S.Amdt. 482

SA 482. Mrs. FEINSTEIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill S. 2226, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2024 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 F of title V, add the following:

SEC. 565. 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.
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