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[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2875 Introduced in House (IH)]

108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2875

To establish procedures for consideration of applications for award of 
 the Purple Heart medal to veterans who were held as prisoners of war 
                         before April 25, 1962.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 24, 2003

 Mr. Jones of North Carolina introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To establish procedures for consideration of applications for award of 
 the Purple Heart medal to veterans who were held as prisoners of war 
                         before April 25, 1962.

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

SECTION 1. PROCEDURES FOR CONSIDERATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR AWARD OF 
              THE PURPLE HEART MEDAL TO VETERANS HELD AS PRISONERS OF 
              WAR BEFORE APRIL 25, 1962.

    Subsection (b) of section 521 of the National Defense Authorization 
Act for Fiscal Year 1996 (Public Law 104-106; 110 Stat. 309; 10 U.S.C. 
1129 note) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(b) Standards and Procedures for Award.--In determining whether a 
former prisoner of war is eligible for the award of the Purple Heart 
under subsection (a), the Secretary concerned shall apply the following 
procedures:
            ``(1) The standard to be used by the Secretary concerned 
        for awarding the Purple Heart under this section shall be to 
        award the Purple Heart in any case in which a prisoner of war 
        (A) was wounded while in captivity, or (B) while in captivity 
        was subjected to systematic and prolonged deprivation of food, 
        medical treatment, and other forms of deprivation or 
        mistreatment likely to have prolonged aftereffects on the 
        individual concerned.
            ``(2) When a former prisoner of war applies for the Purple 
        Heart under subsection (a), the Secretary concerned may request 
        the former prisoner of war to provide any documentation that 
        the Secretary would otherwise require, but failure of the 
        former prisoner of war to provide such documentation shall not 
        by itself be a disqualification for award of the Purple Heart.
            ``(3) The Secretary concerned shall inform the former 
        prisoner of war that historical information as to the prison 
        camp or other circumstances in which the former prisoner of war 
        was held captive and other information as to the circumstances 
        of the former prisoner of war's captivity may be considered by 
        the Secretary in evaluating the application for the award of 
        the Purple Heart and that the former prisoner of war may submit 
        such information.
            ``(4) The Secretary concerned shall provide assistance to 
        the applicant for the Purple Heart in obtaining information 
        referred to in paragraph (3).
            ``(5) The Secretary shall review a completed application 
        under this section based upon the totality of the evidence 
        presented and shall take into account the length of time 
        between the period during which the applicant was held as a 
        prisoner of war and the date of the application.
            ``(6) In considering an application under this section, the 
        Secretary shall take into account the length of time that the 
        applicant was held in captivity, which while not in itself 
        establishing entitlement of the applicant to award of the 
        Purple Heart, can and should be a factor in determining whether 
        a former prisoner of war was likely to have been wounded, 
        starved, or denied medical treatment to the extent likely to 
        have prolonged aftereffects on the individual concerned.''.
                                 <all>
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