Defense Bill Orders Military to Take New Action on Brain Injury

Mandates in the annual appropriations act, passed on Wednesday, call for the Pentagon to track and mitigate risks to troops’ brains from firing their own weapons.

Congress passed a sweeping new set of mandates on brain safety in the military Wednesday, requiring the Pentagon to set new safety limits for troops’ blast exposure, track and report exposures throughout their careers, modify existing weapons to reduce the danger and, for the first time, take brain safety into account when designing new weapons.

The new requirements are part of the $895 billion military spending bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate approved on Wednesday. It cleared the House last week.

The provisions on brain safety reflect a broad shift in how Congress and the military view the hazard of blast exposure, also called overpressure. Evidence mounted this year that service members are at risk of developing brain injuries from repeatedly firing their own weapons and from high-performance equipment like speedboats and fighter jets, but the military often has missed the problem.

“It’s been a hard fight to get to this point,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who introduced the measures, said in an interview. “Finally, there was widespread acknowledgment of a problem with blast overpressure and what it’s doing to the brains of our service members.”

The annual spending bill contains hundreds of provisions governing military pay, the purchase of new equipment and other expenditures, and it is often used to direct military leaders to address Congressional priorities. At times it has also become a battleground for social issues.

The provisions on blast exposures and brain health require the military to focus on an issue that it has largely ignored for decades.