IIB 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3665 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
NOVEMBER 16, 2021 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
AN ACT 
To designate the medical center of the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs in San Diego, California, as the Jennifer 
Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 
and to support the designation of a component of such 
medical center in honor of Kathleen Bruyere. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) As of January 2021, of 1,255 health care 
facilities of the Department of Veterans of Affairs, 
two are named for women veterans. 
(2) From 2002 through 2006, Jennifer Madai 
Moreno was an active member of the San Diego 
High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps 
(JROTC), which is a Department of the Army 
Honor Unit with Distinction, the highest rating by 
the Army. She was also chosen to be a member of 
the San Diego Unified School District Brigade Staff. 
As a high school senior, she rose quickly to become 
the top junior marksman in California through the 
Civilian Marksmanship Program. 
(3) Moreno accepted a JROTC scholarship to 
the University of San Francisco (USF) for Nursing, 
becoming the first person in her family to go to col-
lege. While at USF, she was chosen for Leadership 
Development Training. She ultimately achieved the 
highest level of physical fitness in her ROTC unit. 
(4) Following her graduation from USF with a 
Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in 2010, 
Moreno received her commission in the United 
States Army as a Second Lieutenant Nurse Corps 
Officer. 
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(5) Upon commissioning, Moreno served as a 
Gold Bar Recruiter from July 2010 to September 
2010. 
(6) Moreno was chosen to attend and completed 
the Basic Airborne Course in Fort Benning, Georgia 
and Army Medical Department Officer Basic Course 
at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. 
(7) Moreno was then assigned to Madigan 
Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis McCord, 
Washington in January 2011, where she served as 
a Clinical Staff Nurse on medical-surgical unit. 
Moreno earned her certification as a Medical Sur-
gical Registered Nurse in February 2011. 
(8) Moreno volunteered for a position with U.S. 
Army Special Operations Command in 2011. She 
was selected into the SOC Cultural Support Team 
program. She was deployed to Afghanistan in June 
2013 with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. 
(9) On October 6, 2013, Moreno was attached 
to a U.S. Army Ranger unit on a night mission in 
the Zhari district in Kandahar province to capture 
a high-value target when four explosive devices were 
triggered. 
(10) During the last moments of Moreno’s life, 
she reportedly heard a call to help a wounded soldier 
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struck by a blast. Moreno did not hesitate to re-
spond to the call for help. As she made her way to 
help a fallen soldier, she triggered the fifth explo-
sion, which ended her life. 
(11) Moreno was the first Nurse CST member 
to die in action. Part of her legacy is the number of 
young women coming from medical fields seeking 
out voluntary assignments to join the CST program. 
(12) Moreno was the first combat casualty to be 
buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San 
Diego since the post-9/11 conflicts began. She re-
ceived full military honors. 
(13) After graduating from college in 1966, 
Kathleen Mae Bruyere was accepted into U.S. Navy 
Officer Candidate School, after which she was as-
signed as an on-campus Navy recruiting officer in 
California. 
(14) Bruyere was named to the staff of Rear 
Admiral Allen Hill in 1975, becoming the first 
woman to serve as flag secretary to an admiral. 
(15) In January 1976, Bruyere was chosen as 
one of 12 Women of the Year on the cover of Time 
Magazine. 
(16) In 1977, Bruyere joined five other women 
officers who sued the United States Secretary of the 
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Navy and the United States Secretary of Defense 
over restrictions that prevented women from serving 
on combat aircraft and ships. This led to the 1948 
Women’s Armed Services Integration Act being 
struck down as unconstitutional, overturning a ban 
on women serving at sea. 
(17) In 1987, as Special Assistant to the Chief 
of Naval Operations for women’s policy, Bruyere 
helped conduct an examination of the status of Navy 
women, including career opportunities and com-
plaints of sexism. The study led to 9,000 sea-duty 
and command jobs opening up for women on 24 
combatant ships. 
(18) In 1991, Bruyere was assigned as Com-
manding Officer for the Navy Recruit Training 
Command at Orlando, Florida. At the time, it was 
the Navy’s only boot camp that included women. 
Bruyere oversaw the training of 30,000 enlistees, 
one third of them women. 
(19) In 1994, Bruyere retired from the Navy as 
a Captain after 28 years of service. 
(20) From 2012 until shortly before her death 
in September 2020, Bruyere was an active volunteer 
at Miramar National Cemetery, devoting almost 
4,300 hours to helping visitors locate their loved 
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ones’ graves and providing information about vet-
erans’ burial benefits. 
(21) Bruyere was buried at Miramar National 
Cemetery with full military honors. 
(22) In May 2021, a panel of San Diego-area 
members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and mili-
tary spouses recommended that the San Diego VA 
Medical Center be renamed in honor of Jennifer 
Moreno and an internal space be renamed in honor 
of Kathleen Bruyere. 
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF JENNIFER MORENO DEPART-
MENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL CEN-
TER. 
(a) DESIGNATION.—The medical center of the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs in San Diego, California, 
shall after the date of the enactment of this Act be known 
and designated as the Jennifer Moreno Department of 
Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 
(b) REFERENCE.—Any reference in any law, regula-
tion, map, document, paper, or other record of the United 
States to the medical center referred to in subsection (a) 
shall be considered to be a reference to the Jennifer 
Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 
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SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DESIGNATION OF MED-
ICAL CENTER PHYSICAL COMPONENT AFTER 
KATHLEEN MAE BRUYERE. 
It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs should designate a prominent physical space 
within the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Af-
fairs Medical Center, as designated pursuant to section 
2, in honor of Kathleen Mae Bruyere. 
Passed the House of Representatives November 15, 
2021. 
Attest: 
CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 
Clerk. 
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