14 U.S.C. § 2502: Retirement

Every commissioned officer, warrant officer, or enlisted member who is retired under any provisions of this title shall be retired with the permanent grade or rate held at the time of retirement, unless entitled to retire with a higher grade or rate under any provision of this title or any other law. Where an officer is entitled, under any provision of law, to retire with one grade higher than the grade in which serving at the time of retirement, the next higher grade in the case of captain shall be rear admiral (lower half), and the next higher grade in the case of commissioned warrant officer shall be lieutenant (junior grade). Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act [ Dec. 23, 2022 ], and annually thereafter, the Commandant [of the Coast Guard] shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report that evaluates resignation and retirement processing timelines. statistics on the number of resignations, retirements, and other separations that occurred; the processing time for each action described in paragraph (1); the percentage of requests for such actions that had a command endorsement; the percentage of requests for such actions that did not have a command endorsement; and for each denial of a request for a command endorsement and each failure to take action on such a request, a detailed description of the rationale for such denial or failure to take such action.”