To establish certain requirements relating to wellness checks for the health and welfare of certain members of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill directs the Defense Secretary to issue regulations, policies, and procedures requiring a wellness check whenever appropriate after a service member sustains a significant injury or illness or goes on sick call. If the member does not respond to an electronic or telephone check, the checker must progress to in-person contact.
When the checker cannot locate the member, the checker must use applicable Defense Department procedures for determining and reporting missing, absent unknown, absent without leave, or duty-status-whereabouts-unknown status. Unit commanders must coordinate with assigned or supporting judge advocates when implementing the requirements.
Commanders must routinely review their Commander's Critical Information Requirements or successor document. The requirements must have been issued or updated within the preceding three years, include medical or safety incidents the commander considers significant, and be distributed to the unit. Commanders must also host confidential wellness meetings where subordinate commanders can discuss significant injuries or illnesses with unit medical officers.
Each military department, and DOD for civilian employees, must provide accountability and wellness-check content through leadership and supervisor training. The bill does not define every significant condition, require an in-person visit before remote outreach, or replace existing missing-person status rules.
Who Benefits and How
Injured or ill service members gain a structured escalation from remote outreach to in-person contact and existing missing-status procedures. Families may receive quicker detection when a member cannot be found. Commanders gain current incident criteria and medical consultation. Medical officers and judge advocates gain defined roles in confidential review and implementation. Units may reduce severe outcomes caused by failed accountability.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Unit commanders must maintain requirements, hold confidential meetings, coordinate legal support, and ensure follow-up. Supervisors or designated checkers must attempt in-person contact after remote nonresponse and invoke status procedures when necessary. Judge advocates and medical officers must support implementation. Military departments and DOD civilian training staff must develop and deliver courses, while personnel must attend added accountability instruction.
Key Provisions
- Requires wellness-check policies after qualifying medical events when appropriate.
- Requires in-person contact after failed electronic or telephone outreach.
- Directs checkers to use existing missing-status procedures.
- Requires unit-command coordination with judge advocates.
- Requires routine review of critical information requirements.
- Establishes confidential commander meetings with medical officers.
- Requires military leadership accountability training.
- Extends supervisor training to DOD civilian personnel.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires Defense Department wellness-check policies after significant service-member injury, illness, or sick call when appropriate, including in-person escalation after failed remote contact, missing-status procedures, commander and legal coordination, routine confidential medical review, and accountability training for military and civilian personnel.
Key Policy Areas
Military Personnel Accountability, Service Member Health, Command Wellness Checks, Military Missing Status, Defense Leadership Training
Primary Purpose
Requires Defense Department wellness-check policies after significant service-member injury, illness, or sick call when appropriate, including in-person escalation after failed remote contact, missing-status procedures, commander and legal coordination, routine confidential medical review, and accountability training for military and civilian personnel.
Policy Domains
Section 1 military wellness-check and accountability requirements
Identified Gains
- Injured service members awaiting follow-up
- Ill service members on sick call
- Military families concerned about missing members
- Commanders receiving medical accountability guidance
- Medical officers flagging serious conditions
- Units reducing preventable welfare failures
Identified Costs
- Unit commanders conducting routine reviews
- Supervisors escalating wellness contacts
- Judge advocates supporting implementation
- Medical officers attending confidential meetings
- Military leadership-training staff
- DOD civilian supervisor-training staff
- Personnel attending accountability courses
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Arrington (for himself, Mr. McDowell, Mrs. Luna, Mr. Rose, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Commanders receiving medical accountability guidance, Ill service members on sick call, Injured service members awaiting follow-up
Positive-direction: Commanders receiving medical accountability guidance, Ill service members on sick call, Injured service members awaiting follow-up, Medical officers flagging serious conditions, Units reducing preventable welfare failures
Negative-direction: Judge advocates supporting implementation, Medical officers attending confidential meetings, Military leadership-training staff, Supervisors escalating wellness contacts, Unit commanders conducting routine reviews
Military families concerned about missing members
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "implementer"
- → Unit commander
- "policy_lead"
- → Secretary of Defense
- "legal_adviser"
- → Judge advocate supporting the unit
- "medical_adviser"
- → Medical officer assigned to the unit
- "protected_member"
- → Service member with a significant injury or illness
Note: {'scope_ids': ['military_wellness_accountability'], 'description': 'The initial wellness-check duty applies whenever appropriate after a significant medical event; the bill leaves significance and initial method to implementing policy, escalates only after nonresponse, and relies on existing status rules rather than redefining absence categories.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Health-and-welfare contact following a qualifying medical event, with in-person escalation after failed remote contact.
A service member whom the checker cannot locate and for whom existing missing or absence-status procedures must be consulted.
The military-department secretary identified by section 101(a) of title 10.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology