[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 11, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S944-S945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. MURRAY (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Tester, Ms. 
        Baldwin, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Bennet):
  S. 469. A bill to improve the reproductive assistance provided by the 
Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to 
severely wounded, ill, or injured members of the Armed Forces, 
veterans, and their spouses or partners, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to take a few minutes to discuss a 
piece of legislation I am introducing today--legislation I have written 
to improve access to health care for our Nation's veterans, because 
there is no more solemn promise we make as a nation than our commitment 
to care for the men and women who serve in the U.S. military. These men 
and women put life and limb on the line to protect our country, to 
protect our freedoms, and to protect our way of life. In return, we as 
a country make a promise to care for them, no matter what. Just

[[Page S945]]

as important, we make a promise to care for their families--their 
wives, their husbands, and their children.
  Many of the young men and women who serve in the military enter at a 
very young age, often before they have children of their own. Like so 
many other Americans, they have big plans for their lives after their 
service. Many of them plan to buy a house, go back to school, and 
eventually have a family.
  But in a time when our military conflicts involve roadside bombs, 
makeshift explosives, and life-threatening danger around every corner, 
many of our service men and women are coming home with injuries that 
leave them unable to start their own family.
  In fact, military data shows that over the last decade, thousands of 
servicemembers have suffered injuries that make it nearly impossible to 
have children. We should be doing everything we can, with the best 
science and health services available, to help our veterans and their 
loved ones have children, despite their injuries.
  But instead, outdated policies at the Pentagon and the VA are making 
it harder, not easier, for seriously injured veterans to have children. 
That is because when severely injured service men and women and 
veterans seek reproductive health services, such as in vitro 
fertilization, their military and VA health insurance simply doesn't 
cover this often very expensive procedure. As a result, the only option 
for these heroes and their partners to have children is to pay out of 
their own pocket, often tens of thousands of dollars, to try and 
conceive.
  So today I am introducing The Women Veterans and Families Health 
Services Act of 2015.
  It would basically do two things: First, it would expand the 
reproductive health services available for Active-Duty servicemembers 
and their families.
  Second, it would finally end the ban on in vitro fertilization 
services at the VA. I have introduced similar legislation in the past, 
and, as I have done before, I am going to share the story of SSG Matt 
Keil and his wife Tracy.
  Staff Sergeant Keil was shot in the neck while on patrol in Ramadi, 
Iraq, on February 24, 2007, just 6 weeks after he married the love of 
his life, Tracy. The bullet went through the right side of his neck, 
hit a major artery, went through his spinal cord, and exited through 
his left shoulder blade. He instantly became a quadriplegic. Doctors 
informed Tracy her husband would be on a ventilator for the rest of his 
life, and would never move his arms or legs.
  Staff Sergeant Keil eventually defied the odds and found himself off 
the ventilator and beginning a very long journey of physical 
rehabilitation.
  Around that same time, Tracy and her husband started exploring the 
possibilities of starting a family together. Having children was all 
they could talk about, once they adjusted to their ``new normal.''
  With Staff Sergeant Keil's injuries preventing him from having 
children naturally, Tracy turned to the VA for assistance and began to 
explore her options for fertility treatments. Feeling defeated after 
being told the VA had no such programs in place for her situation, 
Tracy and Staff Sergeant Keil decided to pursue IVF through the private 
sector.
  While they were anxious to begin this chapter of their lives, they 
were confronted with the reality that TRICARE did not cover any of the 
costs related to Tracy's treatments, because she did not have fertility 
issues beyond her husband's injury.
  Left with no further options, the Keils decided this was important 
enough to them that they were willing to pay out of pocket to the tune 
of almost $32,000 per round of treatment. Thankfully, on November 9, 
2010, just after their first round of IVF, Staff Sergeant Keil and 
Tracy welcomed their twins Matthew and Faith into the world.
  Tracy told me:

       The day we had our children something changed in both of 
     us. This is exactly what we had always wanted, our dreams had 
     arrived.
       The VA, Congress and the American People have said 
     countless times that they want to do everything they can to 
     support my husband or make him feel whole again and this is 
     your chance.
       Having a family is exactly what we needed to feel whole 
     again. Please help us make these changes so that other 
     families can share in this experience.

  Tracy does not want to see other servicemembers and their families go 
through the struggle she and Matt did because of outdated policies that 
don't reflect modern medicine.
  While the Keils' story may be unique, they are not alone. Thousands 
of servicemembers and veterans have returned from their service hoping 
to have children, only to find that, despite their sacrifices for our 
country, they are unable to obtain the kind of assistance they need. 
Some have spent tens of thousands of dollars in the private sector, 
like Tracy and her husband did, to get the advanced reproductive 
treatments they need to start a family. Others have, sadly, watched 
their marriages dissolve because of the stress of infertility, in 
combination with the stress of readjusting to a new life after a severe 
injury, driving their relationship to a breaking point.
  Any servicemember who sustains this type of serious injury deserves 
so much more. They deserve our support to help them start a family, and 
our support to raise that family.
  This bill is so important because access to childcare is one of the 
most significant barriers to care for women veterans and younger 
veterans. This bill makes permanent the highly successful pilot program 
in VA and expands it across the country. I am very hopeful today that 
both Republicans and Democrats can come together to support this bill.
  Just a few years ago we were able to pass similar legislation through 
the Senate, but, unfortunately, it didn't pass the House in time to get 
the President's signature and become signed into law. This time has to 
be different, because this bill is about nothing more than giving 
veterans who have sacrificed so much the option to fulfill the dream of 
starting a family. It is a bill that shows when we tell our 
servicemembers deploying to a war zone that we have their back, we mean 
it. It is a bill that recognizes the men and women who are harmed in 
the service of this country have bright, full lives ahead of them.

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