H.R. 4504 – Reading Mode

113th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 4504

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 28, 2014

Ms. Tsongas (for herself, Mr. Peters of California, and Mr. Carson of Indiana) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

A BILL

To improve military readiness by establishing programs to consistently track, retain, and analyze information regarding suicides involving members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces and suicides involving dependents of members of the regular and reserve components.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the DoD Suicide Tracking Act of 2014.

Improved consistency in reserve component suicide prevention and resilience program

(a)

Policy for standard suicide data collection, reporting and assessment

To improve consistency in and oversight of the suicide prevention and resilience program for the National Guard and Reserves established pursuant to section 10219 of title 10, United States Code, the Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy for the development of a standard method for collecting, reporting, and assessing suicide data and suicide-attempt data involving members of the National Guard and Reserves.

(b)

Consultation

The Secretary of Defense shall develop the policy required by subsection (a) in consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, and the adjutants general of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

(c)

Submission of policy and congressional briefing

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit the policy developed under subsection (a) to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives. At the request of the committees, the Secretary also shall brief such committees on the policy and the implementation status of the standardized suicide data collection, reporting and assessment method.

(d)

Implementation

The Secretaries of the military departments, with respect to the Reserves, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau and the adjutants general, with respect to the National Guard, shall implement the policy developed under subsection (a) within 180 days after the date of the submission of the policy under subsection (c).

Department of Defense suicide prevention program for military dependents

(a)

Program required

As soon as possible after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall direct the Secretary of each military department to develop and implement a program to track, retain, and analyze information regarding suicides involving dependents of members of the regular and reserve components of the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of that Secretary.

(b)

Dependent defined

In this section, the term dependent means a person described in section 1072(2) of title 10, United States Code, except that, in the case of a parent or parent-in-law of a member of the Armed Forces, the income-support requirement of subparagraph (E) of such section does not apply.