A bill to provide support for military families with dependents in the Exceptional Family Member Program.

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2529 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2529

    To provide support for military families with dependents in the 
                   Exceptional Family Member Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 26, 2023

Mrs. Feinstein introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To provide support for military families with dependents in the 
                   Exceptional Family Member Program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. 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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