U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines today introduced a bipartisan bill to expand opportunities for veterans recovering from trauma to access public lands for outdoor therapy and rehabilitation treatments.
“In Big Sky Country, we know how important our outdoor heritage is to our Montana way of life,” Daines said. “This bill will help ensure our veterans are able to take full advantage of Montana’s and our nation’s outdoors as they recover from the trauma and injuries they experienced in combat. The therapeutic benefits the great outdoors can have on our veterans will help aide in their recovery and showcase the beauty of the country they so valiantly served to defend.”
Daines introduced the bipartisan bill, the Accelerating Veterans Recovery Outdoors Act, with Senator Cortez Masto.
Specifically, the bill would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish an inter-agency task force to be co-chaired by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior and including the Secretary of HHS, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Defense as members. The task force would seek to better utilize public lands for the rehabilitation and therapy of veterans and to identify existing barriers that prevent veterans from more broadly utilizing outdoor recreation for medical treatment.
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