The bill also ensures they are not excluded from receiving disability benefits and care by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The bipartisan bill, Protecting Military Honor Act of 2017, places safeguards to prevent service members from being wrongly discharged for conditions resulting from sexual trauma. For veterans, the bill improves the process of how they can seek to redress wrongful discharges, according to the release.
“Our service members who have survived a sexual assault have already been through so much, I can’t imagine compounding that trauma with the damaging impact and stigma of carrying an ‘other than honorable’ discharge around for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, we’ve discovered that this has happened to tens of thousands of military veterans,” Herrera Beutler said in the release, adding the bill begins to restore justice for assault survivors who often need counseling, care and assistance.
- By The Chronicle