H.R. 958: Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act of 2013

Introduced:
Mar 05, 2013 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)
Sponsor:
Rep. Rick Larsen [D-WA2]
Status:
Referred to Committee

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

Track this bill
(About Ads | Advertise Here)
Status

This bill was assigned to a congressional committee on March 5, 2013, which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole.

Progress
Introduced Mar 05, 2013
Referred to Committee Mar 05, 2013
Reported by Committee ...
Passed House ...
Passed Senate ...
Signed by the President ...
Prognosis

5% chance of getting past committee.
3% chance of being enacted.

Only 11% of House bills made it past committee and only 3% were enacted in 2011–2013. [show factors | methodology]

Cosponsors
43 cosponsors (42D, 1R) (show)
Committees

House Armed Services

↪ Military Personnel

House Budget

House Veterans' Affairs

↪ Health

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the reproductive assistance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to severely wounded, ill, or injured veterans and their spouses, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Mar 05, 2013.
21 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.

Citation

Click a format for a citation suggestion:

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

3/5/2013--Introduced.
Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act of 2013 - Includes fertility counseling and treatment within authorized Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical services.
Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to furnish such counseling and treatment, including the use of assisted reproductive technology, to a spouse or surrogate of a severely wounded, ill, or injured veteran who has an infertility condition incurred or aggravated in the line of duty and who is enrolled in the VA health care system, as long as the spouse and veteran apply jointly for such counseling and treatment.
Authorizes the Secretary to pay to any such veteran an amount to assist in the adoption of one or more children.
Directs the Secretary to:
(1) report annually to the congressional veterans committees on the counseling and treatment provided under this Act;
(2) prescribe regulations on the furnishing of such counseling, treatment, and adoption assistance; and
(3) coordinate the furnishing of such counseling and treatment with that provided by the Department of Defense (DOD). Directs the Secretary to facilitate research conducted collaboratively by the Secretaries of Defense and Health and Human Services (HHS) in order to improve VA's ability to meet the long-term reproductive health care needs of veterans who have a service-connected genitourinary disability or a condition that was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, such as a spinal cord injury, that affects the veterans' ability to reproduce.
Requires the Secretary to enhance the capabilities of the VA women veterans contact center:
(1) to respond to requests for assistance with accessing VA health care and benefits, and
(2) for referral to community resources to obtain assistance with services not furnished by the VA. Amends the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 relating to a pilot program of group retreat reintegration and readjustment counseling for women veterans recently separated from service to:
(1) increase from at least 3 to at least 14 the number of locations for such counseling, and
(2) extend the pilot program for an additional 2 years.
Directs the Secretary to carry out a pilot program of providing child care assistance to veterans receiving or in need of VA readjustment counseling and related mental health services.
Directs the Secretary to impose, as a contract condition, a contractor user fee with respect to each contract entered into by the VA for a good or service.
Provides for the determination of fee amounts.
Authorizes the Secretary to waive such fee if the contractor is an individual or a small business.
Establishes in the Treasury the Department of Veterans Affairs Fertility Counseling and Treatment Fund. Provides for the deposit into such Fund of all contractor user fee amounts.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

Slip Laws

Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)

Statutes at Large

The United States Statutes at Large is the compilation of all laws enacted by Congress.

  • 115 Stat. 552

Other Citations

  • 38 U.S.C. Chapter 17
  • 38 U.S.C. Chapter 3
  • 38 U.S.C. Chapter 73