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Senate Bill 1039
117th Congress(2021-2022)
A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve compensation for disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf War veterans, and for other purposes.
Introduced
Introduced
Introduced in Senate on Mar 25, 2021
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Introduced in Senate 
Mar 25, 2021
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Introduced in Senate(Mar 25, 2021)
Mar 25, 2021
No Linkage Found
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.
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S. 1039 (Introduced-in-Senate)


117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1039


To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve compensation for disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf War veterans, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 25, 2021

Mr. Menendez introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

A BILL

To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve compensation for disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf War veterans, 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. Improving compensation for disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf War veterans.

(a) Reduction in threshold of eligibility.—Subsection (a)(1) of section 1117 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking “became manifest—” and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting “became manifest to any degree at any time”.

(b) Permanent extension of period of eligibility.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Such section is amended by striking subsection (b).

(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Such section, as amended by paragraph (1), is further amended—

(A) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as subsections (b) and (c), respectively; and

(B) in subsection (a)(2)(C), by striking “under subsection (d)” and inserting “under subsection (c)”.

(c) Establishing singular Disability Based Questionnaire.—Such section, as amended by subsection (b), is further amended by inserting after subsection (c) the following new subsection (d):

“(d) The Secretary shall develop a Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ), or successor questionnaire, such that if a Persian Gulf veteran presents with any one symptom associated with Gulf War Illness, use of such questionnaire is mandatory for health care personnel of the Department for the identification of Gulf War Illness.”.

(d) Expansion of definition of Persian Gulf veteran.—Subsection (f) of such section is amended by inserting “, Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, or Jordan” after “operations”.

(e) Training.—Such section is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

“(i) (1) The Secretary shall take such actions as may be necessary to ensure that health care personnel of the Department are appropriately trained to effectively carry out this section.

“(2) Not less frequently than once each year, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the actions taken by the Secretary to carry out paragraph (1).”.