National Defense Authorizaton Act for Fiscal Year 2006

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

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Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, last night the Senate passed an amendment that I offered to this bill that represents another step toward enhancing and strengthening transition services that are provided to our military personnel and builds upon an amendment that I offered to this bill last year. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee for working with me to accept this amendment.

As the Senate conducts its business today, thousands of our brave men and women in uniform are in harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the globe. These men and women serve with distinction and honor, and we owe them our heartfelt gratitude.

We also owe them our best effort to ensure that they receive the benefits to which their service in our Armed Forces has entitled them. I have heard time and again from military personnel and veterans who are frustrated with the system by which they apply for benefits or appeal claims for benefits. I have long been concerned that tens of thousands of our veterans are unaware of Federal health care and other benefits for which they may be eligible, and I have undertaken numerous legislative and oversight efforts to ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs makes outreach to our veterans and their families a priority.

While we should do more to support our veterans, we must also ensure that the men and women who are currently serving in our Armed Forces receive adequate pay and benefits, as well as services that help them to make the transition from active duty to civilian life. I am concerned that we are not doing enough to support our men and women in uniform as they prepare to retire or otherwise separate from the service or, in the case of members of our National Guard and Reserve, to demobilize from active-duty assignments and return to their civilian lives while staying in the military or preparing to separate from the military. We must ensure that their service and sacrifice, which is much lauded during times of conflict, is not forgotten once the battles have ended and our troops have come home.

Earlier this year I introduced legislation, the Veterans Enhanced Transition Services Act, VETS Act, which would help to ensure that all military personnel have access to the same transition services as they prepare to leave the military to reenter civilian life, or, in the case of members of the National Guard and Reserve, as they prepare to demobilize from active-duty assignments and return to their civilian lives and jobs or education while remaining in the military.

I have heard from a number of Wisconsinites and members of military and veterans service organizations that our men and women in uniform do not all have access to the same transition counseling and medical services as they are demobilizing from service in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. I have long been concerned about reports of uneven provision of services from base to base and from service to service. All of our men and women in uniform have pledged to serve our country, and all of them, at the very least, deserve to have access to the same services in return.

I am pleased that the VETS Act is supported by a wide range of groups that are dedicated to serving our men and women in uniform and veterans and their families. These groups include: the American Legion; the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States; the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans; the Paralyzed Veterans of America; the Reserve Officers Association; the Veterans of Foreign Wars; the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; the Wisconsin National Guard; the American Legion, Department of Wisconsin; Disabled American Veterans, Department of Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America; the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of Wisconsin; and the Wisconsin State Council, Vietnam Veterans of America.

I introduced similar legislation during the 108th Congress, and I am pleased that a provision that I authored which was based on that bill was enacted as part of the fiscal year 2005 Defense authorization bill.

In response to concerns I have heard from a number of my constituents, my amendment, in part, directed the Secretaries of Defense and Labor to jointly explore ways in which DoD training and certification standards could be coordinated with Government and private sector training and certification standards for corresponding civilian occupations. The Secretaries of Defense and Labor submitted their report, ``Study on Coordination of Job Training Standards with Certification Standards for Military Occupational Specialties,'' in September of this year. It is my hope that this report will serve as a useful tool as the Departments seek to help military personnel who wish to pursue civilian employment related to their military specialties to make the transition from the military to comparable civilian jobs.

In addition, this amendment required the Government Accountability Office, GAO, to undertake a comprehensive analysis of existing transition services for our military personnel that are administered by the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Labor, and to make recommendations to Congress on how these programs can be improved. My amendment required GAO to focus on two issues: how to achieve the uniform provision of appropriate transition services to all military personnel, and the role of post-deployment and predischarge health assessments as part of the larger transition program. GAO released its study ``Military and Veterans' Benefits: Enhanced Services Could Improve Transition Assistance for Reserves and National Guard'' in May 2005, and it plans to release its study on health assessments in the near future.

In July of this year, GAO provided testimony on its transition services report to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. That hearing could not have been more timely. We owe it to our men and women in uniform to improve transition programs now as we continue to welcome home thousands of military personnel who are serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. I commend the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Labor for the steps they have taken thus far to improve these important programs. We should not miss an opportunity to help the men and women who are currently serving our country, and I am pleased that the chairman and the ranking member agreed to accept a number of provisions from my legislation as an amendment to the fiscal year 2006 Defense authorization bill.

Under current law, the Department of Defense, together with the Departments of Veterans Affairs, VA, and Labor, provide preseparation counseling for military personnel who are preparing to leave the Armed Forces through the Transition Assistance Program/Disabled Transition Assistance Program, TAP/DTAP. This counseling provides servicemembers with valuable information about benefits that they have earned through their service to our country such as education benefits through the GI Bill and health care and other benefits through the VA. Personnel also learn about programs such as Troops to Teachers and have access to employment assistance for themselves and, where appropriate, their spouses.

My amendment would ensure that National Guard and Reserve personnel who are on active duty for at least 180 days are able to participate in this important counseling prior to being demobilized. In its recent report on transition services, GAO found that ``[d]uring their rapid demobilization, the Reserve and National Guard members may not receive all the information on possible benefits to which they are entitled. Notably, certain education benefits and medical coverage require servicemembers to apply while they are still on active duty. However, even after being briefed, some Reserve and National Guard members were not aware of the timeframes within which the needed to act to secure certain benefits before returning home. In addition, most members of the Reserves and National Guard did not have the opportunity to attend an employment workshop during demobilization.''

In response to these findings, GAO recommended that ``DoD, in conjunction with DoL and the VA, determine what demobilizing Reserve and National Guard members need to make a smooth transition and explore options to enhance their participation in TAP.'' GAO also recommended that ``VA take steps to determine the level of participation in DTAP to ensure those who may have especially complex needs are being served.''

In addition to ensuring that all discharging and demobilizing military personnel are able to participate in TAP/DTAP, we should take steps to improve the uniformity of services provided to personnel by ensuring that consistent transition briefings occur across the services and at all demobilization/discharge locations. In its report, GAO noted that ``[t]he delivery of TAP may vary in terms of the amount of personal attention participants receive, the length of the components, and the instructional methods used.'' We should make every effort to ensure that those who have put themselves in harm's way on our behalf have access to the same transition services no matter their discharge/demobilization location or the branch of the Armed Forces in which they serve. I look forward to reviewing the Department's progress on GAO's recommendations in this area.

In order to improve the breadth of information provided to Members during TAP/DTAP, my amendment would require preseparation counseling programs to include the provision of information regarding certification and licensing requirements in civilian occupations and information on identifying military occupations that have civilian counterparts, information concerning veterans small business ownership and entrepreneurship programs offered by the Federal Government, information concerning employment and reemployment rights and veterans preference in Federal employment and Federal procurement opportunities, information concerning housing counseling assistance, and a description of the health care and other benefits to which the member may be entitled through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In addition to the uneven provision of transition services, I have long been concerned about the immediate and long-term health effects that military deployments have on our men and women in uniform. I regret that, too often, the burden of responsibility for proving that a condition is related to military service falls on the personnel themselves. Our men and women in uniform deserve the benefit of the doubt, and should not have to fight the Department of Defense or the VA for benefits that they have earned through their service to our Nation.

Since coming to the Senate in 1993, I have worked to focus attention on the health effects that are being experienced by military personnel who served in the Persian Gulf war. More than 10 years after the end of the gulf war, we still don't know why so many veterans of that conflict are experiencing medical problems that have become known as gulf war illness. Military personnel who are currently deployed to the Persian Gulf region face many of the same conditions that existed in the early 1990s. I have repeatedly pressed the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to work to unlock the mystery of this illness and to study the role that exposure to depleted uranium may play in this condition. We owe it to these personnel to find these answers, and to ensure that those who are currently serving in the Persian Gulf region are adequately protected from the many possible causes of gulf war illness.

Part of the process of protecting the health of our men and women in uniform is to ensure that the Department of Defense carries out its responsibility to provide post-deployment physicals for military personnel. I am deeply concerned about stories of personnel who are experiencing long delays as they wait for their post-deployment physicals and who end up choosing not to have these important physicals in order to get home to their families that much sooner. I am equally concerned about reports that some personnel who did not receive such a physical--either by their own choice or because such a physical was not available--are now having trouble as they apply for benefits for a service-connected condition.

I firmly believe, as do the military and veterans groups that support my bill, that our men and women in uniform are entitled to a prompt, high quality physical examination as part of the demobilization process. These individuals have voluntarily put themselves into harm's way for our benefit. We should ensure that the Department of Defense makes every effort to determine whether they have experienced, or could experience, any health effects as a result of their service. Thus I am pleased that the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization bill included a provision to tighten the requirement for a predischarge/post-demobilization health assessment.

It is vitally important that these assessments include a mental health component. Our men and women in uniform serve in difficult circumstances far from home, and too many of them witness or experience violence and horrific situations that most of us cannot even begin to imagine. I have heard concerns that these brave men and women, many of whom are just out of high school or college when they sign up, may suffer long-term physical and mental fallout from their experiences and may feel reluctant to seek counseling or other assistance to deal with their experiences.

Some Wisconsinites have told me that they are concerned that the multiple deployments of our National Guard and Reserve could lead to chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, which could have its roots in an experience from a previous deployment and which could come to the surface by a triggering event that is experienced on a current deployment. The same is true for full-time military personnel who have served in a variety of places over their careers. I am pleased that the Senate has already accepted an amendment offered by the Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, that will require that personnel receive mental health screenings prior to deployment into a combat zone, not later than 30 days after return from such a deployment, and not later than 120 days after return from such a deployment.

We can and should do more to ensure that the mental health of our men and women in uniform is a top priority, and that the stigma that is too often attached to seeking assistance is ended. One step in this process is to ensure that personnel who have symptoms of PTSD and related illnesses have access to appropriate clinical services, through DoD, the VA, or a private sector health care provider. To that end, my amendment would require that the health care professionals who are assessing demobilizing military personnel provide all personnel who may need followup care for a physical or psychological condition with information on appropriate resources through DoD or the VA and in the private sector that these personnel may use to access additional followup care if they so choose.

I commend the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs for issuing in March 2005 a memorandum to the Assistant Secretaries for the Army, Navy, and Air Force directing them to extend the Pentagon's current post-deployment health assessment process to include a reassessment of ``global health with a specific emphasis on mental health'' to occur 3 to 6 months post-deployment. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Personnel Subcommittee earlier this year, the Assistant Secretary stated that the services were in the process of implementing a program that would include a ``screening procedure with a questionnaire and a face-to-face interaction at about three months'' post-deployment. He also noted that the idea for this program came from ``front line people'' and that he ``asked them ..... `do you think we should make it mandatory?' and the answer was: yes.'' This sentiment makes it even more important that the initial post-deployment mental health assessment be strengthened and that it be mandatory as well so that health care professionals have a benchmark against which to measure the results of the followup screening process. I am pleased that the Pentagon has undertaken this effort, and I believe that the provisions in Senator Landrieu's amendment and in my amendment will further enhance this process and help to ensure that we are properly caring for the mental health of our men and women in uniform.

In addition, in order to ensure that all military personnel who are eligible for medical benefits from the VA learn about and receive these benefits, my amendment would require that, as part of the demobilization process, assistance be provided to eligible members to enroll in the VA health care system.

Finally, my amendment will require the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretaries of Labor and Veterans Affairs, to report to Congress on the actions taken by those Departments to ensure that the Transition Assistance Program is functioning effectively to provide members with timely and comprehensive transition assistance. As part of the report, the Secretary will be required to include a review of transition assistance that has been/is being provided to members deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, in support of other contingency operations, and members of the National Guard who were activated in support of relief efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I look forward to reviewing this report.

Again, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their assistance on this important issue.

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