| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 1978 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To direct the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy to treat obesity |
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| 6 | 6 | | as a disease and reduce the prevalence of obesity in certain Armed |
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| 7 | 7 | | Forces, and for other purposes. |
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| 8 | 8 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 9 | 9 | | MARCH10, 2025 |
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| 10 | 10 | | Mr. B |
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| 11 | 11 | | UCHANAN(for himself and Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin) introduced the |
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| 12 | 12 | | following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services |
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| 13 | 13 | | A BILL |
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| 14 | 14 | | To direct the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy |
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| 15 | 15 | | to treat obesity as a disease and reduce the prevalence |
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| 16 | 16 | | of obesity in certain Armed Forces, and for other pur- |
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| 17 | 17 | | poses. |
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| 18 | 18 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 19 | 19 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 20 | 20 | | SECTION 1. COMBATING OBESITY IN CERTAIN ARMED 3 |
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| 21 | 21 | | FORCES. 4 |
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| 22 | 22 | | (a) S |
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| 23 | 23 | | TRATEGY ANDEDUCATIONALCAMPAIGN.— 5 |
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| 24 | 24 | | (1) I |
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| 25 | 25 | | N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 6 |
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| 26 | 26 | | after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-7 |
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| 27 | 27 | | retary of Defense shall— 8 |
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| 28 | 28 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:19 Mar 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1978.IH H1978 |
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| 29 | 29 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 30 | 30 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 31 | 31 | | (A) develop a strategy to align the obesity- 1 |
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| 32 | 32 | | related programs of the Department of Defense 2 |
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| 33 | 33 | | with the classification of obesity as a medically 3 |
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| 34 | 34 | | accepted disease; and 4 |
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| 35 | 35 | | (B) conduct an educational campaign to 5 |
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| 36 | 36 | | promote awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of 6 |
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| 37 | 37 | | obesity as a disease in the covered Armed 7 |
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| 38 | 38 | | Forces. 8 |
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| 39 | 39 | | (2) R |
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| 40 | 40 | | EQUIREMENTS FOR STRATEGY .—The 9 |
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| 41 | 41 | | strategy developed under paragraph (1)(A) shall in-10 |
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| 42 | 42 | | clude the following: 11 |
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| 43 | 43 | | (A) A plan to coordinate obesity-related 12 |
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| 44 | 44 | | programs across the Department of Defense to 13 |
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| 45 | 45 | | treat obesity as a disease and reduce the preva-14 |
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| 46 | 46 | | lence of obesity in the covered Armed Forces. 15 |
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| 47 | 47 | | (B) An assessment of the effectiveness of 16 |
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| 48 | 48 | | health programs of the Department of Defense 17 |
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| 49 | 49 | | that are intended to educate, prevent, or treat 18 |
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| 50 | 50 | | obesity among members of the covered Armed 19 |
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| 51 | 51 | | Forces, and a plan to modify or update such 20 |
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| 52 | 52 | | programs to treat obesity as a disease. 21 |
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| 53 | 53 | | (C) An assessment of the adequacy of nu-22 |
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| 54 | 54 | | trition education for physicians and other 23 |
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| 55 | 55 | | health care practitioners in the military health 24 |
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| 56 | 56 | | system to evaluate and treat obesity as a dis-25 |
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| 58 | 58 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 59 | 59 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 60 | 60 | | ease, including the need for any additional edu-1 |
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| 61 | 61 | | cation or guidelines for such physicians and 2 |
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| 62 | 62 | | other health care practitioners. 3 |
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| 63 | 63 | | (D) A strategy to work toward members of 4 |
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| 64 | 64 | | the covered Armed Forces with obesity receiving 5 |
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| 65 | 65 | | appropriate treatment. 6 |
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| 66 | 66 | | (3) R |
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| 67 | 67 | | EQUIREMENTS FOR EDUCATIONAL CAM -7 |
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| 68 | 68 | | PAIGN.—The educational campaign conducted under 8 |
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| 69 | 69 | | paragraph (1)(B) shall include the following: 9 |
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| 70 | 70 | | (A) Information to educate members of the 10 |
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| 71 | 71 | | covered Armed Forces regarding best practices 11 |
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| 72 | 72 | | to prevent, reduce, or mitigate obesity, and 12 |
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| 73 | 73 | | available resources to address the root causes of 13 |
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| 74 | 74 | | obesity. 14 |
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| 75 | 75 | | (B) Information targeted to physicians and 15 |
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| 76 | 76 | | other health care practitioners in the military 16 |
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| 77 | 77 | | health system to promote diagnosis and treat-17 |
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| 78 | 78 | | ment of obesity as a disease. 18 |
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| 79 | 79 | | (4) C |
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| 80 | 80 | | ONSULTATION.—In developing the strat-19 |
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| 81 | 81 | | egy and educational campaign required by para-20 |
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| 82 | 82 | | graph (1), the Secretary of Defense shall consult 21 |
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| 83 | 83 | | with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 22 |
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| 84 | 84 | | acting through the Administrator of the Centers for 23 |
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| 85 | 85 | | Medicare & Medicaid Services, and other agencies of 24 |
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| 86 | 86 | | the Department of Health and Human Services, as 25 |
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| 87 | 87 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:19 Mar 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1978.IH H1978 |
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| 88 | 88 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 |
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| 89 | 89 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 90 | 90 | | determined appropriate by the Secretary of Health 1 |
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| 91 | 91 | | and Human Services. 2 |
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| 92 | 92 | | (b) I |
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| 93 | 93 | | NCLUSION OF INFORMATION REGARDING 3 |
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| 94 | 94 | | U |
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| 95 | 95 | | NMETWEIGHTSTANDARDS INCERTAINREPORTS.— 4 |
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| 96 | 96 | | Beginning not later than one year after the date of the 5 |
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| 97 | 97 | | enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall in-6 |
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| 98 | 98 | | clude information regarding unmet weight standards in 7 |
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| 99 | 99 | | any report submitted by the Secretary to Congress regard-8 |
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| 100 | 100 | | ing disqualifications for enlistment in, disability incurred 9 |
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| 101 | 101 | | in, or medical discharges from, the covered Armed Forces. 10 |
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| 102 | 102 | | (c) A |
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| 103 | 103 | | DDITIONALDEPARTMENT OF DEFENSERE-11 |
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| 104 | 104 | | PORTS.— 12 |
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| 105 | 105 | | (1) E |
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| 106 | 106 | | FFECTS OF OBESITY ON READINESS OF 13 |
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| 107 | 107 | | COVERED ARMED FORCES .—Not later than one year 14 |
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| 108 | 108 | | after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-15 |
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| 109 | 109 | | retary of Defense, in consultation with the Adminis-16 |
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| 110 | 110 | | trator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serv-17 |
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| 111 | 111 | | ices, shall submit to the appropriate congressional 18 |
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| 112 | 112 | | committees a report regarding the effects of obesity 19 |
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| 113 | 113 | | on the readiness of the covered Armed Forces. Such 20 |
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| 114 | 114 | | report shall include legislative recommendations of 21 |
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| 115 | 115 | | the Secretary to address such effects. 22 |
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| 116 | 116 | | (2) E |
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| 117 | 117 | | FFECTIVENESS OF OBESITY , FOOD, AND 23 |
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| 118 | 118 | | NUTRITION-RELATED PROGRAMS OF DEPARTMENT 24 |
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| 119 | 119 | | OF DEFENSE.—Not later than one year after the 25 |
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| 121 | 121 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 |
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| 122 | 122 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 123 | 123 | | date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 1 |
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| 124 | 124 | | thereafter, the Director of the Defense Health Agen-2 |
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| 125 | 125 | | cy shall submit to the appropriate congressional 3 |
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| 126 | 126 | | committees a report on the effectiveness of the obe-4 |
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| 127 | 127 | | sity, food, and nutrition-related programs of the De-5 |
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| 128 | 128 | | partment of Defense in reducing obesity and improv-6 |
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| 129 | 129 | | ing military readiness. 7 |
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| 130 | 130 | | (d) GAO R |
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| 131 | 131 | | EPORT.— 8 |
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| 132 | 132 | | (1) I |
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| 133 | 133 | | N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 9 |
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| 134 | 134 | | after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 10 |
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| 135 | 135 | | Comptroller General of the United States shall sub-11 |
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| 136 | 136 | | mit to the appropriate congressional committees a 12 |
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| 137 | 137 | | report analyzing the existing obesity, food, and nu-13 |
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| 138 | 138 | | trition-related programs of the Department of De-14 |
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| 139 | 139 | | fense. 15 |
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| 140 | 140 | | (2) R |
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| 141 | 141 | | EQUIREMENTS.—The report required by 16 |
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| 142 | 142 | | paragraph (1) shall include the following: 17 |
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| 143 | 143 | | (A) An assessment of programs directed to 18 |
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| 144 | 144 | | members of the covered Armed Forces. 19 |
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| 145 | 145 | | (B) An assessment of programs directed to 20 |
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| 146 | 146 | | health care providers in the military health sys-21 |
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| 147 | 147 | | tem. 22 |
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| 148 | 148 | | (C) An assessment of the effectiveness of 23 |
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| 149 | 149 | | such programs in reducing obesity and the im-24 |
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| 150 | 150 | | pact of obesity on military readiness. 25 |
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| 152 | 152 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 |
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| 153 | 153 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 154 | 154 | | (D) Recommendations to coordinate and 1 |
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| 155 | 155 | | improve existing programs to reduce obesity 2 |
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| 156 | 156 | | and the impact of obesity on military readiness. 3 |
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| 157 | 157 | | (e) D |
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| 158 | 158 | | EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4 |
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| 159 | 159 | | (1) The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-5 |
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| 160 | 160 | | mittees’’ means the following: 6 |
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| 161 | 161 | | (A) The Committee on Armed Services of 7 |
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| 162 | 162 | | the House of Representatives. 8 |
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| 163 | 163 | | (B) The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 9 |
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| 164 | 164 | | the House of Representatives. 10 |
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| 165 | 165 | | (C) The Committee on Ways and Means of 11 |
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| 166 | 166 | | the House of Representatives. 12 |
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| 167 | 167 | | (D) The Committee on Energy and Com-13 |
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| 168 | 168 | | merce of the House of Representatives. 14 |
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| 169 | 169 | | (E) The Committee on Armed Services of 15 |
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| 170 | 170 | | the Senate. 16 |
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| 171 | 171 | | (F) The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 17 |
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| 172 | 172 | | the Senate. 18 |
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| 173 | 173 | | (G) The Committee on Finance of the Sen-19 |
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| 174 | 174 | | ate. 20 |
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| 175 | 175 | | (H) The Committee on Health, Education, 21 |
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| 176 | 176 | | Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 22 |
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| 178 | 178 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 |
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| 179 | 179 | | •HR 1978 IH |
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| 180 | 180 | | (2) The term ‘‘covered Armed Force’’ means 1 |
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| 181 | 181 | | the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Space 2 |
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| 182 | 182 | | Force. 3 |
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| 183 | 183 | | Æ |
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| 185 | 185 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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