§ 991. Management of deployments of members

(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).

(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.

(c) Recordkeeping.— The Secretary of each military department shall establish a system for tracking and recording the number of days that each member of the armed forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretary is deployed.

(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.

U.S. Code

§ 991. Management of deployments of members