[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2970 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2970

 To improve the fielding of newest generations of personal protective 
         equipment to the Armed Forces, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            December 3, 2019

Ms. Ernst (for herself, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. McSally, and Mr. Blumenthal) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                      Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To improve the fielding of newest generations of personal protective 
         equipment to the Armed Forces, 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 ``Female Body Armor Modernization Act 
of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Ill-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) for 
        members of the Armed Forces impedes performance and lethality 
        by reducing range of motion, speed, and agility, and can 
        interfere with the aim of shoulder-braced weapons.
            (2) Access to female-specific personal protective 
        equipment, or smaller sized unisex personal protective 
        equipment, has traditionally been limited. Such equipment has 
        typically been provided only to some deploying members of the 
        Armed Forces, but not to those going through initial entry 
        training (IET), or for regular unit training events.
            (3) Members of the Armed Force need to be familiarized with 
        and train in their combat gear before deploying in order to be 
        fully prepared and mission capable.
            (4) Research shows that poorly fitting personal protective 
        equipment is a leading cause of preventable injury for all 
        members of the Armed Forces, whether deployed or in training.
            (5) Studies on operational physical performance and fitness 
        in female members of the Armed Forces suggest that the best way 
        to decrease the likelihood of injury is through consistent 
        physical training with equipment that mirrors that which is 
        used in a combat environment.
            (6) Properly fitting personal protective equipment for 
        training and deployment will assist in the gender-integration 
        process in the Armed Forces as well as improve overall combat 
        effectiveness, while simultaneously bringing about a reduction 
        in injuries.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress--
            (1) that committed resources for new generation personal 
        protective equipment for female warfighters is essential to 
        their warfighting readiness;
            (2) to encourage the Armed Forces to expedite contracting 
        for and procurement and fielding of new generation personal 
        protective equipment that better fits and protects all members 
        of the Armed Forces, including female members, and reduces 
        preventable injuries; and
            (3) to encourage collaboration between the Armed Forces, 
        academia, and industry on the use of emerging technologies, 
        such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), human factors modeling, 
        and digital predictive human modeling, in the development of 
        next generation of combat equipment and personal protective 
        equipment.

SEC. 3. REPORTS ON FIELDING OF NEWEST GENERATIONS OF PERSONAL 
              PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT TO THE ARMED FORCES.

    (a) Reports Required.--Not later than January 31, 2021, each 
Secretary of a military department shall submit to Congress a report on 
the fielding of the newest generations of personal protective equipment 
to the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of such Secretary.
    (b) Elements.--Each report under subsection (a) shall include, for 
each Armed Force covered by such report, the following:
            (1) A description and assessment of the fielding of newest 
        generations of personal protective equipment to members of such 
        Armed Force, including the following:
                    (A) The number (aggregated by total number and by 
                sex) of members of such Armed Force issued the Army 
                Soldiers Protective System and the Modular Scalable 
                Vest Generation II body armor as of December 31, 2020.
                    (B) The number (aggregated by total number and by 
                sex) of members of such Armed Force issued Marine Corps 
                Plate Carrier Generation III (PC Gen III) body armor as 
                of that date.
                    (C) The number (aggregated by total number and by 
                sex) of members of such Armed Force fitted with legacy 
                personal protective equipment as of that date.
            (2) A description and assessment of the barriers, if any, 
        to the fielding of such generations of equipment to such 
        members.
            (3) A description and assessment of challenges in the 
        fielding of such generations of equipment to such members, 
        including cost overruns, contractor delays, and other 
        challenges.

SEC. 4. SYSTEM FOR TRACKING DATA ON INJURIES AMONG MEMBERS OF THE ARMED 
              FORCES IN THE USE OF NEWEST GENERATION PERSONAL 
              PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT.

    (a) System Required.--
            (1) In general.--The Director of the Defense Health Agency 
        (DHA) shall develop and maintain a system for tracking data on 
        injuries among members of the Armed Forces in and during the 
        use of newest generation personal protective equipment.
            (2) Scope of system.--The system required by this 
        subsection may, at the election of the Director, be new for 
        purposes of this subsection or within or a modification of an 
        appropriate existing system (such as the Defense Occupational 
        And Environmental Health Readiness System (DOEHRS)).
    (b) Report.--Not later than January 31, 2025, the Director shall 
submit to Congress a report on the prevalence among members of the 
Armed Forces of preventable injuries attributable to ill-fitting or 
malfunctioning personal protective equipment.

SEC. 5. INCLUSION IN ANNUAL PERIODIC HEALTH ASSESSMENTS OF MEMBERS OF 
              THE ARMED FORCES OF QUESTIONS ON INJURIES INCURRED IN 
              CONNECTION WITH ILL-FITTING OR MALFUNCTIONING PERSONAL 
              PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT.

    The annual Periodic Health Assessment (PHA) of members of the Armed 
Forces undertaken after the date of the enactment of this Act shall 
include one or more questions on whether members incurred an injury in 
connection with ill-fitting or malfunctioning personal protective 
equipment during the period covered by such assessment, including the 
nature of such injury.
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