The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in August 1986, was designed to improve absentee registration and voting for deployed members of the U.S. military and U.S. citizens living abroad, and to consolidate existing (and outdated) laws that were already in place. The Secretary of Defense, responsible for ensuring the law is administered, delegates that responsibility to the Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), an agency within the Department of Defense.