§3006 — Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary must set required service periods for officers who are not covered by other laws when they get appointments, training, promotions, separations, continuations, or retirements. The Secretary and each officer must sign a written agreement that explains how long the officer must serve in return for those actions. If an officer leaves early and does not meet the agreed service time, the Secretary can make the officer pay back part of the training cost. The payback equals the share of training costs that matches the portion of the agreed service the officer did not serve. That amount is a debt to the United States, and filing for bankruptcy less than five years after the agreement ends does not cancel the debt. The Secretary can waive the service obligation if the officer becomes unable to serve because of circumstances beyond their control or because of a physical or medical condition not caused by the officer’s willful wrongdoing.

Title 33, §3006

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Secretary shall prescribe the obligated service requirements for appointments, training, promotions, separations, continuations, and retirements of officers not otherwise covered by law.

(2)The Secretary and officers shall enter into written agreements that describe the officers’ obligated service requirements prescribed under paragraph (1) in return for such appointments, training, promotions, separations, continuations, and retirements as the Secretary considers appropriate.

(b)(1)The Secretary may require an officer who fails to meet the service requirements prescribed under subsection (a)(1) to reimburse the Secretary in an amount that bears the same ratio to the total costs of the training provided to that officer by the Secretary as the unserved portion of active duty bears to the total period of active duty the officer agreed to serve.

(2)An obligation to reimburse the Secretary under paragraph (1) is, for all purposes, a debt owed to the United States.

(3)A discharge in bankruptcy under title 11 that is entered less than five years after the termination of a written agreement entered into under subsection (a)(2) does not discharge the individual signing the agreement from a debt arising under such agreement.

(c)The Secretary may waive the service obligation of an officer who—

(1)becomes unqualified to serve on active duty in the commissioned officer corps of the Administration because of a circumstance not within the control of that officer; or

(2)is—

(A)not physically qualified for appointment; and

(B)determined to be unqualified for service in the commissioned officer corps of the Administration because of a physical or medical condition that was not the result of the officer’s own willful misconduct.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2025—Subsec. (c)(2)(B). Pub. L. 119–60 substituted “willful misconduct” for “misconduct or grossly negligent conduct”.

§3006 Obligated service requirement

Summary

Title 33, §3006

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

Citations & Metadata