I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5057
To amend title 10, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Defense 
to carry out a program to provide a support system for members of 
the Armed Forces who incur severe disabilities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 9, 2004
Mr. RUPPERSBERGER (for himself, Mr. HOYER, and Mr. JONES of North 
Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To amend title 10, United States Code, to direct the Sec-
retary of Defense to carry out a program to provide 
a support system for members of the Armed Forces 
who incur severe disabilities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disabled Veterans 
Transition Assistance Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to honor the members of the Armed Forces 
by ensuring that those members who are severely 
disabled on or after September 11, 2001, while in 
the military service and their family members receive 
the assistance they need in undergoing the transition 
from military to civilian life and from care provided 
by the Department of Defense to care provided by 
the Department of Veterans Affairs; and 
(2) in order to carry out the purpose stated in 
paragraph (1), to expand the scope of the the pro-
gram of the Army known as the Disabled Soldiers’ 
Support System to provide transition assistance as 
described in paragraph (1) for all eligible severely 
disabled members of the Army and to extend that 
program to all branches of the Armed Forces. 
SEC. 3. ENHANCED TRANSITION ASSISTANCE FOR SE-
VERELY WOUNDED SERVICEMEMBERS. 
(a) DISABLED
SERVICEMEMBER
SUPPORT
SYS-
TEM.—(1) Chapter 58 of title 10, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘§ 1154. Support and transition assistance for mem-
bers with severe disabilities 
‘‘(a) DISABLED SERVICEMEMBER SUPPORT SYS-
TEM.—The Secretary of Defense shall carry out a pro-
gram to provide a support system for members of the
armed forces who incur severe disabilities on or after Sep-
tember 11, 2001. The program shall include a system of 
advocacy and follow-up with personal support to assist 
those members as they transition from military service to 
the civilian community. 
‘‘(b) EXECUTIVE AGENT.—The Secretary of Defense 
shall designate an executive agent within the Department 
of Defense to have the authority and responsibility to 
carry out the program under this section throughout the 
Department of Defense and, in cooperation with the Sec-
retary of Homeland Security, for members of the Coast 
Guard with severe disabilities. 
‘‘(c) STAFFING.—As part of the program under sub-
section (a), the Secretary shall ensure that there are suffi-
cient personnel assigned to the program so that the the 
ratio of severely disabled members or former members eli-
gible for the program at any time to the number of per-
sonnel assigned to the program with specific responsibility 
for advocacy and follow-up for assigned members and 
former members is not greater than 30:1. 
‘‘(d) SEVERE DISABILITIES.—The Secretary of De-
fense shall specify the degree and nature of disabilities 
that are to be considered to be severe disabilities for the 
purposes of this section.’’.
(2) The table of sections at the beginning of such 
chapter is amended by adding at the end the following 
new item:
‘‘1154. Support and transition assistance for members with severe disabilities.’’.
(b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary of Defense 
shall prescribe regulations for the purposes of section 
1154 of title 10, United States Code, as added by sub-
section (a), not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act. The Secretary shall designate the 
executive agent required by subsection (b) of that section 
not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act. Until such designation is made by the Sec-
retary, the executive agent shall be the Secretary of the 
Army. 
(c) INITIAL FUNDING.—For fiscal year 2005, the 
Secretary of Defense shall transfer such funds as nec-
essary to provide funds for the implementation during that 
fiscal year of the program required by that section.
Æ