H.R. 6096: Arla Harrell Act
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H.R. 6096: Arla Harrell Act
114th Congress · introduced 2016-09-21 · Armed Forces and National Security · Latest: Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
federal
Follow this bill, step by step
- Where it came from: introduced 2016-09-21 · official record
- Who proposed it: Rep. Walorski, Jackie [R-IN-2] · what a sponsor is
- What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
- Where it stands now: Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
- If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.
Official title
Arla Harrell Act
Plain summary
Arla Harrell Act This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to reconsider and make a new determination regarding each claim for disability compensation in connection with exposure to mustard gas or lewisite during active military, naval, or air service during World War II that was denied before this bill's enactment. The VA or the Department of Defense (DOD): (1) shall presume that a veteran experienced full-body exposure to mustard gas or lewisite unless proven otherwise; and (2) may not use information contained in the DOD and VA Chemical Biological Warfare Database or any list of known testing sites for mustard gas or lewisite maintained by the VA or DOD as the sole reason for determining that the veteran did not experience such exposure. The VA shall report to Congress every 90 days on reconsidered claims that were denied. The VA and DOD shall jointly establish a policy for processing future claims in connection with such exposure. The bill requires DOD, for purposes of determining whether a site should be added to the list of DOD sites where mustard gas or lewisite testing occurred, to: (1) investigate and assess sites where the Army Corps of Engineers has uncovered evidence of mustard gas or lewisite testing or where more than two veterans submitted claims in connection with exposure that were denied; and (2) report on experiments conducted by DOD during World War II to assess the effects of mustard gas and lewisite. The VA shall: (1) investigate and assess VA actions to reach out to individuals who had been exposed in such experiments, the disability compensation claims that were filed, and the percentage of such claims that were denied; and (2) submit a comprehensive list of each location where such an experiment was conducted.
Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.
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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes
Officials and money
Sponsor: Rep. Walorski, Jackie [R-IN-2] · 2 cosponsors
Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.
Cosponsors on this site
No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.
Words on this page, explained (1)
- Bill
- A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).
Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
- Congress.gov
- Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114hr6096.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/hr>
Record fed-us-cong114-hr6096 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114