Below is legislation I’m working to support and honor our vets, including the passage of the significant National Defense Authorization Act.
S. 1605 – “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022”: This NDAA was one of the better ones I’ve ever seen during my time in Congress. It included money for a virtual-reality enabled smart installation experimentation program for Tulsa University to benefit veterans. It also included oversight and accountability of the Afghanistan withdrawal. A 2.7% increase in pay for service members was included, a review of suicide prevention, sustainment and costs of F-35 reports and production. Furthermore, the “draft our daughters” provision, which would require women to sign up for the draft, was removed from the bill. Additionally, any “red flag” gun law language was excluded. Finally, the bill told the U.S. Department of Defense that they cannot discharge someone for not taking a vaccine in any manner except honorable and this will be applied retroactively.
S.1095 – “Colonel John M. McHugh Tuition Fairness for Survivors Act of 2021”: Would expand in-state tuition benefits to those eligible for the Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance Program.
H.R. 4591 – “VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act of 2021”: Would require VA to submit reports on costs, performance metrics and outcomes of the Electronic Health Record Modernization program.
H.R. 5516 – “VITAL Assessment Act”: Would require VA to submit a report to Congress on the Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership program and then establish best practices, goals and measure for the program uniform with VA medical centers. this would focus on mental health of veterans and improving service for vets, education and leadership.
H.R. 5603 – “Protections for Student Veterans”: Would allow those who were in school but leave who paid for it with educational assistance from active service to leave without adverse actions like failing, reduced GPA, unexcused absences or financial penalties if they return to their active service and allow them to resume once completing service requirements. It would also cap tuition and fee payments for any training at public schools equal to the cap at private and non-profit schools (ex: flight school).
H.R. 147 – “BRAVE Act”: Would require the U.S. Department of Labor to provide information about nationally registered apprenticeship programs to members of the Armed Forces leaving active duty.
To stay up-to-date on what's going on in Congress, be sure to like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.
Thank you for subscribing to The Veteran. I'll send these emails quarterly to keep you informed on my priorities for our veterans.
Feel free to forward this to your friends so they can see what I've been up to, you can subscribe to future emails here.