H.R.4655 - United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act
H.R. 4655, was introduced on July 25th, 2025 by Representative Randy Fine. It is currently pending before the House Armed Services Committee, and has 11 co-sponsors on a bipartisan basis.
Related legislation:
Bill Summary: H.R. 4655, the United States - Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act, directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a grant program supporting collaborative PTSD research between the United States and Israel. The Bill aims to provide U.S. institutions access to Israeli research findings and ongoing studies. The legislation authorizes the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Departments of Veterans Affairs and State Department, to award grants to U.S. academic and nonprofit institutions partnering with Israeli entities under the U.S. - Israel Binational Science Foundation framework. The Bill sets eligibility requirements, mandates reporting to Congress, permits acceptance of gifts, and sunsets the program seven years after the first grant is awarded.
Context: The United States is recognized as having one of the most robust and comprehensive mental health research infrastructures globally, particularly in the areas of PTSD, complex trauma, acute trauma, and related comorbidities. H.R. 4655 is premised on the assertion that collaboration with Israeli research institutions would yield significant advancements for U.S. PTSD research. However, Israel’s own mental health system has significant deficiencies in mental health care and comprehensive psychological trauma research, gaps that have only widened over the past two years. The number of IDF soldiers seeking care for combat-related psychological disorders has risen sharply, totaling more than 80,000 new cases. During this same period, reported suicides among IDF soldiers have more than doubled Compounding the crisis, underinvestment by Israel in military mental health capacity has left providers managing overwhelming caseloads. In response, IDF soldiers have protested at the Knesset, displaying psychiatric medication bottles and voicing anger over limited access to care and rising suicide rates among their peers. This discrepancy between mental health realities in Israel and the United States raises questions about whether such collaboration would generate substantial marginal benefits for U.S. research institutions, or primarily serve to supplement gaps in Israel’s research and service capacity.
The rapid rise in psychological distress among IDF personnel must also be understood in the context of Israel's military conduct in Gaza in which IDF soldiers have been systematically implicated in the extrajudicial killing and targeting of civilians, leading to credible accusations of war crimes and an internationally recognized genocide. The resulting mental health crisis experienced by the IDF is a result of its own undisciplined rules of engagement in Gaza. It is vital that U.S. taxpayers not be positioned as the financial backstop for Israel’s irresponsible and immoral decisions – in war, or in treatment of its own servicemembers.
American Values Analysis: H.R. 4655 prioritizes institutional integration with Israel over the mental health needs of U.S. servicemembers and veterans. The Bill’s narrow focus raises questions about whether advancing research outcomes, rather than symbolic partnership, is the primary objective. The United States leads in treatment modalities beyond those demonstrated in the Bill’s language, those that have demonstrated both clinical and statistical significance in treating PTSD, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), hypnosis-based interventions, and other emerging trauma-informed and trauma-focused models. Fiscal responsibility demands that taxpayer dollars strengthen coordination within America’s own mental health systems before addressing capacity shortfalls abroad.
American Interest Analysis: H.R. 4655 does not clearly advance American interests. The Bill fails to demonstrate how the proposed U.S. - Israel collaboration would improve PTSD outcomes for U.S. service members or civilians, given the strength of existing domestic research pipelines and capacity gaps within Israel’s mental health research sector. Without a clear comparative advantage or measurable benefit, the proposal risks diverting U.S. taxpayer resources toward institutional integration in the service of a military renowned for its human rights abuses, rather than outcome-driven research.
A New Policy’s Recommendation: OPPOSE
A New Policy opposes H.R. 4655. Although framed as a PTSD research initiative, the Bill does not demonstrate that the proposed U.S.- Israel collaboration would meaningfully advance mental health outcomes for the United States. Instead, it reflects limited engagement with existing research landscapes and prioritizes institutional integration with Israel over evidence-based policy outcomes - and suggests the U.S. cares more for the wellbeing of IDF soldiers than Israel does itself.
For more information please contact: Tariq Habash, (202) 770-0055, info@anewpolicy.org
