The RESTORE Act directs the Department of Defense to establish a special review board to audit how military officials handled religious accommodation requests related to the COVID-19 vaccine and determine whether service members who filed such requests experienced unfair treatment in their careers. The review board will examine whether affected service members were wrongly denied promotions, received negative evaluations, or suffered other career setbacks because of their religious accommodation request, and will have authority to restore back pay, correct rank records, reinstate separated service members, and remove adverse actions from their files. The board must complete its review within one year of the law's enactment, and the Defense Department must compensate eligible service members within 60 days of their case review. The legislation requires the Defense Department to submit an initial report to Congress within 90 days and then quarterly updates on the cases reviewed and corrective actions taken, with an independent Inspector General audit to follow within 18 months. No specific funding amount is identified in the bill, though it authorizes the Defense Department to spend whatever is necessary to carry out the review process.
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