.—(1) The deployment (or potential deployment) of a member of the armed forces shall be managed to ensure that the member is not deployed, or continued in a deployment, on any day on which the total number of days on which the member has been deployed—

(A) out of the preceding 365 days would exceed the one-year high-deployment threshold; or

(B) out of the preceding 730 days would exceed the two-year high-deployment threshold.

(2) In this subsection:

(A) The term "one-year high-deployment threshold" means—

(i) 220 days; or

(ii) a lower number of days prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

(B) The term "two-year high-deployment threshold" means—

(i) 400 days; or

(ii) a lower number of days prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

(3) A member may be deployed, or continued in a deployment, without regard to paragraph (1) if the deployment, or continued deployment, is approved by the Secretary of Defense. The authority of the Secretary under the preceding sentence may only be delegated to—

(A) a civilian officer of the Department of Defense appointed by the President, by and with the advise and consent of the Senate, or a member of the Senior Executive Service; or

(B) a general or flag officer in that member's chain of command (including an officer in the grade of colonel, or in the case of the Navy, captain, serving in a general or flag officer position who has been selected for promotion to the grade of brigadier general or rear admiral (lower half) in a report of a selection board convened under section 611(a) or 14101(a) of this title that has been approved by the President).

(4) The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy that addresses the amount of dwell time a member of the armed forces or unit remains at the member's or unit's permanent duty station or home port, as the case may be, between deployments.

(b) Deployment Defined.—(1) For the purposes of this section, a member of the armed forces shall be considered to be deployed or in a deployment on any day on which, pursuant to orders, the member is performing service in a training exercise or operation at a location or under circumstances that make it impossible or infeasible for the member to spend off-duty time in the housing in which the member resides when on garrison duty at the member's permanent duty station or homeport, as the case may be.

(2) In the case of a member of a reserve component who is performing active service pursuant to orders that do not establish a permanent change of station, the housing referred to in paragraph (1) is any housing (which may include the member's residence) that the member usually occupies for use during off-duty time when on garrison duty at the member's permanent duty station or homeport, as the case may be.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a member is not deployed or in a deployment when the member is—

(A) performing service as a student or trainee at a school (including any Government school);

(B) performing administrative, guard, or detail duties in garrison at the member's permanent duty station; or

(i) a hospitalization of the member at the member's permanent duty station or homeport or in the immediate vicinity of the member's permanent residence; or

(ii) a disciplinary action taken against the member.

(4) The Secretary of Defense may prescribe a definition of deployment for the purposes of this section other than the definition specified in paragraphs (1) and (2). Any such definition may not take effect until 90 days after the date on which the Secretary notifies the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives of the revised standard definition of deployment.

(A) establish a system for tracking and recording the number of days that each member of the armed forces is deployed;

(B) prescribe policies and procedures for measuring operating tempo and personnel tempo; and

(C) maintain a central data collection repository to provide information for research, actuarial analysis, interagency reporting, and evaluation of Department of Defense programs and policies.

(2) The data collection repository shall be able to identify—

(A) the active and reserve component units of the armed forces that are participating at the battalion, squadron, or an equivalent level (or a higher level) in contingency operations, major training events, and other exercises and contingencies of such a scale that the exercises and contingencies receive an official designation; and

(B) the duration of their participation.

(3) For each of the armed forces, the data collection repository shall be able to indicate, for a fiscal year—

(A) the number of members who received the high-deployment allowance under section 436 of title 37 (or who would have been eligible to receive the allowance if the duty assignment was not excluded by the Secretary of Defense);

(B) the number of members who received each rate of allowance paid (estimated in the case of members described in the parenthetical phrase in subparagraph (A));

(C) the number of months each member received the allowance (or would have received it in the case of members described in the parenthetical phrase in subparagraph (A)); and

(D) the total amount expended on the allowance.

(4) For each of the armed forces, the data collection repository shall be able to indicate, for a fiscal year, the number of days that high demand, low density units (as defined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) were deployed, and whether these units met the force goals for limiting deployments, as described in the personnel tempo policies applicable to that armed force.

(d) National Security Waiver Authority.—The Secretary of the military department concerned may suspend the applicability of this section to a member or any group of members under the Secretary's jurisdiction when the Secretary determines that such a waiver is necessary in the national security interests of the United States.

(e) Inapplicability to Coast Guard.—This section does not apply to a member of the Coast Guard when the Coast Guard is not operating as a service in the Navy.

(f) Other Definitions.—In this section:

(1)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the term "dwell time" means the time a member of the armed forces or a unit spends at the permanent duty station or home port after returning from a deployment.

(B) The Secretary of Defense may modify the definition of dwell time specified in subparagraph (A). If the Secretary establishes a different definition of such term, the Secretary shall transmit the new definition to Congress.

(2) The term "operating tempo" means the rate at which units of the armed forces are involved in all military activities, including contingency operations, exercises, and training deployments.

(3) The term "personnel tempo" means the amount of time members of the armed forces are engaged in their official duties at a location or under circumstances that make it infeasible for a member to spend off-duty time in the housing in which the member resides.

(Added Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title V, §586(a), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 637; amended Pub. L. 106–398, §1 [[div. A], title V, §574(a), (b)], Oct. 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 1654, 1654A–136, 1654A–137; Pub. L. 107–107, div. A, title V, §515(a), Dec. 28, 2001, 115 Stat. 1093; Pub. L. 108–136, div. A, title V, §541(a), Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1475; Pub. L. 112–81, div. A, title V, §522(a)–(d)(1), Dec. 31, 2011, 125 Stat. 1399–1401.)

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Last modified: October 26, 2015