[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 110 (Tuesday, July 15, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S4504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOOKER (for himself and Mr. Heller):
  S. 2607. A bill to extend and modify the pilot program of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs on assisted living services for veterans 
with traumatic brain injury, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce with my 
colleague Senator Dean Heller, legislation that would extend a critical 
and innovative program for our nation's veterans. Senator Heller and I 
urge our colleagues to consider The Assisted Living Program for 
Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury Extension, AL-TBI, Act which 
authorizes the continuation of a Veterans Health Administration program 
that provides intensive care and rehabilitation to veterans with severe 
brain injuries.
  Thanks to this program, veterans with traumatic brain injuries more 
quickly re-adjust to their day-to-day lives--from making dinner for 
others, to fixing a faucet, to doing yard work. AL-TBI consists of 
privately run group homes around the country where veterans are 
immersed in therapies for movement, memory, speech, and gradual 
community reintegration. Veterans in these homes benefit from 24-hour 
team-based care. There are about twenty of these homes in New Jersey 
that have yielded impressive results. Nationally, several dozen 
veterans have been rehabilitated from severe injuries that are 
notoriously difficult to treat.
  This program is working to help a generation of veterans with 
traumatic brain injuries and so many older veterans that have been 
suffering for decades. Since 2001, more than 265,000 U.S. troops 
suffered traumatic brain injuries, according to the Defense and 
Veterans Brain Injury Center. While most were mild concussions, over 
26,000 men and women veterans suffered from moderate or severe head 
wounds. Advances in medicine keep alive soldiers with head wounds that 
might have killed them in previous conflicts. However, the ability to 
cure these injuries has not kept pace. Innovative, effective programs 
must be supported by Congress in order to give our veterans the care 
they need and deserve.
  But unfortunately, as the program nears the end of its 5-year 
authorization, veterans across the country are being told that they 
need to prepare to move out of the facilities in September. I have 
heard from a veteran in New Jersey, who was told he will need to be out 
of the program on September 15 and worries he will be out on the 
street. He has made tremendous gains with the AL-TBI program. He has 
rekindled his relationship with his son. He is able to do basic math 
again. But, he has a lot more to do to get his independence back. We 
cannot leave him and other veterans like him out in the cold.
  The VA offers no alternative program that replicates the 
comprehensiveness of the rehabilitative care, the benefit of providing 
care in a residential setting, and the positive impact on veterans of 
sustained, longer-term care.
  This is a proven program that does not require new funds, and I urge 
my colleagues in the Senate to join Senator Heller and myself in 
supporting this critical piece of legislation for our Nation's 
veterans.
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