10 U.S.C. § 20233 — Eligibility for consideration for promotion: designation as joint qualified officer required before promotion to brigadier general; exceptions

(a) General Rule. An officer on the Space Force officer list cannot be appointed brigadier general unless the officer has been designated a "joint qualified officer" under section 661. (b) Exceptions. The Secretary of Defense may waive that rule in four cases: (1) when necessary for the good of the service; (2) when the officer's promotion is based mainly on scientific or technical skills that have no joint-duty version; (3) when a promotion board selects an officer serving in a joint duty assignment, if the officer has served at least two straight years in joint duty and finished the education program in section 2155(b)-(c); or (4) when an officer is selected by a promotion board, is not exempt under subsection (g), and has finished the required education but not had the chance to finish the required experience. (c) Waiver to Be Individual. Any waiver under (b) must be granted one officer at a time, never as a group. (d) Special Rule for Good-of-the-service Waiver. If the waiver is a "good of the service" waiver, the officer's first assignment as a general must be a joint duty assignment. (e) Limitation on Delegation of Waiver Authority. The Secretary of Defense can only hand off the (b)(4) waiver power the way section 619a(e) allows. (f) Regulations. The Secretary of Defense must write rules to carry out this section, and must spell out which officers count as "scientific and technical" for subsection (b)(2). (g) Exemption. Subsection (a) does not apply to an officer who transfers into the Space Force from a reserve component before the sixth fiscal year after this section became law starts, if at the time of transfer the officer is a major, lieutenant colonel, or colonel, or, for Navy or Coast Guard officers, a lieutenant commander, commander, or captain.