Cory Booker: “I rise today to introduce with my colleague Senator Dean Heller, legislation that would extend a critical and innovative…”

“I rise today to introduce with my colleague Senator Dean Heller, legislation that would extend a critical and innovative program for our nation's veterans. Senator Heller and I urge our colleagues to consider The Assisted Living Program for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury Extension, AL-TBI, Act which authorizes the continuation of a Veterans Health Administration program that provides intensive care and rehabilitation to veterans with severe brain injuries. Thanks to this program, veterans with traumatic brain injuries more quickly re-adjust to their day-to-day lives--from making dinner for others, to fixing a faucet, to doing yard work. AL-TBI consists of privately run group homes around the country where veterans are immersed in therapies for movement, memory, speech, and gradual community reintegration. Veterans in these homes benefit from 24-hour team-based care. There are about twenty of these homes in New Jersey that have yielded impressive results. Nationally, several dozen veterans have been rehabilitated from severe injuries that are notoriously difficult to treat. This program is working to help a generation of veterans with traumatic brain injuries and so many older veterans that have been suffering for decades. Since 2001, more than 265,000 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.…”