United States HR 232: Real Justice for Our Veterans Act of 2023

Bill Text

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118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 232
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to
prioritize veterans court treatment programs that ensure equal access
for racial and ethnic minorities and women, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 10, 2023
Ms. JACKSON LEE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
Act of 1968 to prioritize veterans court treatment pro-
grams that ensure equal access for racial and ethnic
minorities and women, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Real Justice for Our 4
Veterans Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. EQUAL ACCESS TO VETERANS COURT TREATMENT 1
PROGRAMS FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC MI-2
NORITIES AND WOMEN. 3
Section 2991(i)(2) of the Omnibus Crime Control and 4
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10651(i)(2)) is 5
amended by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(C) REPORT.—Not later than 3 years 7
after the date of enactment of this subpara-8
graph, the Attorney General shall submit to 9
Congress a report on the effectiveness of vet-10
erans treatment court programs. In preparing 11
such a report, the Attorney General shall con-12
duct a national multi-site evaluation of such 13
programs, including an assessment of— 14
‘‘(i) the population served by such 15
programs; 16
‘‘(ii) whether such programs use evi-17
dence-based treatments for substance use 18
and mental health, including medication 19
for addiction treatment; 20
‘‘(iii) recidivism rates of participants 21
in such programs; 22
‘‘(iv) program completion rates; and 23
‘‘(v) whether racial and ethnic minori-24
ties and women have equal access to such 25
programs and an equal opportunity to 26
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complete such programs, including by col-1
lecting and analyzing data related to ad-2
mission in such programs and completion 3
of such programs, to ensure there are not 4
disparities related to race, ethnicity, or 5
sex.’’. 6
SEC. 3. VETERANS PILOT PROGRAM ON PROMISING RETEN-7
TION MODELS. 8
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Attorney General, acting 9
through the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, 10
shall carry out a pilot program to make grants to eligible 11
units of local government to improve retention in veterans 12
treatment court programs (as such term is defined in sec-13
tion 2991 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 14
Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10651)) and drug court programs. 15
(b) ELIGIBILITY.—In order to be eligible for a grant 16
under subsection (a), a unit of local government shall op-17
erate a veterans treatment court program or a drug court. 18
(c) APPLICATION.—A unit of local government seek-19
ing a grant through the pilot program under subsection 20
(a) shall submit to the Attorney General an application 21
at such time, in such manner, and containing such infor-22
mation as the Attorney General may reasonably require, 23
including— 24
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(1) a description of the therapeutic or treat-1
ment modality that the unit of local government 2
plans to implement and data to support the use of 3
the therapeutic or treatment modality, including in-4
formation showing how the therapeutic or treatment 5
modality will promote retention in and completion of 6
veterans treatment court programs and drug court 7
programs; and 8
(2) detailed plans on how the applicant would 9
test the efficacy of the therapeutic or treatment mo-10
dality. 11
(d) REPORTING METRICS.—Not later than 180 days 12
after receiving a grant under subsection (a), a unit of local 13
government shall submit to the Attorney General a report, 14
which includes demographic information of participants in 15
the veterans treatment court program, and completion 16
rates of such participants. The Attorney General shall de-17
velop guidelines for the report required under this sub-18
section. 19
(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 20
authorized to be appropriated $3,000,000 for each of fis-21
cal years 2023 through 2028 to carry out this section. 22
SEC. 4. ADMISSION OF VETERANS TO DRUG COURTS. 23
In the case of a jurisdiction that does not operate 24
a veterans treatment court program (as such term is de-25
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fined in section 2991 of