Senate Passes NDAA, Mental Health Provision
Posted by Patrick Campbell on October 22
2009

If the President signing Advanced Appropriations into law today wasn’t enough, the Senate just passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (68-29) sending to the President’s desk many of IAVA's legislative agenda recommendations. The NDAA includes one of our top priorities, mandatory mental health screenings, which have the potential to save more lives than all the MRAP’s money can buy. The NDAA will:
- Require mandatory, face to face and confidential mental health screenings for every returning servicemember. (§ 708)
- Increase the number of mental health providers in the military. (§ 521, 524, 714)
- Limit servicemembers’ exposure to hazardous waste by severely limiting the use of open air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. (§ 317)
- Extend retroactive stop loss payments to Reserve/National Guard. (§ 620)
- Grant meaningful voting protections for overseas servicemembers. (§ 575-589)
- Curtail DoD’s practice of punishing servicemembers for DoD’s own financial mistakes. (§ 661)
Patrick Campbell, an Iraq veteran, serves as IAVA's Chief Legislative Counsel in Washington, D.C.
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