S. 2357 — Introduced in Senate

II 113th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2357 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 20, 2014 Ms. Murkowski introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL To provide for improvements in the consistency of data collection, reporting, and assessment in connection with the suicide prevention efforts of the Department of Defense. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Department of Defense Suicide Tracking Act of 2014. 2. Improvement of consistency in collection, reporting, and assessment of data in Department of Defense suicide prevention efforts (a) Policy for standard suicide data collection, reporting, and assessment The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy for the development of a standard method for collecting, reporting, and assessing suicide data and suicide-attempt data involving members of the Armed Forces, including reserve components thereof, and their dependents in order to improve the consistency and comprehensiveness of— (1) the suicide prevention policy developed pursuant to section 582 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (Public Law 112–239; 10 U.S.C. 1071 note); and (2) the suicide prevention and resilience program for the National Guard and Reserves established pursuant to section 10219 of title 10, United States Code. (b) Submittal of policy and congressional briefing Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit the policy developed under subsection (a) to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives. At the request of the committees, the Secretary also shall brief the committees on the policy and the implementation status of a standardized suicide data collection, reporting, and assessment method pursuant to the policy. (c) Consultation and implementation In the case of the suicide prevention and resilience program for the National Guard and Reserves referred to in subsection (a)(2)— (1) the Secretary shall develop the policy required by subsection (a) in consultation with the Chief of the National Guard Bureau; and (2) the adjutants general of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands shall implement the policy within 180 days after the date of the submittal of the policy under subsection (b). (d) Dependent defined In this section, the term dependent, with respect to a member of the Armed Forces, means a person described in section 1072(2) of title 10, United States Code, except that, in the case of a parent or parent-in-law of the member, the income requirements of subparagraph (E) of such section do not apply.