S.Amdt. 5730

SA 5730. Mr. TOOMEY (for himself and Mr. Casey) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 5499 submitted by Mr. Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 7900, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2023 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 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 G of title V, add the following:

SEC. 575. ENHANCED INFORMATION RELATED TO AWARDING OF THE PURPLE HEART.

(a) Publication of Award Criteria.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, each military service shall ensure that a publicly available website includes a link to--

(1) a description of the background of the Purple Heart;

(2) the eligibility criteria for awarding the Purple Heart; and

(3) contact information for that service's awards and decorations branch liaison to facilitate confirmation by a veteran or a veteran's next of kin whether a veteran has been awarded the Purple Heart after December 31, 2002.

(b) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the chief of each military service shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on implementation of the requirements under subsection (a). The report shall--

(1) provide background on the publicly accessible website described under subsection (a);

(2) include the number of requests received by the service related to confirming the award of a Purple Heart;

(3) describe the average response time for confirming the award of a Purple Heart in response to an inquiry from a veteran or next of kin; and

(4) include recommendations for decreasing the amount of time taken to respond to such inquiries.