this legislation is named after jacob sexton, an indiana national guardsman from farmland, indiana, who took his own life while home on 15-day leave from afghanistan. building upon legislation i introduced last year, the sexton act ensures that mental health is evaluated regularly and is a central element of a service member's overall readiness in four key ways. first, it requires annual mental health assessments for all service members, including the active duty, the guard and the reserve. right now the military provides the most effective mental health care only for those who are preparing for returning from deployment. despite the research that shows the majority of military suicides occur among service members who have never been deployed. second, it establishes a working group between the department of defense and the department of health and human services to find innovative ways to improve access to mental health care for members of the guard and reserve. where service members often rely on civilian health insurance and providers like the guard and the reserve do, we want to team