[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5190 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5190

    To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to expand certain 
       protections to dependents of members of the Armed Forces.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            August 11, 2023

Mr. Kim of New Jersey introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                 to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to expand certain 
       protections to dependents of members of the Armed Forces.

    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 Family Protection from Debt 
Act''.

SEC. 2. MAXIMUM RATE OF INTEREST ON DEBTS INCURRED BEFORE MILITARY 
              SERVICE APPLICABLE TO MILITARY DEPENDENTS.

    Section 207 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3937) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``or the 
                servicemember and the servicemember's spouse jointly'' 
                and inserting ``a dependent of the servicemember, or 
                such a dependent and the servicemember jointly''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ``or a dependent 
                of the servicemember'' after ``due from a 
                servicemember'';
            (2) in subsection (b)(1)--
                    (A) in the paragraph heading, by inserting ``and 
                dependency'' after ``military service'';
                    (B) in subparagraph (A)--
                            (i) by striking ``of the servicemember'';
                            (ii) by striking clause (i) and inserting 
                        the following:
                            ``(i) military orders indicating the 
                        current, future, or past military duty status 
                        of the servicemember; or''; and
                            (iii) in clause (ii), by inserting ``or a 
                        certificate from the Defense Manpower Data 
                        Center'' before the period at the end;
                    (C) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as 
                subparagraph (C); and
                    (D) by inserting the following after subparagraph 
                (A):
                    ``(B) Dependents.--In addition to providing proof 
                of military service under subparagraph (A), dependents 
                of servicemembers shall provide documentation that 
                indicates the dependency status of the dependent at the 
                time the debt or obligation was incurred and continuing 
                until the servicemember entered military service. Such 
                documentation may include a marriage certificate, birth 
                certificate, or any other appropriate indicator of 
                dependency status.''; and
            (3) in subsection (c), by inserting ``, dependent, or both, 
        as the case may be,'' after ``ability of the servicemember''.
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