Clinton bills aim to help vets, families - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Clinton bills aim to help vets, families

Three bills aimed at helping service members and their families have been introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the pack of politicians running for a presidential nomination.

One bill, S 1063, improves death and survivor benefits. A second bill, S 1064, would change the physical evaluation process for getting a disability retirement rating from the military. The third bill, S 1065, is aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury in combat veterans.

In a statement as she introduced the bills, Clinton said she was trying to send a message to service members that “you will be treated as heroes before deployment, during deployment and upon returning home.”

“If you serve your country, your country should serve you,” she said. “That is the promise our country must keep to the men and women who enlist, who fight, and who return home often bearing the visible and invisible scars of sacrifice.”

It is unlikely the three bills will be passed as free-standing measures, but her ideas could be considered as Congress works on the 2008 defense budget, on the 2007 wartime supplemental spending bill and on a package of legislation aimed at helping wounded combat veterans.

S 1063, the Protecting Military Family Financial Benefits Act of 2007, would provide pre-deployment counseling for all service members to ensure all paperwork dealing with families and dependent children is complete.

“Every day, single parents deploy to distant battlefields and leave their minor children in the care of a financially ill-prepared guardian or caretaker,” she said. “Unfortunately, when tragedy strikes and a military service member makes the ultimate sacrifice, minor dependent children and families are excluded from benefits and entitlements.”

The bill also includes, as an option, the ability to designate the guardian or caretaker of dependent children as a beneficiary for the $100,000 “death gratuity” paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty, which would close a loophole in current law. The issue might be addressed by a provision of the 2007 wartime supplemental appropriations bill, which could become law before Clinton’s bill gets full consideration by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Her disability retirement bill, S 1064, is called the Restoring Disability Benefits for Injured and Wounded Warriors Act of 2007. She said it would make legal help more available to service members who are appealing the disability ratings decisions of their physical evaluation boards. Additionally, it would order a review of the current disability process by the U.S. Comptroller General, including whether the current rating schedule is fair.

Clinton’s bill also proposes a review of all previous cases in which service members received a lower disability rating than they expected, in addition to an independent review of the military’s new traumatic injury insurance program than pays up to $100,000 to service members with life-changing disabilities.

“Up to 45 percent of claims have been denied,” she said.

S 1065, which she calls the Heroes at Home Act of 2007, would build on a similarly titled bill that passed Congress last year.

The new measure, cosponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is aimed at returning combat veterans who could have traumatic brain injuries or mental health issues, Clinton said.

“Unfortunately, troops have an increased risk of sustaining more than one mild or moderate traumatic brain injury because of multiple deployments and the prevalent use of improved explosive devices by enemy combatants in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,” she said. “Mild and moderate TBI may go undetected, especially if the service member has sustained more obvious injuries.”

Additionally, military officials have warned it would be difficult to distinguish mild traumatic brain injury from post-traumatic stress disorder because “both conditions have common symptoms, such as irritability, anxiety and depression,” she said.

Under the bill, service members would receive pre-deployment cognitive screening that would help diagnose problems after they return, she said. “This baseline test will help detect mild and moderate cases of TBI and distinguish them from PTSD,” Clinton said.

The bill would create a training program for family members to become certified caregivers, allowing them to be paid for their work caring for their injured troops. “Family members of returning soldiers with TBI are often ill-equipped to handle the demands of caring for their loved one, which in some bases can become a full-time responsibility,” Clinton said.