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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4554 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4554

 To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that certain members 
  of the National Guard serving on full-time National Guard duty and 
 dependents remain eligible for the TRICARE program during periods in 
             which the member is responding to a disaster.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 2016

   Ms. DelBene (for herself, Mr. Palazzo, Mr. Walz, Ms. McSally, Mr. 
  McGovern, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Nugent, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mrs. 
    Lawrence, Mr. Bridenstine, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Jones, Mr. Larsen of 
   Washington, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Carney, Mrs. Torres, Mr. Honda, Mr. 
  Reichert, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, Mr. Heck of Washington, Mr. 
 Takano, Mr. Serrano, and Ms. McCollum) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that certain members 
  of the National Guard serving on full-time National Guard duty and 
 dependents remain eligible for the TRICARE program during periods in 
             which the member is responding to a disaster.

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

SECTION 1. EXTENDED TRICARE PROGRAM COVERAGE FOR CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE 
              NATIONAL GUARD AND DEPENDENTS DURING CERTAIN DISASTER 
              RESPONSE DUTY.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 55 of title 10, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 1076e the following new section:
``Sec. 1076f. TRICARE program: extension of coverage for certain 
              members of the National Guard and dependents during 
              certain disaster response duty
    ``(a) Extended Coverage.--During a period in which a member of the 
National Guard is performing disaster response duty, the member shall 
be treated as being on active duty for a period of more than 30 days 
for purposes of the eligibility of the member and dependents of the 
member for health care benefits under the TRICARE program if such 
period immediately follows a period in which the member served on full-
time National Guard duty under section 502(f) of title 32, including 
pursuant to chapter 9 of such title.
    ``(b) Contribution by State.--(1) The Secretary shall charge a 
State for the costs of providing coverage under the TRICARE program to 
members of the National Guard of the State and the dependents of the 
members pursuant to subsection (a). Such charges shall be paid from the 
funds of the State or from any other non-Federal funds.
    ``(2) Any amounts received by the Secretary under paragraph (1) 
shall be credited to the appropriation available for the Defense Health 
Program Account under section 1100 of this title, shall be merged with 
sums in such Account that are available for the fiscal year in which 
collected, and shall be available under subsection (b) of such section, 
including to carry out subsection (a) of this section.
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `disaster response duty' means duty 
        performed by a member of the National Guard in State status 
        pursuant to an emergency declaration by the Governor of the 
        State (or, with respect to the District of Columbia, the mayor 
        of the District of Columbia) in response to a disaster or in 
        preparation for an imminent disaster.
            ``(2) The term `State' means each of the several States, 
        the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and 
        any territory or possession of the United States.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
1076e the following new item:

``1076f. TRICARE program: extension of coverage for certain members of 
                            the National Guard and dependents during 
                            certain disaster response duty.''.
                                 <all>
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