S.Amdt. 1638

SA 1638. Mr. BLUNT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities
of the Department of Defense and for military construction, to
prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle A of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 706. ENHANCEMENT OF ANNUAL MENTAL HEALTH SCREENINGS FOR
MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--Section 1074n(b) of title 10, United
States Code is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``; and'' and inserting a
semicolon;
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the end and
inserting a semicolon; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
``(3) include a thorough dialogue between the individual
conducting the mental health assessment and the member to
determine whether the member has had any experiences that
could lead to future mental health concerns;
``(4) include a thorough screening of the member for key
indicators of post-traumatic stress and mild to severe
traumatic brain injury; and
``(5) include the creation of a recorded, verified history
of events, including non-combat related events, for each
member to determine the cause and correlation of symptoms of
mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress that
may appear months or years after the causal incident.''.
(b) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit
to Congress a plan for the implementation of paragraphs (3)
through (5) of section 1074n(b) of such title, as added by
subsection (a)(3) of this section.
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the annual mental health assessment for members of the
Armed Forces provided under section 1074n of such title can
be improved by providing members undergoing such an
assessment with a record of events, including non-combat
related events, to substantiate latent mental health issues
that appear months or years after the causal incident;
(2) some members do not know how to ask for help with
mental health concerns in connection with such assessment as
conducted as of the date of the enactment of this Act and not
all health care providers adequately discuss mental health
during such assessment;
(3) the majority of mild traumatic brain injury inducing
incidents are not diagnosed during combat deployment, so when
symptoms do appear, there is no mechanism for health care
providers to link the injury back to the causal incident;
(4) the provision of such assessment as conducted as of the
date of the enactment of this Act does not recognize
incidents described in paragraph (3) unless the member
indicates such incidents on a survey or has a very proactive
health care provider;
(5) when latent mental health symptoms appear after a
member is discharged, the member is not eligible to receive
treatment from the Department without a record of causal
justification; and
(6) the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to localize
as quickly and efficiently as possible without disrupting
military readiness the mental health concerns that persist
among members of the Armed Forces unbeknownst to those
members and the health care providers of those members.
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