{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://rooney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rooney-autism-amendment-passes-with-ndaa", "Rooney Autism Amendment Passes with NDAA", "2016-12-02", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Tom Rooney", "R000583", "rooney.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Tom Rooney (FL-17) successfully included a provision in the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 that will provide critical health care services for military families that have children with autism. The House performed its most important constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense when it passed the 2017 NDAA today by a vote of 375-34.\nRooney\u2019s provision restores access to care for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in military families by reversing reductions in TRICARE reimbursement rates for providers of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In April, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) implemented cuts to ABA reimbursement rates for providers of ABA services across the country. These cuts were imposed despite indications from military families across the country that they were experiencing ABA provider shortages; and in some locations, families had no access to providers at all. Rooney\u2019s provision to reverse the DHA\u2019s policy received wide bipartisan support, and once enacted, will ensure that military children with ASD are be able to obtain the services they and their families need and deserve.\n\u201cHaving a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder shouldn\u2019t make it harder for you to serve in the military,\u201d Rooney said. \u201cThis amendment is a commonsense adjustment to an ill-informed policy that never should have been changed in the first place. I am pleased that the final compromise bill included my provision to ensure that our service members and veterans are able to access basic health care services for their children.\u201d\nThe bill includes $619 billion to fund national defense programs, including $5.8 billion for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe. Additionally, the bill includes provisions to:\n Gives troops a raise:\u00a0The bill fully funds the 2.1% pay raise our troops are entitled to under the law while blocking the president\u2019s ability to reduce troop pay. \u00a0\n\tKeeps terrorists in GITMO:\u00a0Continues the prohibition preventing the president from transferring any Guantanamo Bay detainees to United States soil.\n\tHelps close the readiness gap:\u00a0The bill corrects budget shortfalls that have impaired readiness and risked our troops\u2019 security and increases funding to restore necessary troop levels and training hours and to modernize our land and sea-based weapons systems critical to deterring threats to the homeland.\n\tPreventing erroneous bonus repayments: The bill establishes a 10-year statute of limitations on the collection of debt from a service member who wasn\u2019t at fault for an overpayment of special pay or other allowance.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://rooney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rooney-autism-amendment-passes-with-ndaa"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.485356129705906, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}