10 U.S.C. § 14111 — Reports of selection boards: transmittal to President

(a) Transmittal to President. After finishing its review under section 14110, the department's Secretary sends the selection board's report, along with the Secretary's own recommendations, to the Secretary of Defense. The Defense Secretary then forwards it to the President for approval or disapproval. If the President's approval power over a promotion board's report gets delegated to the Defense Secretary, that power can only be passed down further to someone in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. (b) Removal of Name From Board Report. (1) Normally, only the President can remove an officer's name from a selection board's report. (2) There's an exception: if the officer was recommended for a grade below brigadier general or rear admiral (lower half), the Defense Secretary or Deputy Secretary can also remove that name. (3) If a name is removed for any reason other than misconduct -- whether by the President under (1) or by the Secretary or Deputy Secretary under (2) -- the Defense Secretary must tell the congressional defense committees, both within 30 days of the removal and before the related promotion list is sent to the Senate under section 12203. (c) Recommendations for Removal of Selected Officers From Report. If a department Secretary or the Defense Secretary recommends removing an officer's name, and that recommendation relies on information the original board never saw, that information must be shared with the officer. The officer then gets a reasonable chance to respond to it, to both the officials who made the recommendation and those reviewing it. If the officer can't be shown the information because it's classified, they must, as much as practical, get an appropriate summary instead.