Bill Sponsor
House Bill 9532
117th Congress(2021-2022)
Warfighter Brain Health Act of 2022
Introduced
Introduced
Introduced in House on Dec 14, 2022
Overview
Text
Introduced in House 
Dec 14, 2022
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Introduced in House(Dec 14, 2022)
Dec 14, 2022
About Linkage
Multiple bills can contain the same text. This could be an identical bill in the opposite chamber or a smaller bill with a section embedded in a larger bill.
Bill Sponsor regularly scans bill texts to find sections that are contained in other bill texts. When a matching section is found, the bills containing that section can be viewed by clicking "View Bills" within the bill text section.
Bill Sponsor is currently only finding exact word-for-word section matches. In a future release, partial matches will be included.
H. R. 9532 (Introduced-in-House)


117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9532


To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish a comprehensive initiative for brain health, and for other purposes.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

December 14, 2022

Mr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services


A BILL

To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish a comprehensive initiative for brain health, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. Short title.

This Act may be cited as the “Warfighter Brain Health Act of 2022”.

SEC. 735. Brain health initiative of Department of Defense.

(a) In general.—The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretaries concerned, shall establish a comprehensive initiative for brain health to be known as the “Warfighter Brain Health Initiative” (in this section referred to as the “Initiative”) for the purpose of unifying efforts and programs across the Department of Defense to improve the cognitive performance and brain health of members of the Armed Forces.

(b) Objectives.—The objectives of the Initiative shall be the following:

(1) To enhance, maintain, and restore the cognitive performance of members of the Armed Forces through education, training, prevention, protection, monitoring, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation, including through the following activities:

(A) The establishment of a program to monitor cognitive brain health across the Department of Defense, with the goal of detecting any need for cognitive enhancement or restoration resulting from potential brain exposures of members of Armed Forces, to mitigate possible evolution of injury or disease progression.

(B) The identification and dissemination of thresholds for blast pressure safety and associated emerging scientific evidence.

(C) The modification of high-risk training and operational activities to mitigate the negative effects of repetitive blast exposure.

(D) The identification of individuals who perform high-risk training or occupational activities, for purposes of increased monitoring of the brain health of such individuals.

(E) The development and operational fielding of non-invasive, portable, point-of-care medical devices, to inform the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury.

(F) The establishment of a standardized monitoring program that documents and analyzes blast exposures that may affect the brain health of members of the Armed Forces.

(G) The consideration of the findings and recommendations of the report of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine titled “Traumatic Brain Injury: A Roadmap for Accelerating Progress” and published in 2022 (relating to the acceleration of progress in traumatic brain injury research and care), or any successor report, in relation to the activities of the Department relating to brain health, as applicable.

(2) To harmonize and prioritize the efforts of the Department of Defense into a single approach to brain health.

(c) Annual budget justification documents.—In the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of the Department of Defense budget for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 (as submitted with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code), the Secretary of Defense shall include a budget justification display that includes all activities of the Department relating to the Initiative.

(d) Pilot program relating to monitoring of blast coverage.—

(1) AUTHORITY.—The Director of the Defense Health Agency may conduct, as part of the Initiative, a pilot program under which the Director shall monitor blast overpressure exposure through the use of commercially available, off-the-shelf, wearable sensors, and document and evaluate data collected as a result of such monitoring.

(2) LOCATIONS.—Monitoring activities under a pilot program conducted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be carried out in each training environment that the Director determines poses a risk for blast overpressure exposure.

(3) DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING OF DATA.—If the Director conducts a pilot program pursuant to paragraph (1), the Director shall—

(A) ensure that any data collected pursuant to such pilot program that is related to the health effects of the blast overpressure exposure of a member of the Armed Forces who participated in the pilot program is documented and maintained by the Secretary of Defense in an electronic health record for the member; and

(B) to the extent practicable, and in accordance with applicable provisions of law relating to data privacy, make data collected pursuant to such pilot program available to other academic and medical researchers for the purpose of informing future research and treatment options.

(e) Strategy and implementation plan.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report setting forth a strategy and implementation plan of the Department of Defense to achieve the objectives of the Initiative under subsection (b).

(f) Annual briefings.—Not later than January 31, 2024, and annually thereafter until January 31, 2027, the Secretary of Defense shall provide to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report on the Initiative that includes the following:

(1) A description of the activities taken under the Initiative and resources expended under the Initiative during the prior fiscal year.

(2) A summary of the progress made during the prior fiscal year with respect to the objectives of the Initiative under subsection (b).

(g) Secretary concerned defined.—In this section, the term “Secretary concerned” has the meaning given that term in section 101 of title 10, United States Code.