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)
Every minute we wait to improve mental health care for troops has a human cost. We cannot afford to lose one more servicemember to suicide. It is critical we identify those most in need of mental health care early on and get these men and women the help they have earned. Mandatory mental health screenings have been a top priority for IAVA, and we applaud the hard work of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and Senator Baucus for their leadership on this issue. Generations of veterans will benefit from this critical legislation.
Patrick Campbell, an Iraq veteran, serves as IAVA's Chief Legislative Counsel in Washington, D.C.
