On any normal day, US Sens. Sherrod Brown and Roy Blunt and US Reps. Tammy Duckworth and Steve Stivers would be squabbling over a long list of issues that taken together create a political chasm so wide that no bridge could span it.

Brown and Stivers both represent Ohio constituencies, but Brown is an unapologetic progressive-liberal and Democratic with no military service, while Stivers is a conservative Republican and veteran who did a tour of duty in Iraq. Blunt also is without military service, but he would fall-in and march in sync with Stivers on nearly all issues of the day. Duckworth, a veteran who lost limbs in service to the nation, would sign on with Brown to take on Republican opposition.

But they united Thursday, announcing their sponsorship of a bill that almost 300,000 American veterans struggling with Post Traumatic Stress and another 25,000 veterans facing mild Traumatic Brain Injuries want them to fight for.

Their new bill—The Mental-health Exposure Military Official Record Act —is designed to help active duty service members better track potential exposures during deployment that could be later connected to mental health injuries and mild TBIs. Lack of proper documentation and no visible, physical injuries make it hard for veterans to establish a connection between injuries and military service. Poor or no documentation leads to improper medical care, which no veteran wants, while increasing the backlog of disability claims.

Sen. Brown, the sponsor of Significant Event Tracker Act, the bill that MEMORy is modeled on, said veterans should be able to focus on their recovery without having to prove the cause of their injury. "When veterans seek claims for war-related injuries like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, the burden for establishing the connection should be on the Department of Defense, not on the veteran,” Brown said in prepared remarks.

Blunt was blunt. “Too often, our nation’s heroes suffer from unseen wounds linked to traumatic events during military service, without a way to prove or document the cause of their injuries." Blunt believes the legislation will make it easier to document exposures to significant events. Doing so, he observes, can advance servicemembers’ and veterans’ claims and work to improve treatment for the increasing number of veterans suffering from war-related mental health conditions.

Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois just like President Barack Obama, stressed the nation's commitment to providing veterans with the care they need.

"That means reducing barriers to care however we can," Duckworth said. An average of 22 veterans commit suicide every day, she said, declaring "we must be able to identify those with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries with ease and accuracy."

Duckworth, the first Asian American woman elected to Congress in Illinois, is also the first disabled woman elected to the US House. The first female double amputee from the war, having lost both of her legs and suffering damage to her right arm, Duckworth knows from personal experience how difficult it can be for injured war veterans to reintegrate into civilian life.

“Our service members risk their lives and safety to protect our country and its freedoms,” Iraq War veteran Stivers, a lead cosponsor of the MEMORy Act, said, He said the country shares a moral obligation to care for veterans when they return home. "The MEMORy Act improves the reporting process and alleviates the burden of proof our veterans must undergo in order to secure the care and support they deserve for service-connected injuries, like PTSD and TBI," he said.

Stivers tweeted "Voted for the #Veterans Access to Care legislation last night to repair and improve our #VA care system."

How will MEMORy work? Unit commanders would document events that individual service members are exposed to which might later be connected to PTSD, mTBI or other injuries. The Department of Defense would then furnish these Significant Event entries to the VA to ensure better treatment for veterans and faster processing of claims. Unit commanders and their delegates would be able to report unit and individual exposures to traumatic events. By creating an individualized SET, injuries that are not currently documented through physical injuries, awards or other service-related means will now be included on an individual’s medical history.

How it works now: Currently, veterans who file compensation and disability claims, or seek medical care, must provide the US Department of Veterans Affairs with evidence that connects their claim to previous military service. In cases and conditions such as PTS and mTBI, veterans must provide either a written testimony from another service member who witnessed the accident, submit relevant medical documentation that supports the claim, or possess military orders that prove the veteran was in a unit or location that supports the claim. These types of documentation, however, provide only a secondary account of the claim and may not fully illustrate the veteran’s claim of service connected PTS and mild TBI.