NOMINATION AND SELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR THE JOINT SPECIALTY

SEC. 1301. NOMINATION AND SELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR THE JOINT SPECIALTY (a) Selection Authority.—(1)Subsection (b) of section 661 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(3) The authority of the Secretary of Defense under paragraph (2) to select officers for the joint specialty may be delegated only to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.” (b) Education and Experience Requirements.—Subsection (c) of such section is amended— (1) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting “(as described in section 664 (f)(1) or (f)(3) of this title)” after “joint duty assignment”; (2) in paragraph (2)— (A) by striking out “An officer who has” and inserting in lieu thereof “(A) An officer (other than a general or flag officer) who has a military occupational specialty that is”; (B) by striking out “joint duty assignment of not less than two years” and inserting in lieu thereof “full tour of duty in a joint duty assignment (as described in section 664(f)(2) of this title)”; (C) by striking out the second sentence; (D) by adding at the end the following: “(B) The Secretary may not for the purposes of this paragraph designate a military occupational specialty as a critical occupational specialty involving combat operations unless that occupational specialty is within the combat arms, in the case of the Army, or the equivalent, in the case of the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. In determining for the purposes of this paragraph what military occupational specialties within the combat arms (or the equivalent) are critical, the Secretary shall designate as critical any military occupational specialty experiencing severe shortages of trained officers.”; and (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(3)(A) In the case of an officer who has completed both a program of education referred to in paragraph (1)(A) and a full tour of duty in a joint duty assignment (as described in section 664 (f)(1) or (f)(3) of this title) and is subsequently nominated for the joint specialty, the Secretary of Defense may waive the requirement in paragraph (1)(B) that the tour of duty in a joint duty assignment be performed after the officer completes the program of education if the Secretary determines 101 STAT. 1169 that the waiver is necessary in the interests of sound personnel management. “(B) In the case of an officer who has completed two full tours of duty in a joint duty assignment (as described in section 664(f) of this title) and is subsequently nominated for the joint specialty, the Secretary may waive the requirement that the officer have successfully completed a program of education referred to in paragraph (1)(A) if the Secretary determines that— “(i) it would be impractical to require the officer to complete such a program at the current stage of the officer’s career; and “(ii) the types of joint duty assignments completed by the officer have been of sufficient breadth to prepare the officer adequately for the joint specialty. “(C) A waiver under subparagraph (A) or (B) may be made only under unusual circumstances justifying deviation from the conditions established in paragraph (1) for selection of an officer for the joint specialty. “(D) The authority of the Secretary of Defense to grant a waiver under this paragraph may be delegated only to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Such a waiver may be granted only on a case-by-case basis in the case of an individual officer and in the case of a general or flag officer only under exceptional circumstances in which the waiver is necessary to meet a critical need of the armed forces, as determined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The total number of waivers granted under this paragraph during any fiscal year may not exceed 5 percent of the total number of officers selected for the joint specialty during that fiscal year.”