Deborah Sampson Act 2017-05-16 Introduced in House Deborah Sampson Act

This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a three-year pilot program to assess the feasibility of peer-to-peer assistance for women veterans who are separating or newly separated from the Armed Forces), with emphasis placed on women who suffered service-related sexual trauma or who are at risk of becoming homeless.

Additionally, the VA shall:

  • expand the women veterans call center to include a text messaging capability;
  • establish a partnership with at least one nongovernmental organization to provide legal services to women veterans based upon their 10 highest unmet needs;
  • retrofit VA medical facilities with fixtures, materials, and other outfitting measures to support the care of women veterans;
  • ensure that each VA medical facility has at least one full-time or part-time women's health primary care provider;
  • expand to 14 days VA post-delivery care services for women veterans who are receiving maternity care in a VA or VA-contracted facility;
  • ensure that the women veteran manager program is supported at each VA medical center with a program manager and an ombudsman;
  • collect, analyze, and publish data on each VA service or benefit program and disaggregate such data by sex and minority status; and
  • publish an Internet website that serves as a centralized information source for women veterans' benefits and services.

The bill makes funds available for: (1) primary care and emergency care clinicians' participation in the women veterans health care mini-residency program, and (2) organizations that focus on providing assistance to women veterans and their families.

The bill: (1) provides for reintegration and readjustment services to veterans and family members in group retreat settings, and (2) expresses the sense of Congress that the VA's motto should be more inclusive.

]]> text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.