Senate Accomplishments

Legislation Rounds has led which were adopted into law or provisions or portions of which were included in broader legislative packages signed by the president.

Increasing Transferability of Entitlement to Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act– Allows survivors of deceased service members, who had Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits transferred to them, to reallocate those benefits to other designated survivors.
Veterans TEST Accessibility Act - Helps returning veterans transition into civilian life. Under previous law, veterans were required to use a full month of their Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility to be reimbursed for licensing, certification and national tests, such as those required to be an athletic trainer, fire fighter or medical technician. The TEST Accessibility Act addresses this issue by reimbursing veterans for the cost of an approved test and pro-rating the affected month of eligibility to be used for future educational expenses, such as tuition.
A Bill to Amend Title 38 to Provide Educational Assistance to Purple Heart Recipients – Adds Purple Heart recipients to the list of eligible veterans who can access full Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It also makes Purple Heart recipients eligible to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program, which is an optional program for universities to provide additional funding to veterans if their Post-9/11 GI Bill does not fully cover education costs. The VA is required to match the university’s contribution.
GI Bill Comparison Tool Improvement Act - Increases transparency for veterans when choosing where to enroll in school by adding a metric to the GI Bill Comparison Tool identifying which educational institutions allow veterans to stay enrolled in classes pending receipt of GI Bill funds.
Veterans Choice Equal Cost for Care Act - Eliminates the “secondary payer clause” to make certain veterans do not pay more for private care under the Choice Act than they would if they were seen at a VA facility.
DOD Cyber Support to Civil Authorities Act – Requirement that the DOD develop a comprehensive plan for the U.S. Cyber Command to support civil authorities in responding to cyber attacks by foreign powers against the United States or a U.S. person.
Cyber Act of War Act – Requirement that the administration develop a policy to determine when an action carried out in cyberspace constitutes an act of war against the United States.
Cyber Command Employment Personnel Training Act– Improves the Department of Defense’s (DOD) hiring practices for cyber security professionals by making certain specified categories of personnel are trained on new rules for hiring and pay flexibilities for civilian cyber security employees. These rules permit faster hiring and higher pay for these employees than is normally the case for the U.S. civil service.
Whole of Society Cyber Personnel Cooperation Resolution – Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the DOD should fully use the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program and the DOD Information Technology Exchange Program to obtain cyber personnel across the government by leveraging cyber capabilities found at the state and local government level and in the private sector in order to meet the needs of DOD for cybersecurity professionals, and (2) DOD should implement at the earliest practicable date a strategy that includes policies and plans to fully use such programs to obtain such personnel for DOD.
National Cybersecurity Exercise Act - Requires the U.S. Cyber Command, the U.S. Northern Command, and other DOD commands or components, consistent with the recommendations made by a Government Accountability Office report, to conduct a tier 1 exercise of support to civil authorities for a cyber incident.
Department of Defense Principal Cyber Advisors Act - Creates a “Principal Cyber Advisor” position within each of the services to act as a single point of responsibility for cybersecurity. The goal is to bridge the gaps, seams and fragmentation within the services’ cyber postures.
Defense Cybersecurity Personnel Authorizations and Inventory Oversight Act– Requires the Principal Cyber Advisor of the Department of Defense to conduct a study to determine the optimal strategy for structuring and manning elements of the Joint Force Headquarters–Cyber Organizations, Joint Mission Operations Centers, and Cyber Operations–Integrated Planning Elements
Service Member and Family Operational Tempo and Relief Act - Requires the DOD to implement Government Accountability (GAO) recommendations to better measure the total time individual service members are away from home, known as “perstempo”. Specifically, the recommendations were that DOD: (1) clarify its policy to include specific and measurable DOD-wide perstempo thresholds for use while statutory thresholds are waived or assure service-level policies are established and followed and (2) take steps to emphasize the collection of complete and reliable perstempo data.
Required report on added acquisition authorities for USSOCOM - Requires DOD to report to Congress on what additional, service like, acquisition authorities should be authorized for USSOCOM.
National Defense Accelerator Network Act - Requires a pilot program to produce dual-use startups in defense technology that would attract funding from the public and private sector to include venture capital firms in the United States. The program is used to accelerate the commercialization of basic research innovations for defense application.
Defense Acquisition Decision Making Streamlining Act – Requires the DOD to implement a GAO recommendation that the Secretary of Defense, to improve the DOD acquisition milestone decision process, should select major defense acquisition programs to pilot different approaches for streamlining the entire milestone decision process, with the results evaluated and reported for potential wider use.
Defense Acquisition Contractor Workforce Improvement Act – Requires DOD, in its strategic workforce plan, to include certain contractor personnel in the defense acquisition workforce for purposes of the DOD annual strategic workforce plan.
Long Range Strike Aircraft Mix Act - Directs the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress on the results of a to-be-performed independent study that determines a future mix for the Armed Forces of: (1) shorter range fighter-class strike aircraft and long-range strike aircraft platforms, and (2) manned aerial platforms and unmanned aerial platforms.
Department of Defense Training Ranges Strategic Planning Improvement Act - Requires the DOD to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic plan to identify and address deficits in the capabilities of DOD training ranges to support current and anticipated readiness requirements to execute the National Defense Strategy.
National Defense Cybersecurity Consortia Act - Requires the DOD to establish a university consortia to advise and assist DOD on cybersecurity. It would provide a single portal for DOD to access the expertise of universities designated as National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Centers of Academic Excellence, such as DSU.
TRICARE Portability Act of 2015 - Streamlines the process for service members and military retirees enrolled in Tricare health plans when they move from one Tricare region to another. The previous system for transferring Tricare beneficiaries is often ineffective, resulting in unnecessary delays.
PTSD Medication Prescribing Improvement Act – Requires each branch of the armed forces to monitor the prescribing practices of medications to treat symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among service members.
DOD Depot Maintenance Best Practices Act - Directs the DOD to submit to the congressional defense committees a comprehensive plan for the sharing of best practices for depot-level maintenance among the military services.
Caregiver Program Information Improvement Act - Helps make certain wounded warriors and their families are fully aware of the services available to them through the VA caregiver program. It requires the caregiver program to be added to the list of statutorily-mandated counseling items for service members pending separation from the DOD.
TRICARE Expedited Evaluation and Treatment for Prenatal Surgery Act– Helps make certain that a pregnant woman covered under TRICARE, a DOD program that provides health care to military personnel and their dependents, receives expedited fetal surgery if needed.
Promotion Board Opt-Out Opportunity Act - Authorizes the DOD to permit an active duty officer or a reserve active-status list officer to request exclusion from consideration by a selection board for promotion to the next higher grade.
Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act – Fully repeals the Cadillac Tax provision of the Affordable Care Act. If implemented, the Cadillac Tax threatened to raise healthcare premiums even higher by imposing a 40 percent tax on certain employer-sponsored healthcare plans, including the plans of over 400,000 South Dakotans
Conservation Easement Amendment – Establishes a federal education program to make certain landowners are given all of the federal conservation options available to them when choosing to put their land into a conservation program, such as a conservation easement, through the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act - Provides small banks and credit unions with data reporting relief, thereby making it easier for consumers to access credit.
Protecting Veterans Credit Act – Protects the credit ratings of veterans wrongly penalized by delays in reimbursements for medical bills by the VA.
Community Bank Access to Capital Act– Rolls back burdensome financial regulations to make it easier for community banks to serve their customers, who often reside in rural areas with fewer available lending options. Specifically, it frees small banks from having to complete arduous and expensive tests mandated by Dodd-Frank and makes it easier for banks with less than $3 billion in assets to raise capital and grow.
Municipal bond capital relief – Provides relief from Dodd-Frank capital rules so that banks can count high-quality municipal bonds toward their capital requirements, making it easier for local governments to issue debt.
TAILOR Act - Allows regulators to more nimbly tailor capital rules to the size of a financial institution. This eases the regulatory burden on smaller financial institutions so they can focus their resources on taking care of their customers, rather than spending time and money on regulatory compliance.
Federal Savings Association Charter Flexibility Act - Streamlines federal rules to help small, local federal savings associations (FSAs), or thrifts, expand their ability to offer loans to more families and businesses without going through a costly charter conversion process.