RETENTION INCENTIVES INITIATIVE FOR CRITICALLY SHORTMILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTIES.

SEC. 622. RETENTION INCENTIVES INITIATIVE FOR CRITICALLY SHORTMILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTIES. (a) Requirement for New Incentives.— The Secretary of Defense shall establish and provide for members of the Armed Forces qualified in critically short military occupational specialties a series of new incentives that the Secretary considers potentially effective for increasing the rates at which those members are retained in the Armed Forces for service in such specialties. (b) Critically Short Military Occupational Specialties.— For the purposes of this section, a military occupational specialty is a critically short military occupational specialty for an Armed Force if the number of members retained in that Armed Force in fiscal year 1998 for service in that specialty is less than 50 percent of the number of members of that Armed Force that were projected to be retained in that Armed Force for service in the specialty by the Secretary of the military department concerned as of October 1, 1997. (c) Incentives.— It is the sense of Congress that, among the new incentives established and provided under this section, the Secretary of Defense should include the following incentives: (1) Family support and leave allowances. (2) Increased special reenlistment or retention bonuses. 112 STAT. 2043 (3) Repayment of educational loans. (4) Priority of selection for assignment to preferred permanent duty station or for extension at permanent duty station. (5) Modified leave policies. (6) Special consideration for Government housing or additional housing allowances. (d) Relationship to Other Incentives.— Incentives provided under this section are in addition to any special pay or other benefit that is authorized under any other provision of law. (e) Reports.— (1) Not later than December 1, 1998, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report that identifies, for each of the Armed Forces, the critically short military occupational specialties to which incentives under this section are to apply. (2) Not later than April 15, 1999, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report that specifies, for each of the Armed Forces, the incentives that are to be provided under this section.