H.Con.Res. 20 — Establishing the Congressional Fitness Challenge, and for other purposes.

This section establishes the Congressional Fitness Challenge, a national recognition program to promote physical fitness and personal achievement among eligible participants through voluntary, performance-based fitness tests.

This section establishes five fitness tests for the Challenge for eligible participants: (1) a 1-mile run or walk measured by the time taken to complete 1 mile, (2) pull-ups or a flexed arm hang measured by the maximum number of continuous repetitions completed with proper form, (3) curl-ups or sit-ups measured by the number completed in 60 seconds, (4) a shuttle run measured by the time taken to run 30 feet back and forth between 2 parallel lines while picking up a block of wood or similar object twice at one line, for a total distance of 120 feet, and (5) a sit-and-reach test measured by the maximum distance reached.

This section expands the entities that may sponsor the Challenge to include: (1) a public or private school that provides education in kindergarten through grade 12, (2) a Member of the House of Representatives or Senator who organizes a community-based event, and (3) an independent entity that provides testing for an eligible participant who attends a home school. This section also requires that the tests under section 2 be administered by a certified fitness professional.

This section directs the covered committees to consult with fitness organizations or certified fitness professionals to finalize and publish age- and gender-based performance benchmarks for each test under section 2, taking into account the historical standards used in the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. It also requires those benchmarks to include adaptive standards for eligible participants with disabilities.

This section directs each entity sponsoring the Challenge under section 3(a) to submit to the covered committees the data of all eligible participants who participate in the Challenge and requires the covered committees to aggregate that data by gender and age group across the United States for each 1-year period.

This section establishes a congressional certificate recognition program for eligible participants who meet or exceed the benchmarks under section 4 in their gender and age group on each test under section 2. It authorizes certificates signed by the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the participant’s House Member, and the participant’s Senator, and it sets three recognition levels based on performance percentiles: gold for the top 85th percentile, silver for the top 75th percentile, and bronze for the top 50th percentile of participants in the Challenge.

This section directs the covered committees to jointly prescribe regulations and issue guidance to administer the Challenge. It requires regulations establishing: (1) testing protocols; (2) procedures to report information needed for recognition under section 6 to the Member of the House of Representatives for the participant’s congressional district and the Senator for the participant’s State; (3) privacy protections for eligible participants and liability-risk protections for sponsors under section 3(a); and (4) uniform standards for submitting data to the covered committees under section 5. It also directs the committees to issue guidance on using the Members’ Representational Allowance under 2 U.S.C. 5341 and the Senators’ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account under 2 U.S.C. 6313 to carry out Challenge-related activities. In addition, it authorizes a Member of the House of Representatives to use amounts available under the Members’ Representational Allowance and a Senator to use amounts available under the Senators’ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account for Challenge-related activities, and requires the House and Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittees to publish, not later than 1 year after enactment, a report on the feasibility and desirability of using other House and Senate funds to cover Challenge expenses.

This section establishes definitions for the concurrent resolution, including defining a “certified fitness professional” as a fitness professional with a relevant certification determined by a sponsor under section 3(a), such as a K-12 physical education teacher for eligible participants in the age group the teacher is qualified to test under section 2 or a certified physical trainer with credentials from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise, or a similar entity; defining “covered committees” as the House Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration; defining an “eligible participant” as a student aged 6 through 17, including students in public, private, or home schools; and defining a “Member of the House of Representatives” as a Representative, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner to Congress.