[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3837 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3837

To ensure that the confidential communications of a member of the Armed 
Forces with a victim service organization or a health care professional 
               are not disclosed, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 20, 2005

 Ms. Slaughter (for herself, Mr. Abercrombie, Mrs. Capito, Mrs. Capps, 
  Mr. Crowley, Mr. Filner, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Hart, Ms. Kilpatrick of 
Michigan, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Owens, 
  Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Solis, and Mr. Wexler) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that the confidential communications of a member of the Armed 
Forces with a victim service organization or a health care professional 
               are not disclosed, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Military Victims of Violence 
Confidentiality Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. VICTIM SERVICE ORGANIZATION PRIVILEGE, AND HEALTH CARE 
              PROFESSIONAL PRIVILEGE, IN CASES ARISING UNDER THE 
              UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE.

    (a) Privilege Established.--
            (1) In general.--Subchapter XI of chapter 47 of title 10, 
        United States Code (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), is 
        amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 941. Art. 141. Privilege for communication with victim service 
              organization or health care professional
    ``(a) General Rule of Privilege.--A client has a privilege to 
refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing a 
confidential communication made between the client and a victim service 
organization or any representative of the organization, or between the 
client and a health care professional or any representative of the 
professional, in a case arising under this chapter, if such 
communication was made for the purpose of securing advice, counseling, 
treatment, or assistance concerning the client's mental, physical, or 
emotional condition caused by domestic violence, family vilolence, 
dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault.
    ``(b) Definitions.--As used in this section:
            ``(1) The term `client' means a person who consults with or 
        is examined or interviewed by a victim service organization or 
        any representative of the organization, or by a health care 
        professional or any representative of the professional.
            ``(2) The term `victim service organization' means an 
        organization (whether public or private) that provides advice, 
        counseling, or assistance to victims of domestic violence, 
        family violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault, 
        or to the families of such victims.
            ``(3) The term `representative', with respect to an 
        organization or professional, means a person directed by or 
        assigned to assist that organization or professional, 
        respectively, in providing advice, counseling, treatment, or 
        assistance.
            ``(4) The term `confidential communication'--
                    ``(A) means a communication not intended to be 
                disclosed to third persons other than--
                            ``(i) those to whom disclosure is in 
                        furtherance of providing advice, counseling, 
                        treatment, or assistance to the client; and
                            ``(ii) those reasonably necessary for 
                        disclosing under clause (i); and
                    ``(B) in addition to communications under 
                subparagraph (A), also includes any information that 
                provides the client's identity or that provides any 
                clue that can be used to help deduce the client's 
                identity, such as--
                            ``(i) a first or last name;
                            ``(ii) a home or other physical address, 
                        including street name and name of city or town;
                            ``(iii) active duty, reservist, guard, or 
                        veteran status;
                            ``(iv) assigned rate or rank;
                            ``(v) duty station or deployment status;
                            ``(vi) squad, unit, company, platoon, ship, 
                        squadron, wing command, fleet, command, or 
                        battalion of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or 
                        Air Force;
                            ``(vii) an email address or other online 
                        contact information, such as an instant 
                        messaging user identifier or a screen name that 
                        reveals an individual's email address;
                            ``(viii) a telephone number;
                            ``(ix) a Social Security Number;
                            ``(x) an Internet Protocol (IP) address or 
                        host name that identifies an individual;
                            ``(xi) a persistent identifier, such as a 
                        customer number held in a cookie or processor 
                        serial number, that is combined with other 
                        available data that identifies an individual; 
                        or
                            ``(xii) any other descriptive information, 
                        such as grade point average, date of birth, 
                        academic or occupational assignments or 
                        interests, athletic or extracurricular 
                        interests, racial or ethnic background, or 
                        religious affiliation.
    ``(c) Who May Claim the Privilege.--The privilege may be claimed by 
the client or the guardian or conservator of the client. A person who 
may claim the privilege may authorize trial counsel or defense counsel 
to claim the privilege on his or her behalf. The victim service 
organization, health care professional, or representative who received 
the communication may claim the privilege on behalf of the client. The 
authority of such an organization, professional, representative, 
guardian, or conservator to so assert the privilege is presumed in the 
absence of evidence to the contrary.
    ``(d) Exceptions.--There is no privilege under this section--
            ``(1) when the client is dead;
            ``(2) to the extent the communication reports child abuse;
            ``(3) when a victim service organization, health care 
        professional, or representative believes that a client's mental 
        or emotional condition makes the client a danger to any person, 
        including the client; or
            ``(4) if the communication clearly contemplated the future 
        commission of a fraud or crime or if the services of the victim 
        service organization or health care professional are sought or 
        obtained to enable or aid anyone to commit or plan to commit 
        what the client knew or reasonably should have known to be a 
        crime or fraud.''.
            (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections at the 
        beginning of such subchapter is amended by adding at the end 
        the following new item:

``941. 141. Privilege for communication with victim service 
                            organization or health care 
                            professional.''.
    (b) Applicability.--Section 941 of title 10, United States Code, as 
added by subsection (a), applies to communications made after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.
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