[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17072-17073]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      WOMEN VETERANS AND OTHER HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2012

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to request that 
we have unanimous consent for S. 3313, which is the Women Veterans and 
Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, which was unanimously 
supported by the members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee to be moved 
out of this body today.
  This legislation not only builds upon previous laws that we have 
passed to improve VA services for women veterans and veterans with 
families, but it also brings a new focus to the need for the VA to do 
more to help women veterans and the spouses of male veterans have 
access to assistance for one of the most impactful and serious wounds 
of these wars, reproductive and urinary tract trauma.
  As many of you know, the nature of the current conflicts and the use 
of improvised explosive devices leaves servicemembers far more 
susceptible to those kinds of injuries. In fact, Army data shows that 
between 2003 and 2011 nearly 2,000 of our servicemembers have suffered 
those kinds of battle injuries.
  Like so many of our veterans, these men and women come home and look 
to returning to their lives, to finding employment, and to starting a 
family. Yet what they find when they go to the VA is that the fertility 
services that are available don't meet their complex needs for these 
injuries. In fact, veterans suffering from those kinds of injuries find 
that the VA now is specifically barred from providing more advanced 
assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization or 
IVF. They are told when they come home that despite the fact they have 
made such an extreme sacrifice for our Nation, we can't provide them 
with the medical services they need to start a family--veterans such as 
SSG Matt Keil and his wife Tracy, who is here with us today. I am so 
proud of her and her courage in making sure this is available for 
families like hers.
  Staff Sergeant Keil was shot in the neck while he was on patrol in 
Ramadi, Iraq, on February 24 of 2007, 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. Staff Sergeant Keil instantly became a 
quadriplegic. Doctors informed Tracy that her husband would be on a 
ventilator for the rest of his life and would never move his arms or 
his legs. Staff Sergeant Keil eventually defied the odds and found 
himself off that ventilator and beginning a long journey of physical 
rehabilitation.
  Around that same time, Tracy and her husband started exploring the 
possibilities of starting a family together--something that is a dream 
of so many young people in America today. Having children was all they 
could talk about once they adjusted to their new normal. With Staff 
Sergeant

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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 in 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 any 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--two beautiful children. Tracy told me--and these are 
her words:

       The day we had our children, something changed in both of 
     us. This is exactly what we had always wanted. Our dream 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.

  That is what Tracy said to me.
  I have heard from these severely injured veterans, and while the 
details of their stories vary, the common thread that runs through all 
of them is that these veterans were unable to obtain the type of 
assistance they needed. Some have spent tens of thousands of dollars in 
the private sector, just as Tracy and her husband did, to get the 
advanced reproductive treatments they needed to start a family. Sadly, 
others have watched their marriages dissolve because of the stress of 
infertility in combination, of course, with the stresses of readjusting 
to life after a severe injury, which drove their relationships to a 
breaking point.
  Any servicemember who sustains this type of serious injury deserves 
so much more. The bill I am here today trying to get passed will give 
the VA broad authority to offer advanced fertility treatments to the 
most severely wounded veterans, their spouses, or surrogates. It also 
gives the VA authority to determine how best to offer those benefits. 
It reverses this troubling barrier to care and will bring the VA in 
line with the military, which provides these services to this same 
group of servicemembers.
  This is commonsense legislation. It should pass without delay. In 
fact, the New York Times recently ran an editorial on this bill, and it 
said:

       In more than a decade of combat overseas, the military and 
     the VA have continually had to adjust to the challenges of 
     new traumas with new treatments, as with the epidemic of 
     brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. Adapting the VA 
     health system to better meet reproductive health needs should 
     be part of that response. It is one compassionate way to 
     fulfill the country's duty to our wounded veterans.

  They also noted that even this Congress should be capable of a 
bipartisan agreement to pass it, and I couldn't agree more. I can't 
think of any reason why any Republican or Democrat won't join us today 
in getting this bill passed. This is about giving veterans, who have 
sacrificed absolutely everything, every option we have to help them 
fulfill a dream of simply starting a family. It says we are not turning 
our backs on the catastrophic reproductive wounds that have become a 
signature of these wars. It says to all of these brave men and women, 
who didn't ask questions when they were in harm's way, that we won't 
let politics get in the way of our commitment to them.
  The VA has an obligation to care for the combat wounded, and that 
should include access to the care they need. Our women veterans deserve 
this, our male veterans deserve this, and our military and veteran 
families deserve this.
  My understanding is that the objections have been removed, and we 
expect this bill to be passed tonight when we clear the bills as we end 
discussions. I thank all of my colleagues who have stepped up to make 
the reality of a family real to these men and women who have served us 
so well in combat, have come home with extremely serious wounds, and 
who--because this legislation hopefully will pass this body and 
hopefully we will get the House to pass it--will then have their dream 
of having a family become a reality.
  I am very proud to have worked on this bill in a bipartisan way to 
move it out of our Veterans' Committee. My understanding is that we 
will be able to clear this bill tonight and move it along its way to 
the President for his signature and give hope to many men and women who 
served our country to have a family once again.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor, and I suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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