[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5201 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5201

To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish and maintain a database 
  that contains up-to-date contact information for the next of kin of 
 members of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretaries 
                      of the military departments.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 10, 2021

  Mr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish and maintain a database 
  that contains up-to-date contact information for the next of kin of 
 members of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretaries 
                      of the military departments.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. DATABASE OF NEXT OF KIN OF DECEASED MEMBERS OF THE ARMED 
              FORCES.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations that 
establish and maintain a database of the Department of Defense that 
contains up-to-date contact information for the next of kin of members 
of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretaries of the 
military departments. Such regulations shall ensure that--
            (1) a commander in a grade higher than O-5 may access the 
        contact information for the next of kin of a member who died 
        while a member of the unit under the command of such commander, 
        regardless of whether such member served under such commander; 
        and
            (2) an individual named in such database may--
                    (A) elect to not be contacted by an officer 
                described in paragraph (1); and
                    (B) change such election at any time.
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