II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 132
To require a pilot program on activities under the pre-separation transition
process of members of the Armed Forces for a reduction in suicide
among veterans, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY30, 2023
Mr. B
ROWN(for himself and Mr. WHITEHOUSE) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To require a pilot program on activities under the pre-separa-
tion transition process of members of the Armed Forces
for a reduction in suicide among veterans, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Daniel J. Harvey Jr. 4
and Adam Lambert Improving Servicemember Transition 5
to Reduce Veteran Suicide Act’’. 6
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•S 132 IS
SEC. 2. PILOT PROGRAM ON ACTIVITIES UNDER THE PRE- 1
SEPARATION TRANSITION PROCESS OF MEM-2
BERS OF THE ARMED FORCES FOR A REDUC-3
TION IN SUICIDE AMONG VETERANS. 4
(a) P
ILOTPROGRAMREQUIRED.—The Secretary of 5
Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall jointly 6
carry out a pilot program to assess the feasibility and ad-7
visability of providing the module described in subsection 8
(b) and services under subsection (c) as part of the pre- 9
separation transition process for members of the Armed 10
Forces as a means of reducing the incidence of suicide 11
among veterans. 12
(b) M
ODULE.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The module described in this 14
subsection shall include the following: 15
(A) An in-person meeting between a cohort 16
of members of the Armed Forces participating 17
in the pilot program and a social worker or 18
nurse in which the social worker or nurse— 19
(i) educates the cohort on resources 20
for and specific potential risks confronting 21
such members after discharge or release 22
from the Armed Forces, including— 23
(I) loss of community or a sup-24
port system; 25
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(II) isolation from family, 1
friends, or society; 2
(III) identity crisis in the transi-3
tion from military to civilian life; 4
(IV) vulnerability viewed as a 5
weakness; 6
(V) need for empathy; 7
(VI) self-medication and addic-8
tion; 9
(VII) importance of sleep and ex-10
ercise; 11
(VIII) homelessness; 12
(IX) risk factors contributing to 13
attempts of suicide and deaths by sui-14
cide; and 15
(X) safe storage of firearms as 16
part of suicide prevention lethal 17
means safety efforts; 18
(ii) educates the cohort on— 19
(I) the signs and symptoms of 20
suicide risk and physical, psycho-21
logical, or neurological issues, such as 22
post-traumatic stress disorder, trau-23
matic brain injury, chronic pain, sleep 24
disorders, substance use disorders, ad-25
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verse childhood experiences, depres-1
sion, bipolar disorder, and socio-eco-2
logical concerns, such as homeless-3
ness, unemployment, and relationship 4
strain; 5
(II) the potential risks for mem-6
bers of the Armed Forces from such 7
issues after discharge or release from 8
the Armed Forces; and 9
(III) the resources and treatment 10
options available to such members for 11
such issues through the Department 12
of Veterans Affairs, the Department 13
of Defense, and non-profit organiza-14
tions; 15
(iii) educates the cohort about the re-16
sources available to victims of military sex-17
ual trauma through the Department of 18
Veterans Affairs; and 19
(iv) educates the cohort about the 20
manner in which members might experi-21
ence challenges during the transition from 22
military to civilian life, and the resources 23
available to them through the Department 24
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of Veterans Affairs, the Department of De-1
fense, and other organizations. 2
(B) The provision to each member of the 3
cohort of contact information for a counseling 4
or other appropriate facility of the Department 5
of Veterans Affairs in the locality in which such 6
member intends to reside after discharge or re-7
lease. 8
(C) The submittal by each member of the 9
cohort to the Department of Veterans Affairs 10
(including both the Veterans Health Adminis-11
tration and the Veterans Benefits Administra-12
tion) of their medical records in connection with 13
service in the Armed Forces, whether or not 14
such members intend to file a claim with the 15
Department for benefits with respect to any 16
service-connected disability. 17
(2) C
OMPOSITION OF COHORT .—Each cohort 18
participating in the module described in this sub-19
section shall be comprised of not fewer than 50 indi-20
viduals. 21
(c) S
ERVICES.—In carrying out the pilot program, 22
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans 23
Affairs shall provide to each individual participating in the 24
pilot program the following services: 25
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(1) During the transition process and prior to 1
discharge or release from the Armed Forces, a one- 2
on-one meeting with a social worker or nurse of the 3
Department of Veterans Affairs who will— 4
(A) conduct an assessment of the indi-5
vidual regarding eligibility to receive health care 6
or counseling services from the Department of 7
Veterans Affairs; 8
(B) for those eligible, or likely to be eligi-9
ble, to receive health care or counseling services 10
from the Department of Veterans Affairs— 11
(i) identify and provide contact infor-12
mation for an appropriate facility of the 13
Department of Veterans Affairs in the lo-14
cality in which such individual intends to 15
reside after discharge or release; 16
(ii) facilitate registration or enroll-17
ment in the system of patient enrollment 18
of the Department of Veterans Affairs 19
under section 1705(a) of title 38, United 20
States Code, if applicable; 21
(iii) educate the individual about care, 22
benefits, and services available to the indi-23
vidual through the Veterans Health Ad-24
ministration; and 25
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(iv) coordinate health care based on 1
the health care needs of the individual, if 2
applicable, to include establishing an initial 3
appointment, at the election of the indi-4
vidual, to occur not later than 90 days 5
after the date of discharge or release of the 6
member from the Armed Forces. 7
(2) For each individual determined ineligible for 8
care and services from the Department of Veterans 9
Affairs during the transition process, the Secretary 10
of Defense shall conduct an assessment of the indi-11
vidual to determine the needs of the individual and 12
appropriate follow-up, which shall be identified and 13
documented in the appropriate records of the De-14
partment of Defense. 15
(3) During the appointment scheduled pursuant 16
to paragraph (1)(B)(iv), the Secretary of Veterans 17
Affairs shall conduct an assessment of the individual 18
to determine the needs of the individual and appro-19
priate follow-up, which shall be identified and docu-20
mented in the appropriate records of the Depart-21
ment of Veterans Affairs. 22
(d) L
OCATIONS.— 23
(1) M
ODULE AND MEETING .—The module 24
under subsection (b) and the one-on-one meeting 25
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under subsection (c)(1) shall be carried out at not 1
fewer than 10 locations of the Department of De-2
fense that serve not fewer than 300 members of the 3
Armed Forces annually that are jointly selected by 4
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Vet-5
erans Affairs for purposes of the pilot program. 6
(2) A
SSESSMENT AND APPOINTMENT .—The as-7
sessment under subsection (c)(2) and the appoint-8
ment under subsection (c)(3) may occur at any loca-9
tion determined appropriate by the Secretary of De-10
fense or the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as the 11
case may be. 12
(3) M
EMBERS SERVED.—The locations selected 13
under paragraph (1) shall, to the extent practicable, 14
be locations that, whether individually or in aggre-15
gate, serve all the Armed Forces and both the reg-16
ular and reserve components of the Armed Forces. 17
(e) S
ELECTION AND COMMENCEMENT .—The Sec-18
retary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 19
shall jointly select the locations of the pilot program under 20
subsection (d)(1) and commence carrying out activities 21
under the pilot program by not later than September 30, 22
2024. 23
(f) D
URATION.—The duration of the pilot program 24
shall be five years. 25
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(g) REPORTS.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 2
after the commencement of the pilot program, and 3
annually thereafter during the duration of the pilot 4
program, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary 5
of Veterans Affairs shall jointly submit to the appro-6
priate committees of Congress a report on the activi-7
ties under the pilot program. 8
(2) E
LEMENTS.—Each report required by para-9
graph (1) shall include the following: 10
(A) The demographic information of the 11
members and former members of the Armed 12
Forces who participated in the pilot program 13
during the one-year period ending on the date 14
of such report. 15
(B) A description of the activities under 16
the pilot program during such period. 17
(C) An assessment of the benefits of the 18
activities under the pilot program during such 19
period to members and former members of the 20
Armed Forces. 21
(D) An assessment of whether the activi-22
ties under the pilot program as of the date of 23
such report have met the targeted outcomes of 24
the pilot program among members and former 25
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members who participated in the pilot program 1
within one year of discharge or release from the 2
Armed Forces. 3
(E) Such recommendations as the Sec-4
retary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans 5
Affairs jointly consider appropriate regarding 6
the feasibility and advisability of expansion of 7
the pilot program, extension of the pilot pro-8
gram, or both. 9
(h) A
PPROPRIATECOMMITTEES OF CONGRESSDE-10
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate commit-11
tees of Congress’’ means— 12
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the 13
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate; and 14
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the 15
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of 16
Representatives. 17
Æ
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