National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005-Continued

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
June 23, 2004

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005-CONTINUED

AMENDMENT NO. 3399, AS MODIFIED

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I thank the chairman and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee for working with me to accept this amendment, which represents a first step toward enhancing and strengthening transition services that are provided to our military personnel. I also thank my cosponsor, the Senator from Maine, Ms. Snowe, for her contributions to this amendment.

As we debate the Department of Defense authorization bill 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.

For those reasons, last month, I introduced the Veterans Enhanced Transition Services Act, VETS Act, which would improve transition services for our military personnel. My legislation would help to ensure that all military personnel receive the same services by making a number of improvements to the existing Transition Assistance Program/Disabled Transition Assistance Program, TAP/DTAP, and to the Benefits Delivery at Discharge program, by improving the process by which military personnel who are being demobilized or discharged receive medical examinations and mental health assessments, and by ensuring that military and veterans service organizations and State departments of veterans affairs are able to play an active role in assisting military personnel with the difficult decisions that are often involved in the process of discharging or demobilizing.

I am pleased that my original legislation 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 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 will continue to work with these and other veterans and military organizations on these important issues.

The amendment that I am offering today on behalf of myself and Senator Snowe is based on that legislation. This amendment will require the General Accounting 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.

This study will focus on two issues: how to achieve the uniform provision of appropriate transition services to all military personnel, and the role of postdeployment and predischarge health assessments as part of the larger transition program.

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.

This amendment will require GAO to conduct an analysis of transition programs, including a history of how the programs were intended to be used when they were created and how they are being used now; whether the programs adequately address the specific needs of military personnel, including members of the National Guard and Reserve; and how transition programs differ among the services and across military installations. The GAO will also be required to make recommendations on how these programs can be improved, including an analysis of additional information that would be beneficial to members participating in transition briefings.

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 service. This counseling provides service members 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.

Currently, participation in this program is encouraged, but not mandatory. Thus, most of the responsibility for getting information about benefits and programs falls on the military personnel themselves. Participation in preseparation counseling through a TAP/DTAP program is a valuable tool for personnel as they transition back to civilian life. The Department of Defense should make every effort to ensure that all members participate in this important program, and my amendment would require the GAO to analyze participation rates and make recommendations on how the Department of Defense could better encourage participation, and whether participation in a transition program should be mandatory.

In addition, GAO would be required to make recommendations on any information that should be added to the transition briefings, such as information on procurement opportunities for veterans with service-connected disabilities and for other veterans. I thank the Senator from Maine, Ms. Snowe, the chairman of the Small Business Committee, for making the important point that Federal law requires that a certain percentage of contracts be awarded to firms owned by veterans with service-connected disabilities. Additionally, the Small Business Administration and other agencies administer programs to make all veterans aware of procurement opportunities. I agree with her that the transition process is a commonsense place to make these personnel aware of these opportunities. For that reason, our amendment also requires that the Department of Defense include information about these contracting opportunities in its transition program.

The amendment would also require the GAO to study how the transition programs administered by the VA and by the Department of Labor fit into this transition effort. This analysis would include a discussion of the joint DOD-VA Benefits Delivery at Discharge program, which assists personnel in applying for VA disability benefits before they are discharged from the military. This very successful program has helped to cut the redtape and to speed the processing time for many veterans who are entitled to VA disability benefits.

In addition, under current law, the Secretary of Defense may make use of the services provided by military and veterans service organizations as part of the transition process. But these groups tell me that they are not always allowed access to transition briefings that are conducted for our personnel. For that reason, this amendment would require GAO to include an analysis of the participation of military and veterans service organizations in preseparation briefings, including recommendations on how the Department of Defense could make better use of representatives of veterans service organizations who are recognized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for the representation of military personnel in VA proceedings.

The demobilization and discharge process presents our service members with a sometimes confusing and often overwhelming amount of information and paperwork that must be digested and sometimes signed in a very short period of time. The opportunity to speak with fellow veterans who have been through this process and who have been accredited to represent veterans in VA proceedings by the VA can be invaluable to military personnel as they seek to wade through this maze of paperwork. These veterans can offer important advice about benefits and other choices that military personnel have to make as they are being discharged or demobilized. I commend the Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, for offering an amendment which has already been accepted to this bill that reaffirms the importance of allowing veterans service organizations to participate in transition briefings and that also encourages their involvement in counseling members of the National Guard and Reserve who have been demobilized. The Landrieu amendment is consistent with provisions in my legislation, the VETS Act, and I am pleased that the Senate has gone on record in support of allowing these dedicated members of our veterans service organizations, who have taken the time to get accredited by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in order to counsel and represent their fellow veterans, to participate in transition briefings.

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.

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 postdeployment physicals for military personnel. I am deeply concerned about stories of personnel who are experiencing long delays as they wait for their postdeployment 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 am pleased that the underlying bill contains a provision that would require postdeployment physicals for military personnel who are separating from Active-Duty service. I firmly believe, as do the military and veterans groups that support my VETS Act legislation, 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 in 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.

I am also pleased that the Senate has already adopted an amendment offered by the Senator from New York, Mrs. Clinton, and the Senator from Missouri, Mr. Talent, that will help to improve the medical readiness of our men and women in uniform and to ensure their health is monitored before, during, and after deployments so that there is a record of any service-connected conditions or exposures.

Building on this effort, my amendment would require the GAO to include in its study of transition services an analysis of the use of postdeployment and predischarge health screenings and whether and how these screenings and the transition program could be integrated into a single, coordinated preseparation program for military personnel who are being discharged or released from active duty. The analysis would also include information on how postdeployment questionnaires are used, the extent to which military personnel waive physical exams, and how and the extent to which personnel are referred for followup health care.

I am also concerned about the implementation of current law with respect to the current requirement that postdeployment medical examinations include a mental health assessment. 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. These 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.

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. To that end, this amendment requires that GAO include in its analysis a discussion of the current process by which mental health screenings are conducted, followup mental health care is provided for, and services are provided in cases of posttraumatic stress disorder and related conditions in connection with discharge and release from active duty. This will include an analysis of the number of persons treated, the types of interventions, and the programs that are in place for each branch of the Armed Forces to identify and treat cases of PTSD and related conditions.

As part of its study on these important issues, GAO is directed to obtain views from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments; the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Labor; military personnel who have received the transition assistance programs covered by this study and personnel who have declined to participate in these transition programs; representatives of military and veterans service organizations; and persons with expertise in health care, including mental health care, provided under the Defense Health Program, including personnel from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and persons in the private sector.

Finally, in response to concerns I have heard from a number of my constituents, this amendment also directs the Secretaries of Defense and Labor to jointly report to Congress on ways in which DOD training and certification standards could be coordinated with Government and private-sector training and certification standards for corresponding civilian occupations.

Again, I thank the chairman and the ranking member of the committee for working with me to include these provisions in the bill. I will continue to work to ensure that we provide those serving in our Armed Forces with the help they need and deserve in making the often-difficult transition back to civilian life.