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Saturday, March 13, 2021

Useful resource for PHS Commissioned Corps personnel (and their attorneys) -- and a NOAA Commissioned Corps regulation

Under the category of giving-credit-where-credit-is-due, Global Military Justice Reform notes that the Program Support Center over at the Department of Health and Human Services has a page on the Board for Correction website with links to a number of the board's decisions. The website provides this description:

PSC maintains decisions on cases considered by the Board for Correction. The purpose of the decisions is to provide a record of Board precedents and examples that can assist potential applicants in preparing applications. The decisions do not include any identifying facts or information that could be associated with any specific applicant or case considered by the Board. Cases decided before 2002 are listed but not available for several reasons, including but not limited to: related decisions of the US Court of Federal Appeals [presumably should read "Claims"]; changes in law, policy and regulation that make the decision no longer applicable; determinations that the decision exceeded the authority of the Board for Correction; and determinations that the decision deals with a situation that no longer exists in the Commissioned Corps etc. The Board for Correction no longer considers these older cases as precedence setting.

Aha, you say, but what about the NOAA Commissioned Corps? This is from NOAA's disciplinary regulation:

07106 RECORDS EXAMINATION BOARD

A. A NOAA Corps officer may request, in writing to the Director, a Records Examination Board (REB) be appointed to determine whether or not the information contained in the officer’s OPF should be corrected or removed. The request must identify the specific information in the OPF which is to be reviewed. At the discretion of the Director, a board of at least three NOAA Corps officers senior in rank to the NOAA Corps officer involved, who have not in any way participated in the disciplinary proceeding, may be appointed as a REB. The REB shall receive any evidence the NOAA Corps officer may wish to submit and shall make recommendations to the Director concerning corrections, deletions, or additions to the NOAA Corps officer's OPF. The process of requesting a REB shall not be used by any NOAA Corps officer as an attempt to reverse or appeal a decision by the Director. See NCD 10009.

B. A request by a NOAA Corps officer for a REB shall entitle the NOAA Corps officer to present evidence either in person or by affidavit to the board. A summary of the record of such proceedings, along with the REB's recommendation, shall be shown to the NOAA Corps officer concerned before submission to the Director. If the NOAA Corps officer disagrees with the summary of the record or the recommendations of the REB, the NOAA Corps officer may submit in writing the reasons for disagreement to the Director. If the Director decides that a correction to the information contained in the NOAA Corps officer's OPF is warranted, the Director, CPC, will make the necessary corrections to the NOAA Corps officer's OPF. If warranted, the corrected OPF will be remanded to the Officer Personnel Board or Disciplinary Board for reconsideration of its original recommendation.

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