II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 456
To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize non-medical counseling
services, provided by certain mental health professionals, to military families.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY15, 2023
Ms. S
INEMA(for herself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize non-
medical counseling services, provided by certain mental
health professionals, to military families.
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 ‘‘Comforting Our Mili-4
tary Families through On-base or Remote Treatment Act’’ 5
or the ‘‘COMFORT Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. NON-MEDICAL COUNSELING SERVICES FOR MILI-7
TARY FAMILIES. 8
(a) N
ON-MEDICALCOUNSELINGSERVICES.—Not-9
withstanding any other provision of law, a mental health 10
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•S 456 IS
professional described in subsection (b) may provide non- 1
medical counseling services to military families at any lo-2
cation in a State, the District of Columbia, or a territory 3
or possession of the United States, without regard to 4
where the provider or recipient of such services is located, 5
if the provision of such services is within the scope of the 6
authorized Federal duties of the provider. 7
(b) C
OVEREDMENTALHEALTHPROFESSIONALS.— 8
A mental health professional described in this subsection 9
is a person who is— 10
(1) a currently licensed or certified mental 11
health care provider who holds an unrestricted li-12
cense or certification that is— 13
(A) issued by a State, the District of Co-14
lumbia, or a territory or possession of the 15
United States; and 16
(B) recognized by the Secretary of De-17
fense; 18
(2) a member of the uniformed services, a civil-19
ian employee of the Department of Defense, or a 20
contractor designated by the Secretary; and 21
(3) performing authorized duties for the De-22
partment of Defense under a program or activity re-23
ferred to in subsection (a). 24
Æ
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