[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 158 (Thursday, September 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5764-S5765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 6241. Ms. ERNST (for herself and Ms. Hassan) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 5499 submitted by Mr. 
Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) and intended to be proposed to the 
bill H.R. 7900, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2023 for 
military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
        At the end of subtitle C of title VII, add the following:

     SEC. 753. WARFIGHTER BRAIN HEALTH INITIATIVE.

       (a) In General.--The Secretary of Defense shall establish 
     and implement a comprehensive strategy and action plan for 
     brain health to be known as the ``Warfighter Brain Health 
     Initiative'' (in this section referred to as the 
     ``Initiative'') to unify disparate efforts and programs 
     across the Department of Defense to improve the brain health 
     and cognitive performance of members of the Armed Forces.
       (b) Objectives.--The objectives of the Initiative are the 
     following:

[[Page S5765]]

       (1) To enhance the cognitive performance of members of the 
     Armed Forces through an integrated brain health strategy that 
     includes education, training, prevention, protection, 
     monitoring, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and 
     rehabilitation, including by--
       (A) establishing common brain health monitoring baselines 
     across the Department of Defense to be used to monitor a 
     member of the Armed Forces at regular intervals with the goal 
     of detecting patterns of brain injury and health distress 
     early in the evolution of injury or disease progression;
       (B) identifying and disseminating blast pressure thresholds 
     associated with microscopic brain injury;
       (C) modifying high risk training and operational activities 
     to mitigate the negative effects of repetitive harmful blast 
     exposure;
       (D) developing and conducting operational fielding of non-
     invasive portable point of care medical devices to inform 
     diagnosis and treatment of structural and functional 
     traumatic brain injury;
       (E) establishing standardized reporting of critical 
     incidents and blast exposures affecting brain health for 
     members of the Armed Forces;
       (F) developing a comprehensive brain health research 
     roadmap that establishes strict criteria for research grants 
     based on direct correlation to the brain health outcomes of 
     members of the Armed Forces, including prevention, 
     protection, detection, diagnosis, treatment and 
     rehabilitation;
       (G) incorporating the findings and recommendations of the 
     report entitled ``Traumatic Brain Injury: A Roadmap for 
     Accelerating Progress'' published in February 2022 by the 
     National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; and
       (H) identifying occupational specialties that pose a high 
     risk to brain health.
       (2) To synchronize and prioritize efforts to improve brain 
     health by the Department of Defense into a single approach to 
     produce more efficient and effective results.
       (c) Reports.--
       (1) Initial report.--Not later than 1 year after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 
     submit to the congressional defense committees a report on 
     the Initiative, including a summary of progress made toward 
     the objectives described in subsection (b).
       (2) Annual report.--Not later than January 31, 2024, and 
     annually thereafter until 2030, the Secretary of Defense 
     shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report 
     that includes--
       (A) a description of the actions taken and resources 
     expended in the previous fiscal year to carry out the 
     Initiative; and
       (B) a summary of progress made toward the objectives 
     described in subsection (b) during the previous fiscal year.
       (d) Budget Exhibit.--The Secretary of Defense shall include 
     in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress 
     in support of the Department of Defense budget for each of 
     fiscal years 2025 through 2029 (as submitted with the budget 
     of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, United 
     States Code) a single budget exhibit containing relevant 
     details pertaining to the Initiative.
                                 ______