119-hr530

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 530 Referred in Senate

    (RFS) ]

<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 530

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 May 6, 2025

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

 AN ACT

 To provide for a study by the National Academies of Sciences, 
 Engineering, and Medicine on the prevalence and mortality of cancer 
 among individuals who served as active duty aircrew in the Armed 
 Forces, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``ACES Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL ACADEMIES STUDY ON PREVALENCE AND MORTALITY OF CANCER 
 AMONG INDIVIDUALS WHO SERVED AS ACTIVE DUTY AIRCREW IN 
 THE ARMED FORCES.

    (a) Agreement.--

    (1) In general.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
 the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
 shall seek to enter into an agreement with the National 
 Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (in this 
 section referred to as the ``National Academies''), under which 
 the National Academies shall conduct a study on the prevalence 
 and mortality of cancers among covered individuals.

    (2) Deadline.--
        (A) Date.--The Secretary shall finalize the 
 agreement under paragraph

    (1) by not later than 60 days 
 after the date on which the Secretary enters 
 negotiations with the National Academies with respect 
 to such agreement.
        (B) Report; briefings.--If the Secretary fails to 
 satisfy the requirement under subparagraph
        (A) , the 
 Secretary shall--
            (i) submit to the Committees on Veterans' 
 Affairs of the House of Representatives and the 
 Senate a report that includes--
            (I) an explanation of the reasons 
 the Secretary failed to satisfy such 
 requirement; and
            (II) an estimate of the date on 
 which the Secretary will finalize the 
 agreement under paragraph

    (1) ; and
            (ii) not less frequently than once every 60 
 days after the date on which the Secretary 
 failed to satisfy such requirement, provide to 
 the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the 
 House of Representatives and the Senate a 
 briefing on the progress of the Secretary 
 toward finalizing such agreement.

    (b) Study.--The study required under subsection

    (a) shall--

    (1) identify exposures associated with military occupations 
 of covered individuals, including relating to chemicals, 
 compounds, agents, and other phenomena;

    (2) review the literature to determine associations between 
 exposures referred to in paragraph

    (1) and the incidence or 
 prevalence of overall cancer morbidity, overall cancer 
 mortality, and increased incidence or prevalence of--
        (A) brain cancer;
        (B) colon and rectal cancers;
            (C) kidney cancer;
            (D) lung cancer;
        (E) melanoma skin cancer;
        (F) non-Hodgkin lymphoma;
        (G) pancreatic cancer;
        (H) prostate cancer;
            (I) testiscular cancer;
        (J) thyroid cancer;
        (K) urinary bladder cancer; and
            (L) other cancers as determined appropriate by the 
 Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in consultation with the 
 National Academies; and

    (3) determine, to the extent possible, the prevalence of 
 and mortality from the cancers specified in paragraph

    (2) among 
 covered individuals by using available sources of data, which 
 may include--
        (A) health care and other administrative databases 
 of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department 
 of Defense, and the individual Services, respectively;
        (B) the national death index maintained by the 
 National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers 
 for Disease Control and Prevention; and
            (C) the study conducted under 

section 750 of the 
 William M.

    (Mac) Thornberry National Defense 
 Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (Public Law 116-
 283; 134 Stat. 3716).
            (c) Report.--At the conclusion of the study required under 
subsection

    (a) , the National Academies shall submit to the Secretary 
and to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the House of 
Representatives and the Senate a report containing the results of the 
study described in subsection

    (b) .
            (d) Covered Individual Defined.--In this section, the term 
``covered individual'' means an individual who served on active duty in 
the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps as an aircrew member of a 
fixed-wing aircraft, including as a pilot, navigator, weapons systems 
operator, aircraft system operator, or any other crew member who 
regularly flew in a fixed-wing aircraft.

SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF CERTAIN LIMITS ON PAYMENTS OF PENSION.

 

Section 5503
            (d) (7) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by 
striking ``November 30, 2031'' and inserting ``December 31, 2031''.

 Passed the House of Representatives May 5, 2025.

 Attest:

 KEVIN F. MCCUMBER,

 Clerk.