I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2719
To provide for the awarding of the Purple Heart to certain veterans who
experienced a traumatic brain injury, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL8, 2025
Mr. K
ENNEDYof New York introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To provide for the awarding of the Purple Heart to certain
veterans who experienced a traumatic brain injury, 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 ‘‘Staff Sergeant John 4
D. Martek Purple Heart Restoration Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AWARDING OF PURPLE HEART TO CERTAIN VET-1
ERANS WHO EXPERIENCED A TRAUMATIC 2
BRAIN INJURY. 3
Chapter 57 of title 10, United States Code, is amend-4
ed by inserting after section 1129a the following new sec-5
tion: 6
‘‘§ 1129b. Purple Heart: certain veterans who experi-7
enced a traumatic brain injury 8
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For purposes of the award of the 9
Purple Heart, the Secretary concerned shall treat a vet-10
eran described in subsection (b) in the same manner as 11
a member of the Armed Forces who is killed or wounded 12
in action as the result of an act of an enemy of the United 13
States. 14
‘‘(b) V
ETERANDESCRIBED.—A veteran described in 15
this subsection is a veteran— 16
‘‘(1) who experienced a traumatic brain injury 17
while a member of the Armed Forces that is attrib-18
utable to an act of an enemy of the United States 19
that occurred on or after December 7, 1941; and 20
‘‘(2)(A) who has a service-connected disability 21
attributable to such traumatic brain injury, as deter-22
mined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or 23
‘‘(B) with respect to whom there is a military 24
record that demonstrates the occurrence of such 25
traumatic brain injury. 26
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‘‘(c) AWARDPROCESS.—Each Secretary concerned 1
shall— 2
‘‘(1) establish a process for persons to submit 3
applications for the awarding of the Purple Heart 4
under this section; and 5
‘‘(2) award the Purple Heart to each person 6
who submits an application that demonstrates the 7
person is a veteran described in subsection (b), with-8
out regard to the date on which the veteran experi-9
enced the traumatic brain injury that is described in 10
the application. 11
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘serv-12
ice-connected’ and ‘veteran’ have the meaning given the 13
terms in section 101 of title 38.’’. 14
Æ
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