[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 117 (Thursday, July 24, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1231-E1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SUICIDE PREVENTION AMENDMENT TO H.R. 4870 DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
                APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. RUSH HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 24, 2014

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, on June 18, 2014, I offered an amendment to 
this legislation to address another facet of a national tragedy: the 
epidemic of suicide among our soldiers and veterans.
  In March of this year, zero U.S. troops died in combat. In that same 
month, almost 700 soldiers and veterans died at their own hand.
  This bill takes really enormous strides to treat the mental health 
problems underlying this epidemic. It provides tens of millions of 
dollars for therapy, outreach, and peer-to-peer support--and for that, 
the chairman and the ranking member, all the committee members, have my 
sincere praise and gratitude.
  Suicide and the decision to take one's own life is complex and often 
mysterious, but we err if we think suicide is only a mental health 
problem. In truth, suicide is often the desperate act of a soldier or 
veteran in a desperate situation--and one important component of that 
desperation is financial stress.
  My amendment has been endorsed by the American Foundation for Suicide 
Prevention. It would set aside up to $1 million to study these issues: 
to improve our understanding of the links between financial stress, 
financial abuse, and military suicide, and generate recommendations to 
fix these interlinked problems.
  A few years ago, Army Sergeant Angelo Stevens was living with 
$100,000 in debt. He had just been told that, because of his 
deteriorating finances, he was at risk of losing his security 
clearance. If he lost his clearance, he would lose his job--which would 
make his debt even more unmanageable.
  Sergeant Stevens met with a military financial planner. He left 
feeling hopeless and humiliated. He told a reporter, ``I walked out 
thinking, `If I'm dead my family can get $500,000 in life insurance, 
but I have to kill myself.' ''
  Now, Sergeant Stevens ultimately found help and survived, but he was 
far from alone in his desperation. According to the Defense 
Department's Suicide Event Report, in 2011, almost one in three 
military suicides was linked to workplace or financial problems. About 
one in 10 was directly associated with excessive debt or bankruptcy. 
Nearly half were associated with family or legal stress that might also 
be related to financial stress. These numbers surely underestimate the 
problem, as financial data wasn't even collected for many suicide 
deaths.
  So we know, through personal stories like Sergeant Stevens' and 
through existing data, that financial stress is a major contributor to 
military suicide. But here's what we don't know.
  We don't know, in many cases of military suicide, whether financial 
stress contributed to the soldier's decision to take his or her own 
life.
  We don't know how many soldiers lose their security clearances 
because of personal financial problems, nor how the loss of a clearance 
contributes to mental health problems or suicide.
  We don't know, in any evidence-based way, whether existing military 
financial planning programs are working to alleviate financial stress, 
financial abuse, mental health problems, or suicide risk.
  We need to understand the effects of financial stress and financial 
abuse on mental health problems, including suicide, among our soldiers. 
We need to understand how effectively the Defense Department is 
providing adequate, unbiased, comprehensive financial planning and 
financial counseling--and we need to understand the obstacles that 
prevent military personnel from seeking these services.
  We need to understand how effectively the suicide prevention programs 
at the Defense Department, the VA, and the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau are working together, and how they could work 
together better.
  And we need to build connections between the mental health 
professionals and the financial planning professionals who serve our 
soldiers. Mental health problems and financial problems both contribute 
to suicide, and we should explore ways to treat these problems together 
rather than separately.
  Earlier, I told the story of Sergeant Angelo Stevens. He was one of 
the lucky ones. A financial planner overheard his accounting of his 
struggles, and on her personal time, she helped him put his financial 
life back together. With a lot of help, Sergeant Stevens stepped back 
from the abyss.

[[Page E1232]]

  But he got that help only by coincidence, not by design. We can do 
better. We can design our military to be more responsive, 
compassionate, and helpful to soldiers like Sergeant Stevens. We can 
pull more soldiers back from the abyss.
  I appreciate my House colleagues' support for this amendment, and I 
hope that in any House-Senate conference on the final DoD 
appropriations bill this amendment will be retained. We need this 
information. It will help us save lives.

                          ____________________