[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18513-18514]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    POSTDEPLOYMENT COGNITIVE TESTING

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, as cochair of the Congressional Brain 
Injury Task Force, one of my top priorities is to help our 
servicemembers with brain injuries. With posttraumatic stress disorder 
and traumatic brain injury recognized as the signature injuries of the 
conflicts and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you would think the Defense 
Department would have a good system to catch the injuries. They do not.
  Despite our vote, a bipartisan vote in 2008 to have pre- and 
postdeployment screenings, postdeployment screenings have not been 
required. Five hundred thousand soldiers with a predeployment cognitive 
test were given that test before they went to the

[[Page 18514]]

battle. Coming out, only 3,000 tests were done postdeployment to 
actually compare results. We have nothing to compare. This is a 
disgrace and a disservice to our troops.
  Both sides have agreed that we want something done. It has not been 
done in violation of the law. The Pascrell-Platts-Andrews-Cole-Ortiz-
Wilson-Coffman amendment passed in the House Defense authorization bill 
to address this, but it was not included in the final bill. That's what 
we're trying to do this year.

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