{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/veterans-committee-witnesses-support-senator-kings-mental-care-legislation", "Veterans Committee Witnesses Support Senator King\u2019s Mental Care Legislation", "2026-04-16", "2026", "2026-04", "Independent", "Senate", "ME", "Angus S. King, Jr.", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", "angusking", "https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/table", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014Senator Angus King (I-ME), a member of the Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee, today vetted legislationhe recently introduced that would allow the Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs (VA) to provide mental health services to incarcerated veterans. In a conversation with the Director of the Veterans Justice Commission, Brigadier General David \u201cMac\u201d MacEwen, King confirmed MacEwen\u2019s support \u2013 as well as the support of the entire panel of witnesses \u2013 for King\u2019s bill that would allow the VA to provide mental health care to incarcerated veterans with a service-connected disability for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or military sexual trauma (MST). The hearing panel also included Chief Counsel of All Rise Major General Clyde \u201cButch\u201d Tate, U.S. Army (Ret.), the Honorable Chief Justice (Ret.) of the Kansas Supreme Court Lawton Nuss, U.S. Army Veteran Corey Schramm, and Associate Teaching Professor and Director of the Veterans Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law, Rose Carmen Goldberg.\n\nSenator King began, \u201cLet me ask, the bill that was mentioned, the Get Justice-Involved Veterans BACK HOME, the pilot program for the V.A. to provide mental health services for incarcerated veterans. To me that is a gimme. That's obvious. But we have to start with a pilot program. I understand the commission is recommending returning to the 1944 G.I. Bill. The plain language [of the \u201944 legislation] would allow most veterans to access V.A. services. Why did the commission make that recommendation? Give me background on that.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you, Senator. The commission made the recommendation because there was a huge discussion, we had researchers look at this as the commission did work. In 1944, the Congress spent weeks looking at who should be eligible for V.A. Benefits when they established the original G.I. Bill and they said only the worst of the worst should not get benefits. Dishonorable discharge that was the cut off. That was the rule and then over time, by rule, not by the intent of Congress, by rule, it has been chipped away. All of a sudden, narrowing the class of citizen who had served, that no longer was eligible for benefits. So what happened over time, those most in need of benefits are denied benefits. So, we said, that doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Brigadier General MacEwen responded.\n\n\u201cLike somebody that is incarcerated?,\u201d Senator King clarified.\n\n\u201cSomeone incarcerated with a felony conviction loses it. But an example I would use for you, sir, is someone who had military sexual trauma, and becomes a bad soldier because they are dealing with that military sexual trauma. So they are not showing up to formation. The commander says this isn't a good soldier, so the -- so they administratively discharged him and give him bad paper because he isn't showing up to work, but not because of the underlying condition. Because they don't have an evidence-based process to look at him. They discharge them and he or she doesn't get health care at the V.A,\u201d Brigadier General MacEwen responded.\n\n\u201cJust for the record, do all of you agree that VA mental health benefits should be available to incarcerated veterans?,\u201d Senator King asked.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d answered all witnesses.\n\n\u201cThat is a yes from everybody,\u201d Senator King confirmed for the record.\n\nRepresenting one of the states with the highest rates of military families and veterans per capita, Senator King is a staunch advocate for America\u2019s servicemembers and veterans. Last month, Senator King was honored by The American Legion with its 2026 Distinguished Public Service Award. Last year, Senator King was honored by the Disabled American Veterans as its 2025 Legislator of the Year. He was also recognized by the Wounded Warrior Project as the 2024 Legislator of the Year for his \u201coutstanding legislative effort and achievement to improve the lives of the wounded, ill, and injured veterans.\u201d\n\nOn the Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee (SVAC), he works to ensure American veterans receive their earned benefits and that the VA is properly implementing various programs. Earlier this year, he introduced the TAP Promotion Act which would allow accredited representatives from Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs), or other organizations, to participate in Transition Assistance Program (TAP) classes to help transitioning servicemembers file Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) claims. Additionally, he introduced the Ensuring Benefits for Disabled Veterans Act, which would address an unfair rule in federal law that creates unnecessary delays when veterans with service-connected disabilities attempt to access earned education and employment benefits.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-17T05:47:03Z", "2026-04-17T05:48:33Z"]], "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://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/veterans-committee-witnesses-support-senator-kings-mental-care-legislation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4907228760421276, "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"}