I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2632
To amend title 10, United States Code, to improve the administration of
the TRICARE program in Puerto Rico, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. H
ERNA´NDEZ(for himself, Ms. BROWNLEY, and Ms. NORTON) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To amend title 10, United States Code, to improve the
administration of the TRICARE program in Puerto Rico,
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 ‘‘TRICARE Equality 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO ADMINISTRATION 6
OF TRICARE PROGRAM IN PUERTO RICO. 7
(a) I
MPROVEMENTS.—Chapter 55 of title 10, United 8
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1076f 9
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the following new section (and conforming the table of sec-1
tions at the beginning of such chapter accordingly): 2
‘‘§ 1076g. TRICARE program: administration in Puer-3
to Rico 4
‘‘(a) A
VAILABILITY OFTRICARE PRIME.—In desig-5
nating geographical areas under section 1097(b)(3) of this 6
title, the Secretary of Defense shall designate such areas 7
in Puerto Rico in a similar manner used to designate such 8
areas in the several States. 9
‘‘(b) E
XPANSION OFTRAVELBENEFITS.—(1) In pro-10
viding travel and transportation allowances under section 11
1074i of this title, the Secretary of Defense shall ensure 12
that individuals located in Puerto Rico who, but for such 13
location, would be eligible to receive such allowances pur-14
suant to such section are eligible to receive such allow-15
ances. 16
‘‘(2) The Secretary may revise the regulations pre-17
scribed under section 464 of title 37, or prescribe such 18
new regulations, as may be necessary for the administra-19
tion of paragraph (1). 20
‘‘(c) H
EALTHINFORMATIONEXCHANGE.—The Di-21
rector of the Federal Electronic Health Record Moderniza-22
tion Office shall coordinate with the Director of the De-23
partment of Health of Puerto Rico for the purpose of 24
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sharing health information through the Joint Health In-1
formation Exchange, or such successor initiative. 2
‘‘(d) F
EDERALELECTRONICHEALTHRECORDMOD-3
ERNIZATIONOFFICEDEFINED.—In this section, the term 4
‘Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Office’ 5
means the Office established under section 1635(b) of the 6
Wounded Warrior Act (title XVI of Public Law 110–181; 7
10 U.S.C. 1071 note).’’. 8
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 9
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense 10
shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the 11
House of Representatives and the Senate a report on the 12
progress of the Secretary in implementing the require-13
ments of section 1076g of title 10, United States Code, 14
as added by subsection (a). 15
Æ
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