| 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. 2719 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To provide for the awarding of the Purple Heart to certain veterans who |
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| 6 | 6 | | experienced a traumatic brain injury, and for other purposes. |
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| 7 | 7 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 8 | 8 | | APRIL8, 2025 |
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| 9 | 9 | | Mr. K |
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| 10 | 10 | | ENNEDYof New York introduced the following bill; which was referred |
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| 11 | 11 | | to the Committee on Armed Services |
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| 12 | 12 | | A BILL |
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| 13 | 13 | | To provide for the awarding of the Purple Heart to certain |
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| 14 | 14 | | veterans who experienced a traumatic brain injury, and |
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| 15 | 15 | | for other purposes. |
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| 16 | 16 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 17 | 17 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 18 | 18 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 19 | 19 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Staff Sergeant John 4 |
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| 20 | 20 | | D. Martek Purple Heart Restoration Act’’. 5 |
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| 21 | 21 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:25 Apr 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2719.IH H2719 |
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| 22 | 22 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 |
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| 23 | 23 | | •HR 2719 IH |
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| 24 | 24 | | SEC. 2. AWARDING OF PURPLE HEART TO CERTAIN VET-1 |
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| 25 | 25 | | ERANS WHO EXPERIENCED A TRAUMATIC 2 |
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| 26 | 26 | | BRAIN INJURY. 3 |
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| 27 | 27 | | Chapter 57 of title 10, United States Code, is amend-4 |
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| 28 | 28 | | ed by inserting after section 1129a the following new sec-5 |
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| 29 | 29 | | tion: 6 |
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| 30 | 30 | | ‘‘§ 1129b. Purple Heart: certain veterans who experi-7 |
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| 31 | 31 | | enced a traumatic brain injury 8 |
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| 32 | 32 | | ‘‘(a) I |
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| 33 | 33 | | NGENERAL.—For purposes of the award of the 9 |
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| 34 | 34 | | Purple Heart, the Secretary concerned shall treat a vet-10 |
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| 35 | 35 | | eran described in subsection (b) in the same manner as 11 |
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| 36 | 36 | | a member of the Armed Forces who is killed or wounded 12 |
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| 37 | 37 | | in action as the result of an act of an enemy of the United 13 |
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| 38 | 38 | | States. 14 |
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| 39 | 39 | | ‘‘(b) V |
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| 40 | 40 | | ETERANDESCRIBED.—A veteran described in 15 |
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| 41 | 41 | | this subsection is a veteran— 16 |
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| 42 | 42 | | ‘‘(1) who experienced a traumatic brain injury 17 |
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| 43 | 43 | | while a member of the Armed Forces that is attrib-18 |
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| 44 | 44 | | utable to an act of an enemy of the United States 19 |
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| 45 | 45 | | that occurred on or after December 7, 1941; and 20 |
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| 46 | 46 | | ‘‘(2)(A) who has a service-connected disability 21 |
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| 47 | 47 | | attributable to such traumatic brain injury, as deter-22 |
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| 48 | 48 | | mined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or 23 |
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| 49 | 49 | | ‘‘(B) with respect to whom there is a military 24 |
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| 50 | 50 | | record that demonstrates the occurrence of such 25 |
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| 51 | 51 | | traumatic brain injury. 26 |
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| 52 | 52 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:37 Apr 17, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2719.IH H2719 |
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| 53 | 53 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 |
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| 54 | 54 | | •HR 2719 IH |
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| 55 | 55 | | ‘‘(c) AWARDPROCESS.—Each Secretary concerned 1 |
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| 56 | 56 | | shall— 2 |
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| 57 | 57 | | ‘‘(1) establish a process for persons to submit 3 |
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| 58 | 58 | | applications for the awarding of the Purple Heart 4 |
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| 59 | 59 | | under this section; and 5 |
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| 60 | 60 | | ‘‘(2) award the Purple Heart to each person 6 |
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| 61 | 61 | | who submits an application that demonstrates the 7 |
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| 62 | 62 | | person is a veteran described in subsection (b), with-8 |
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| 63 | 63 | | out regard to the date on which the veteran experi-9 |
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| 64 | 64 | | enced the traumatic brain injury that is described in 10 |
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| 65 | 65 | | the application. 11 |
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| 66 | 66 | | ‘‘(d) D |
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| 67 | 67 | | EFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘serv-12 |
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| 68 | 68 | | ice-connected’ and ‘veteran’ have the meaning given the 13 |
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| 69 | 69 | | terms in section 101 of title 38.’’. 14 |
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| 70 | 70 | | Æ |
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| 71 | 71 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:25 Apr 15, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2719.IH H2719 |
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| 72 | 72 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS |
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