A bill to provide support for military families with dependents in the Exceptional Family Member Program.

Bill: 118-s-2529
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA]
Introduced: 2023-07-26
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Latest action: action_date: 2023-07-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services.

Summaries:

tv_txt: II 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2529 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 26, 2023 Mrs. Feinstein introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL To provide support for military families with dependents in the Exceptional Family Member Program.

1. Support for military families with dependents in the Exceptional Family Member Program (a) Guarantee of medical, education, and organization support (1) In general The Secretary of a military department shall ensure, upon issuing relocation orders to an eligible member, that— (A) the member will not be required to relocate again— (i) during the 6 months after the issuance of such orders, if the member is assigned to a duty station within the contiguous United States; or (ii) during the 8 months after the issuance of such orders, if the member is assigned to a duty station outside of the contiguous United States; (B) initial care appointments for the qualifying dependent of the member— (i) will be scheduled not later than 60 days after the issuance of such orders; and (ii) will occur not later than 30 days after the dependent arrives at the new duty station of the member; and (C) the commander of the member at the new duty station of provides feedback to the member with respect to continuity of care for the dependent. (2) Facilitation of relocations The Secretary of each military department shall ensure the establishment of systematic and transparent methods to connect commands and eligible members to facilitate outgoing preparations relating to the relocations of such members and onboarding processes for such members at new duty stations, with particular emphasis on coordination between commanders at the previous duty station and at the new duty station. (b) Guardianship grants The Secretary of Defense may provide to an eligible member a grant of $5,000 for each qualifying dependent of the member who is under the age of 18 to be used for legal expenses related to handling guardianship of the dependent when the dependent achieves the age of 18. (c) Housing grants The Secretary of each military department may provide to an eligible member, after each permanent change of station of the member, a reimbursable, specially adapted housing grant of $8,000 if— (1) the qualifying dependent of the member has a permanent and total disability; and (2) the Secretary determines that the disability reasonably requires adaptations to the residence of the member and the dependent at the new duty station. (d) Specially adapted vehicle grant The Secretary of each military department may provide to an eligible member one grant of $3,000 for the purpose of adapting a passenger vehicle of the member to accommodate the mobility needs of the qualifying dependent of the member. (e) Implementation The Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments shall prescribe regulations and issue guidelines to ensure the effective implementation of this section. (f) Annual reports Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report describing— (1) the extent of compliance with the provisions of this section; (2) the effectiveness of support provided under this section; and (3) any challenges encountered in carrying out this section and recommendations for improvement. (g) Funding The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that appropriate funding is provided to carry out this section. (h) Effective date; applicability This section shall take on December 1, 2025, and apply to all relocations of eligible members occurring on or after that date. (i) Definitions In this section: (1) Eligible member The term eligible member means a member of the Armed Forces with a qualifying dependent. (2) Qualifying dependent The term qualifying dependent means a dependent of a member of the Armed Forces who is in the Exceptional Family Member Program.