§503. Enlistments: recruiting campaigns; compilation of directory information

(a) The Secretary concerned shall conduct intensive recruiting campaigns to obtain enlistments in the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, Regular Marine Corps, and Regular Coast Guard.

(b)(1) The Secretary of Defense may collect and compile directory information pertaining to each student who is 17 years of age or older or in the eleventh grade (or its equivalent) or higher and who is enrolled in a secondary school in the United States or its territories, possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(2) The Secretary may make directory information collected and compiled under this subsection available to the armed forces for military recruiting purposes. Such information may not be disclosed for any other purpose.

(3) Directory information pertaining to any person may not be maintained for more than 3 years after the date the information pertaining to such person is first collected and compiled under this subsection.

(4) Directory information collected and compiled under this subsection shall be confidential, and a person who has had access to such information may not disclose such information except for the purposes described in paragraph (2).

(5) The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations to carry out this subsection. Regulations prescribed under this subsection shall be submitted to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives. Regulations prescribed by the Secretaries concerned to carry out this subsection shall be as uniform as practicable.

(6) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring, or authorizing the Secretary of Defense to require, that any educational institution furnish directory information to the Secretary.

(7) In this subsection, "directory information" means, with respect to a student, the student's name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, level of education, degrees received, and the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student.

(c) Each local educational agency is requested to provide to the Department of Defense, upon a request made for military recruiting purposes, the same access to secondary school students, and to directory information concerning such students, as is provided generally to post-secondary educational institutions or to prospective employers of those students.

(Added Pub. L. 90–235, §2(a)(1)(B), Jan. 2, 1968, 81 Stat. 754 ; amended Pub. L. 97–252, title XI, §1114(b)(1), (2), Sept. 8, 1982, 96 Stat. 749 ; Pub. L. 104–106, div. A, title XV, §1502(a)(1), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 502 ; Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title V, §571, title X, §1067(1), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 622 , 774.)

Amendments

1999-Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 106–65, §1067(1), substituted "and the Committee on Armed Services" for "and the Committee on National Security".

Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 106–65, §571, added subsec. (c).

1996-Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 104–106 substituted "Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on National Security of the House of Representatives" for "Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives".

1982-Pub. L. 97–252, §1114(b)(2), inserted "; compilation of directory information" in section catchline.

Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 97–252, §1114(b)(1)(A), designated existing provisions as subsec. (a).

Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 97–252, §1114(b)(1)(B), added subsec. (b).

Measures To Improve Recruit Quality and Reduce Recruit Attrition

Pub. L. 105–85, div. A, title V, subtitle D, Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 1738 , provided that:

"SEC. 531. REFORM OF MILITARY RECRUITING SYSTEMS.

"(a) In General.-The Secretary of Defense shall carry out reforms in the recruiting systems of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps in order to improve the quality of new recruits and to reduce attrition among recruits.

"(b) Specific Reforms.-As part of the reforms in military recruiting systems to be undertaken under subsection (a), the Secretary shall take the following steps:

"(1) Improve the system of pre-enlistment waivers and separation codes used for recruits by (A) revising and updating those waivers and codes to allow more accurate and useful data collection about those separations, and (B) prescribing regulations to ensure that those waivers and codes are interpreted in a uniform manner by the military services.

"(2) Develop a reliable database for (A) analyzing (at both the Department of Defense and service-level) data on reasons for attrition of new recruits, and (B) undertaking Department of Defense or service-specific measures (or both) to control and manage such attrition.

"(3) Require that the Secretary of each military department (A) adopt or strengthen incentives for recruiters to thoroughly prescreen potential candidates for recruitment, and (B) link incentives for recruiters, in part, to the ability of a recruiter to screen out unqualified candidates before enlistment.

"(4) Require that the Secretary of each military department include as a measurement of recruiter performance the percentage of persons enlisted by a recruiter who complete initial combat training or basic training.

"(5) Assess trends in the number and use of waivers over the 1991–1997 period that were issued to permit applicants to enlist with medical or other conditions that would otherwise be disqualifying.

"(6) Require the Secretary of each military department to implement policies and procedures (A) to ensure the prompt separation of recruits who are unable to successfully complete basic training, and (B) to remove those recruits from the training environment while separation proceedings are pending.

"(c) Report.-Not later than March 31, 1998, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report of the trends assessed under subsection (b)(5). The information on those trends provided in the report shall be shown by armed force and by category of waiver. The report shall include recommendations of the Secretary for changing, revising, or limiting the use of waivers referred to in that subsection.

"SEC. 532. IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICAL PRESCREENING OF APPLICANTS FOR MILITARY SERVICE.

"(a) In General.-The Secretary of Defense shall improve the medical prescreening of applicants for entrance into the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps.

"(b) Specific Steps.-As part of those improvements, the Secretary shall take the following steps:

"(1) Require that each applicant for service in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps (A) provide to the Secretary the name of the applicant's medical insurer and the names of past medical providers, and (B) sign a release allowing the Secretary to request and obtain medical records of the applicant.

"(2) Require that the forms and procedures for medical prescreening of applicants that are used by recruiters and by Military Entrance Processing Commands be revised so as to ensure that medical questions are specific, unambiguous, and tied directly to the types of medical separations most common for recruits during basic training and follow-on training.

"(3) Add medical screening tests to the examinations of recruits carried out by Military Entrance Processing Stations, provide more thorough medical examinations to selected groups of applicants, or both, to the extent that the Secretary determines that to do so could be cost effective in reducing attrition at basic training.

"(4) Provide for an annual quality control assessment of the effectiveness of the Military Entrance Processing Commands in identifying medical conditions in recruits that existed before enlistment in the Armed Forces, each such assessment to be performed by an agency or contractor other than the Military Entrance Processing Commands.

"SEC. 533. IMPROVEMENTS IN PHYSICAL FITNESS OF RECRUITS.

"(a) In General.-The Secretary of Defense shall take steps to improve the physical fitness of recruits before they enter basic training.

"(b) Specific Steps.-As part of those improvements, the Secretary shall take the following steps:

"(1) Direct the Secretary of each military department to implement programs under which new recruits who are in the Delayed Entry Program are encouraged to participate in physical fitness activities before reporting to basic training.

"(2) Develop a range of incentives for new recruits to participate in physical fitness programs, as well as for those recruits who improve their level of fitness while in the Delayed Entry Program, which may include access to Department of Defense military fitness facilities, and access to military medical facilities in the case of a recruit who is injured while participating in physical activities with recruiters or other military personnel.

"(3) Evaluate whether partnerships between recruiters and reserve components, or other innovative arrangements, could provide a pool of qualified personnel to assist in the conduct of physical training programs for new recruits in the Delayed Entry Program."

Denial of Funds for Preventing ROTC Access to Campus or Federal Military Recruiting on Campus; Exceptions

Pub. L. 104–208, div. A, title I, §101(e) [title V, §514], Sept. 30, 1996, 110 Stat. 3009–233 , 3009-270, which provided that none of the funds made available in any Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for any fiscal year could be provided by contract or by grant to a covered educational entity if the Secretary of Defense determined that the covered educational entity had a policy or practice that prohibited or prevented the maintaining, establishing, or operation of a unit of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps at the covered educational entity, or a student at the covered educational entity from enrolling in a unit of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps at another institution of higher education, or prohibited or prevented entry to campuses, or access to students on campuses, for purposes of Federal military recruiting or access by military recruiters for purposes of Federal military recruiting to student names, addresses, and telephone listings and, if known, student ages, levels of education, and majors, was repealed and restated in section 983 of this title by Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title V, §549(a)(1), (b)(2), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 609 , 611.

Military Recruiting on Campus

Pub. L. 103–337, div. A, title V, §558, Oct. 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 2776 , as amended by Pub. L. 104–324, title II, §206(a), Oct. 19, 1996, 110 Stat. 3908 , which provided that no funds available to the Department of Defense or the Department of Transportation could be provided by grant or contract to any institution of higher education that had a policy of denying or preventing the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Transportation from obtaining for military recruiting purposes entry to campuses or access to students on campuses or access to directory information pertaining to students, was repealed and restated in section 983 of this title by Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title V, §549(a)(1), (b)(1), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 609 , 611.

Military Recruiting Information

Section 1114(a) of Pub. L. 97–252 provided that: "The Congress finds that in order for Congress to carry out effectively its constitutional authority to raise and support armies, it is essential-

"(1) that the Secretary of Defense obtain and compile directory information pertaining to students enrolled in secondary schools throughout the United States; and

"(2) that such directory information be used only for military recruiting purposes and be retained in the case of each person with respect to whom such information is obtained and compiled for a limited period of time."

Access of Armed Forces Recruiting Personnel to Secondary Educational Institutions; Release of Data

Pub. L. 96–342, title III, §302(d), Sept. 8, 1980, 94 Stat. 1083 , provided that: "It is the sense of the Congress-

"(1) that secondary educational institutions in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territories of the United States should cooperate with the Armed Forces by allowing recruiting personnel access to such institutions; and

"(2) that it is appropriate for such institutions to release to the Armed Forces information regarding students at such institutions (including such data as names, addresses, and education levels) which is relevant to recruiting individuals for service in the Armed Forces."