Title: Vet Center Eligibility Expansion Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Vet Center Eligibility Expansion Act
This bill expands eligibility for readjustment counseling and related mental health services to certain members of the Coast Guard, National Guard, and Reserves. Specifically, eligibility is expanded to include (1) members of the Coast Guard who participated in a drug interdiction operation; and (2) members of the National Guard or Reservists who were activated due to a national emergency or major disaster declared by the President, or responded to a disaster or civil disorder in a state.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1812 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1812

     To amend title 38, United States Code, to furnish Vet Center 
 readjustment counseling and related mental health services to certain 
                              individuals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 18, 2019

Mr. David P. Roe of Tennessee (for himself and Mr. Levin of California) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend title 38, United States Code, to furnish Vet Center 
 readjustment counseling and related mental health services to certain 
                              individuals.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Vet Center Eligibility Expansion 
Act''.

SEC. 2. EXPANSION OF VET CENTER SERVICES.

    Section 1712A of title 38, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by striking ``clauses (i) through (iv)'' both places it 
        appears and inserting ``clauses (i) through (vi)'';
            (2) by striking ``in clause (v)'' both places it appears 
        and inserting ``in clause (vii)'';
            (3) in subsection (a)(1)(C)--
                    (A) by redesignating clauses (iv) and (v) as 
                clauses (vi) and (vii), respectively; and
                    (B) by inserting after clause (iii) the following 
                new clauses:
            ``(iv) Any individual who is a veteran or member of the 
        Armed Forces, including a member of a reserve component of the 
        Armed Forces, who served--
                    ``(I) on active service in response to a national 
                emergency or major disaster declared by the President; 
                or
                    ``(II) in the National Guard of a State under 
                orders of the chief executive of that State in response 
                to a disaster or civil disorder in such State.
            ``(v) Any individual who participated in a drug 
        interdiction operation as a member of the Coast Guard, 
        regardless of the location of that operation.''; and
            (4) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the following 
        new paragraphs:
            ``(4) The term `active service' has the meaning given that 
        term in section 101 of title 10.
            ``(5) The term `civil disorder' has the meaning given that 
        term in section 232 of title 18.''.
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