Brain Injury Blog | Traumatic Brain Injury TBI

In other developments, the Senate passed by voice vote on Tuesday a package of veterans’ mental health bills. This package included legislation endorsed by BIAA which authorizes the establishment of six VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence (Epilepsy CoEs) across the country to lead the way in epilepsy diagnosis, research, treatment and surgery. The House Veterans Affairs Health Subcommittee passed an amended version of the bill’s companion in the House, H.R. 2818, on Thursday. Continue Reading »

Legislation to Delay Harmful Medicaid Regulations Added to War Spending Bill

Also this week, Democrats included legislation which would place a moratorium until March 2009 on several harmful Medicaid regulations (H.R. 5613), in the FY 2008 war supplemental appropriations bill. BIAA continues to strongly endorse H.R. 5613 and supports efforts to keep the bill in the war supplemental legislation as it moves towards final passage, likely within the next two weeks. Continue Reading »

Also this week, a report was released by the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General which found that the VA is not providing the necessary standard of support and long-term follow-up assistance needed by veterans with TBI and their families. Continue Reading »

BIAA Signs On In Support of National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week Resolution

BIAA was proud to sign on as a supporter of the National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week Resolution (S. Res. 518), which passed the Senate on Monday. The Resolution, introduced by Senator Dodd (D-CT), dedicates this week (the week of April 21st through 25th) to raise awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome and to ultimately eliminate its occurrence.

BIAA was included as a supporter of the resolution in Senator Dodd’s floor statement that was submitted to the Congressional Record when it was introduced on Thursday, April 16, 2008.

Also this week, The Rand Corporation published an important comprehensive study of the mental health and cognitive needs of U.S. servicemembers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.  This groundbreaking study - which focuses specifically on the post-deployment health-related needs and economic costs associated with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression and TBI - estimates that 320,000 servicemembers may have experienced TBI as a result of recent combat operations. Continue Reading »

The study is the military’s first large-scale effort to gauge the effect of mild head injuries that some experts worry may be causing a host of undiagnosed neurological deficiencies.
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Earlier this week, Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) unveiled, “Guidelines for Assisting Those with Accessibility Needs,” a manual designed to make congressional offices more accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Through the hard work of Robert Demichelis, BIAA helped provide suggestions for the guide, which was distributed to all House and Senate offices.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter introducing the guide to Members of Congress and their staff, Sen. Enzi states, “Ensuring our ability to interact and assist [individuals who have accessibility needs] requires that we are prepared in advance to meet their needs with everything from the appropriate language and basic etiquette, to ensuring they are included in our emergency preparedness plans and provided for in our accessible room designs.”

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a slightly revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), following House approval of the same bill last week. Important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care remain unchanged in the new version, which President Bush is expected to sign into law shortly.

The revised bill contains new language altering a provision in the original bill which expanded the rights of victims to sue foreign governments designated by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism.

The White House unexpectedly announced on December 28, 2007, that President Bush would not sign the original bill because it included a provision which could allow plaintiffs to freeze Iraq government assets in the United States while their claims against Iraq were being litigated (Iraq was listed as a state sponsor of terrorism under Saddam Hussein’s regime).

One of BIAA’s policy goals for 2008 will be to monitor the implementation of the important TBI provisions contained in this bill. (The December 14, 2007 edition of Policy Corner contains more detailed information on these TBI provisions. You can access this issue, as well as all other archived issues of Policy Corner, by visiting BIAA’s webpage at http://www.biausa.org/policycorner.htm).

The House of Representatives returned to session this week, and promptly voted to pass a revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986) to replace the version (H.R. 1585) vetoed by President Bush late last month. Important wounded warrior provisions related to TBI care, and championed by BIAA, remain unchanged in the new version.

The Senate is expected to pass the revised bill when it returns to session next week.

The revised bill contains new language altering a provision in the original bill which expanded the rights of victims to sue foreign governments designated by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism.

The White House unexpectedly announced on December 28, 2007, that President Bush would not sign the original bill because it included a provision which could allow plaintiffs to freeze Iraq government assets in the United States while their claims against Iraq were being litigated (Iraq was listed as a state sponsor of terrorism under Saddam Hussein’s regime).

House Democratic leaders have scheduled an override vote on President Bush’s recent veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 1585) to take place when the House of Representatives returns to session on Tuesday, January 15.

Late last month, President Bush unexpectedly vetoed the defense authorization bill over provisions in the bill that would allow plaintiffs in the United States to sue foreign governments, including Iraq.

Congressional passage of this bill in December represented a major legislative victory for improving TBI care for returning service members and veterans.  BIAA lobbied actively this past year on many of the TBI care provisions included in the bill and grassroots activity on the part of BIAA advocates, as well as support from the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, helped ensure that these TBI provisions were included in the final bill.

There is a good chance that the override vote scheduled to occur on Tuesday will fail in the face of unified Republican opposition.  If this occurs, it seems likely that Democratic leaders would then bring a new bill directly to the House floor that would closely resemble the vetoed defense bill, but with a fix that is currently being negotiated.  Similar Senate action seems likely to follow.

According to an article published in CQ Today earlier this week, “While leaders of the Armed Services committees are taking the lead in the substantive negotiations, a new defense bill likely would go straight to the House and Senate floors to minimize opportunities for members to amend the measure.”

The widespread hope is that this new, slightly revised defense authorization bill will be signed into law before the end of January.

BIAA continues to hold off on organizing grassroots activity at this time, pending further legislative developments this week and next.

President Bush To Release Contingency Funds for Veterans

The White House announced this week that President Bush plans to approve $3.7 billion in “contingency” funding for veterans’ health programs sometime next week.

This welcome development marks the end of speculation over whether the president would block release of the funding, which was included as “emergency” funding in the FY2008 omnibus appropriations bill which passed last month.

During end-of-the-year appropriations negotiations in December, Congressional leaders designated this $3.7 billion in spending as “emergency” funding in order to keep it from counting against discretionary spending caps.  This left the ultimate decision on whether to release the funding up to President Bush.

Veterans groups and Democrats have been advocating for the release of this additional funding, which the president has until Jan. 18 to approve.

According to a Dec. 21 letter from Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats, this funding “will ensure, among other things, that the Department will be able to provide timely access to services, furnish improved mental health services and develop the needed capacity to handle the massive claims backlog.”

Note: The House of Representatives returns from recess this Tuesday, January 15; the Senate reconvenes next Tuesday, January 22.

BIAA’s Policy Corner E-Newsletter will resume regular publication next Friday, January 18, 2008.