Davis / 2 Senator Mohammadi

S.B._____

A BILL
To create medical centers specifically designated for United States Veterans that need post-combat physical and
mental treatment.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Veteran Aid Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Not only do Veterans have to struggle with the emotional memories of combat, they also have to face the reality of
attaining and enjoying a career.
2) PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a disorder that is caused by witnessing, enduring, or hearing and intense
event that is being replayed in ones mind as a gruesome memory.
3) Suicide rates of Veterans have increased because of the poor quality of life after combat.
4) Veteran Unemployment hit 9.4 percent in 2015.
5) In 2002, an estimated 1.2 million male Veterans were identified as living with serious mental illness.
6) The suicide rate for eighteen through twenty-nine year-old male Veterans who have left the military rose twentysix percent from 2005 to 2007, and the rate climbed to record highs by 2010.
7) More than 68 percent of Veterans that went through exposure therapy were successful in decreasing their thoughts
of suicide and functioning better in everyday life.
8) Nearly half of the respondents left their job in their first year and over 65 percent left within two years.
9) The most common symptoms of PTSD are difficulty concentrating, lack of interest/apathy, feelings of detachment,
loss of appetite, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, and sleep disturbances.
10) About twenty-two percent of Veterans committed suicide each day in 2010 and 228,875 troops who served in
Iraq or Afghanistan returned with PTSD as of 2012, a crippling condition some experts say close relatives can
contract.
11) Thirty percent of soldiers develop mental problems within three to four months of being home.
12) Of the 1.7 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 300,000 (20 percent) suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder or major depression.
13) Veterans may report acute terror and panic and sustained anticipatory anxiety about potential exposure to
circumstances of combat, including nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, missiles, and friendly fire incidents.
14) Soldiers are encouraged by lower-level leadership and their peers not to get help because of the stigma.
15) Among the 573,000 unemployed veterans in 2014, 59 percent were age 45 and over. 37 percent were age twentyfive to 44, and four percent were age eighteen through twenty-four.
16) Veterans with a service-connected disability had an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent in August 2014, the same
rate as for veterans with no disability.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Veteran Aid Act of 2015 shall designate specialized centers for post-combat soldiers to help them heal
physically and mentally. The centers will provide aid such as physical therapy, and therapy to help the Veterans
mental state. Nurses will assist Veterans any time after combat.
B) This law shall be enforced by each states provincial government, which shall hold training sessions for qualified
future employees, hoping to be hired at each center. If the future employee fails to attend the training, he or she shall
not be a possible candidate for job opportunity. He or she must obtain a Veteran Treatment License in order to work
with the respective patients. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs shall fund this program by taking two
percent of military funding, and putting that two percent toward each state and its facilities.
C) This program is tax deductible, meaning: those who promote, donate, or work to help The United States Veterans
on a regular basis will be entitled to benefits when the taxes come at the last month of every year. The Veteran Aid
Act of 2015 shall be enacted on January 1, 2016.
Press Release

Imagine you are in combat and that the enemy has just bombed your site. After ten long minutes
of suffering, your friend dies in your arms. This pain will live with you forever. This is how life was and
still is for many young adults in combat, constantly enduring the loss of close friends, or even killing
someone themselves. Traumatic events like these have tremendous impacts on troops, to the point where
it miserably haunts them for the rest of their post-war lives. In order to end tragic stories like this, it is
imperative that the government allocates money for the Veterans to receive help. It will be difficult to
implement this solution because of the limits on government spending. The issue becomes: is it important
enough to receive funding or not? In order to resolve this reoccurring and prevalent problem, I propose a
bill that states that the government should create medical centers specifically designated for the United
States Veterans that need post-combative physical and mental treatment. This bill should become a law
because it will decrease the unemployment rate of Veterans, lower the number of Veterans with Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and reduce the amount of Veterans who commit suicide. Not only do
Veterans have to struggle with the emotional memories of combat, they also have to face the reality of
attaining and enjoying a career. Effects of serving in the military can impact Veterans lives,

especially those who suffer from PTSD, a disorder that is caused by witnessing, enduring, or
hearing an intense event that is being replayed in ones mind as a gruesome memory. Also,
Suicide rates of Veterans have increased because of the poor quality of life after combat.