Hillary Clinton: Senate Approves Clinton Measures to Help Wounded Servicemembers

July 13, 2007 -- Washington, DC – The Senate has approved the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which contains a series of provisions offered by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) from her Heroes at Home Act of 2007, Bridging the Gap for Wounded Warriors Act and Restoring Disability Benefits for Injured and Wounded Warriors Act, among others, to address problems facing our wounded servicemembers. The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act was approved as a first degree amendment to the Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization Act, which is currently being debated on the Senate floor.

“This represents another significant step forward in meeting our responsibility to our servicemembers to provide the healthcare and support they need. I am proud that the Senate has approved measures I put forward to improve screening for Traumatic Brain Injury, the signature wound of the war in Iraq; address problems servicemembers are facing as they transition between DoD and VA healthcare systems; and cut red tape preventing wounded servicemembers from receiving needed disability benefits. These are urgently needed steps for our servicemembers and their families,” said Senator Clinton.

Article continues below...

The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act includes Senator Clinton’s provision mandating that the Department of Defense have a 180 day deadline for implementing a screening protocol for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This builds on another measure that Senator Clinton secured in the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, first introduced as part of her Heroes at Home Act of 2007, to improve detection of mild and moderate TBI by developing an objective assessment tool to measure cognitive functioning of solders both prior to and after deployment. The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act also includes elements of another Heroes at Home Act of 2007 proposal to provide needed advice and training for families struggling to take care of a loved one with brain injuries and psychological injuries.

In addition, the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act includes Senator Clinton’s provision that would ensure that active duty and veterans healthcare services are available to all current and former members of the Armed Services who were injured after October 7, 2001, not just those injured after implementation of the bill. Senator Clinton first called for providing a two-year “overlap” of active duty and medically retired health care services and benefits for injured members and former members of the Armed Services as part of her Bridging the Gap for Wounded Warriors Act following reports that soldiers were experiencing problems receiving the healthcare they need as they transition from Department of Defense to VA care.

The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act also contains a provision offered by Senator Clinton to make sure that efforts underway by the DoD and VA to create a joint electronic medical record result in a DoD-VA medical record that is compatible and synchronized with the national efforts to develop a nationwide coordinated health IT infrastructure, an issue on which Senator Clinton has been a leader. This measure builds on provisions, which would provide oversight and leadership for a joint DoD-VA interagency office, that Senator Clinton secured in the bill from her Bridging the Gap for Wounded Warriors Act. The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act also includes a measure from Senator Clinton’s Bridging the Gap for Wounded Warriors Act that would reform the current flawed disability rating system for wounded servicemembers by ending the flawed DoD rating system and having military departments adopt the VA disability rating system.

The measure approved by the Senate also contains Senator Clinton’s provision to ensure needed oversight of the disability rating system for wounded servicemembers by continuing Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviews of treatment of wounded servicemembers. This measure also will ensure that disability benefit determination cases under review are prohibited from being reduced by a new determination. Senator Clinton proposed similar measures as part of her Restoring Disability Benefits for Injured and Wounded Warriors Act. The Wounded Warrior bill approved by the Senate also includes two other measures from Senator Clinton’s Restoring Disability Benefits for Injured and Wounded Warriors Act: a measure to help make sure servicemembers receive disability benefits they need and deserve by requiring an independent review of disability benefit ratings below 20 percent and increasing disability benefits as warranted and a provision to require that the shortage of Physical Evaluation Board liaison officers and attorneys be addressed by the DoD and VA.

Finally, Senate approval of the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act included a measure offered by Senators Clinton and Collins, co-chairs of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, to require that any longitudinal studies on members of the Armed Forces with TBI also identify early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegeneration. Head injuries, after age and family history, are one of the leading risk factors for an individual developing Alzheimer’s disease. This amendment builds on a provision for a 15 year longitudinal study on long-term health and mental health consequences of TBI that Senator Clinton proposed and was included in the FY2007 John Warner National Defense Authorization Act.

The Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act also includes a proposal from the TBI Access to Options Act, introduced by Senator Clinton along with Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) to provide medical advocates for traumatic brain injured servicemembers in the transition from DOD to VA medical treatment, preventing them from getting caught in bureaucracy and red tape.

As New York's first Senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Clinton has made it one of her top priorities to ensure that our brave men and women in uniform have the healthcare and support they need. She has introduced legislation to improve the detection, assessment and treatment of traumatic brain injury and expand support systems for members and former members of the Armed Services with traumatic brain injury and their families. Senator Clinton has also introduced legislation to help ensure wounded soldiers receive the disability benefits they need and deserve and to further protect military family financial benefits. She has pressed for an independent investigation of the conditions at Walter Reed and called for a new GI Bill of Rights to once again honor the service and invest in the future of our men and women in uniform. She authored legislation signed into law last year that required an audit of widespread pay issues wounded soldiers are facing and was recently released by the Army showing continuing problems. Senator Clinton has fought to ensure servicemembers have the body armor they need. She has also secured in law access to TRICARE military health benefits for all drilling members of the National Guard and Reserves and their families.

Source: Senator Hillary Clinton