Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
Download Production Quality Footage of Sen. Brown’s Exchanges HERE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It: Wednesday, during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing entitled, “VA and DoD Collaboration: Improving Outcomes for Servicemembers and Veterans,” U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) pressed Gil Cisneros, Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), for updates on issues facing veterans reentering civilian life. In the hearing, Brown focused on the two Departments’ roles in facilitating smooth, healthy transitions to civilian life with regard to mental health and exposure of environmental toxins.
During his questioning of Under Secretary Cisneros, Brown highlighted stories from Ohio veterans who have struggled with the transition from service to civilian life, and pressed for a plan to help servicemembers as they transition from DoD to VA care.
“We continue to hear about the incidents of far too many suicides and I don’t understand why we’re not doing everything we can to make better the handoff between DOD and the VA. The legislation I’m working on would create a pilot program to educate servicemembers about these challenges and the impact on their mental health. But how are you going to address upstream risks, particularly for servicemembers transition from DoD to VA?” asked Brown at the Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing.
Earlier this year, Brown introduced bipartisan legislation to support the mental health needs of servicemembers and veterans as they return to civilian life in their local communities. The Daniel J. Harvey Jr. and Adam Lambert Improving Servicemember Transition to Reduce Veteran Suicide Act — which was named to honor the memory of two Marines who died by suicide, Iowan Cpl. Adam Lambert and Rhode Islander Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Harvey Jr. — would create a pilot program to add a new component to the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). Specifically, the bill is designed to counsel servicemembers about mental health, the challenges that they might face during transition to civilian life and how that might affect their mental health, and the services available to them at their local Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facility. A modified version of the bill was included in the House passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22 NDAA) and Brown will work to secure the provision in the final version of the NDAA later this year.
Brown also pressed Under Secretary Cisneros for an update on the implementation on the Burn Pits Accountability Act, which was passed into law in 2019.
“It’s still pretty shocking to me that when we expose so many servicemen and women to burn pits and how so many higherups at the military were not thinking that through, and what that could mean for the men and women who served,” Brown continued. “Taxpayers are going to be paying for that for the next 30 years, as we still pay for Agent Orange, even though we still haven’t taken care of enough people. And what’s worse than taxpayers paying for it are the men and woman who have been exposed, and it’s pretty shameful.”
Brown’s legislation required DoD to evaluate servicemembers for toxic exposure during routine medical exams and add them in the Burn Pit Registry. Earlier this year, Brown introduced a bipartisan bill, the SFC Heath Robinson Burn Pit Transparency Act, named in honor of Heath Robinson, a central Ohio veteran who passed away last year and was exposed to burn pits while deployed. Heath’s bill builds on the earlier bill and would:
- Require VA to document a veteran who may have been exposed to burn pits and notify Congress of the case and several data points related to the veteran’s case and exposure to burn pits; and
- Require VA to submit a biannual report to Congress identifying how many veterans report burn pit exposure, how many make disability claims and what the outcome of those claims are, a comprehensive list of conditions reported by burn pit exposed veterans, the location of burn pits, and whether veterans have died.
A modified version of the SFC Heath Robinson Burn Pit Transparency Act was reported out of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee as a part of a larger legislative package, the Comprehensive and Overdue Support for Troops (COST) of War Act of 2021.
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