[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 138 (Thursday, September 24, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H6214-H6220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PREVENTING VETERAN SUICIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on the topic of preventing veteran 
suicide.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize September as 
Suicide Prevention Month. I want to thank my colleague, Kyrsten Sinema, 
for joining me and putting together this Special Order hour. For the 
next hour, we will discuss an issue that is very important to me and 
should be unacceptable in a nation of our resources: veteran suicide.
  A veteran in this country commits suicide every 65 minutes. That is 
22 lives extinguished every day.
  As the father of a veteran, a doctor who worked at a VA hospital in 
northern Michigan, and the chairman of the Health Subcommittee on 
Veterans' Affairs, I know that the challenges of military life do not 
end once our servicemembers retire from Active Duty. The mental wounds 
of war may be invisible, but they are no less real to the young men and 
women suffering from them.
  Facing high unemployment rates, the stigma of post-traumatic stress 
disorder, and a loss of military fellowship, returning veterans often 
face a crisis of confidence at the very moment they should feel nothing 
but relief and rest.
  Congress did make a real impact early this year when we passed the 
Clay Hunt SAV Act, which is helping the VA put the very best mental 
healthcare professionals to work for our veterans and creating peer 
support groups to help catch those transitioning servicemembers who may 
otherwise fall through the cracks. However, so much more needs to be 
done.
  I am grateful to my colleagues for standing with me today for our 
most vulnerable veterans and their families. I look forward to hearing 
what they have to say and to working with them to end veteran suicide.
  I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Abraham).
  Mr. ABRAHAM. Thank you, Dr. Benishek, for having this.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues to raise awareness of 
veteran suicide prevention. Let me underscore the word ``prevention''--
prevention because veteran suicide is a public health tragedy. As a 
doctor, I know it is a preventable tragedy. For far too long, PTSD has 
been stigmatized, and it is time to remove that stigma.
  Twenty-two percent of Americans who commit suicide are veterans. That 
statistic is unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable to the 
American people. Our Nation's heroes should come home to readily 
available mental health care. They should not have to wait days, weeks, 
or even months to receive treatment. Veterans should not have to wait 
at all.
  The Clay Hunt SAV Act, which was signed into law earlier this year, 
was an excellent first step in giving veterans options, but there is 
more work to be done.
  As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and a veteran myself, 
I will continue to fight for a more streamlined system to treat our 
veterans suffering from PTSD and continue to work to reform the VA 
system to be a system that puts the veteran first, not the bureaucrat.
  Mr. BENISHEK. I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Sinema).
  Ms. SINEMA. Thank you, Congressman Benishek, for joining me today as 
a cohost of tonight's Special Order.
  September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time for our Nation to raise 
awareness about the persistent scourge of suicide. Tens of thousands of 
Americans each year purposefully die by their own actions. They are our 
neighbors and our friends, our sons and our daughters; and too often, 
they are the men and women who have served our country honorably in the 
United States military.
  An estimated 22 veterans lose their lives to suicide every single day 
in our country. That is one life lost every 65 minutes.
  Typically, time in the House Chamber is split. Republicans have 1 
hour and Democrats have another hour, but Congressman Benishek and I 
believe that this issue is too important to be overshadowed by partisan 
politics. That is why we have joined together today, with our 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to show our commitment to 
solving this problem together and to finding real solutions for our 
country's veterans.
  This is the third year we have assembled in this Chamber to raise 
awareness and to send a clear message that the epidemic of veteran 
suicide must end. We have so much work left to do. So today, we 
demonstrate our ongoing support for the individuals, organizations, and 
agencies devoted to preventing the epidemic of veteran suicide. Today, 
we challenge the VA, the Department of Defense, and our fellow 
lawmakers to do more. We are failing in our obligation to do right by 
those who have served so honorably.
  Finally, we send a message to military families who have experienced 
this tragedy in their own families: Your family's loss is not 
forgotten. We work for the memory of your loved ones. We will not rest 
until every veteran in this country has access to the care that he or 
she needs.

                              {time}  1615

  I have often shared the story of a young veteran in my district, 
Sergeant Daniel Somers. Sergeant Somers was an Army veteran of two 
tours in Iraq.
  Diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder, Sergeant Somers took his own life after 
struggling with the VA bureaucracy and not getting the help he needed 
in time.
  Together with the Somers family, we worked to develop the Classified 
Veterans Access to Care Act to ensure that all veterans, including 
those who served with classified experiences, can get immediate access 
to the mental health care that they need in the appropriate care 
setting.
  I recently testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee on 
the need for this important legislation, and I am grateful for the 
committee's support for this legislation. I am grateful for my 
cosponsor, Congressman Dan Benishek.
  I will continue working with the committee to ensure that no veteran 
feels trapped, like Sergeant Somers did, and that all of our veterans 
have access to appropriate mental health care.
  My State, Arizona, is ground zero for the VA's failure to take care 
of our veterans. It has been over a year since we learned about the 
veterans at the Phoenix VA Hospital who were kept on secret waiting 
lists, forced to wait months, even years, before seeing a doctor, 
unable to access the care they needed.
  These revelations were shocking and sickening. Arizona veterans died 
while waiting for care. That is absolutely unacceptable and, frankly, 
it is un-American.
  So in Arizona, we took immediate action when we learned from brave 
whistleblowers about this tragedy. Not waiting for the Phoenix VA to 
fix their problems, we came together as a community to make sure that 
Arizona veterans get the access to the care they needed.
  Mr. Speaker, since last summer, we have held six veterans clinic, 
helping nearly 1,000 veterans and military families get access to the 
benefits they have earned. Our team helps veterans in getting access to 
benefits, to housing, to job placement, to education.
  We established a Veterans Mental Health Working Group for community

[[Page H6215]]

providers, veterans service organizations, and the local VA, to bring 
them all together to work to improve access to services. Our group 
meets bimonthly and has made important progress.
  These are some examples of the good that can come when people set 
aside partisanship and put veterans first. That is what is needed from 
all of us in this Chamber and the agencies we work with: to put aside 
partisanship and solve the problem we face to end the scourge of 
veteran suicide in this country.
  Mr. BENISHEK. I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Sinema). I 
really appreciate your comments and your concern for this significant 
problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to outline something that 
I have become aware of in my time here in office.
  While this problem is very monumental, there are many small things 
that the VA can do right now to make a difference. One of these changes 
can be made by the VA immediately.
  I would like to read a letter I received recently from an American 
Legion representative in my district that illustrates the problem 
better than I could.

       Dear Dr. Benishek:
       Here is the situation. Recently I encountered a suicidal 
     veteran from the Sault area who had severe PTSD, 100 percent 
     VA disabled. He called me on a Wednesday hysterical and said 
     that he was contemplating suicide. He was traveling around 
     with his wife in the car at the time. I thought this was a 
     very dangerous situation.
       After several back-and-forth conversations with him, I 
     found out he was not taking any medicines and had not seen 
     his VA psychiatrist in a long time because, as he put it, the 
     psychiatrist was not helping him and it seemed that he didn't 
     really care.
       He insisted that he stay at Wilwin, the American Legion 
     veterans facility, but I told him we needed his 
     psychiatrist's okay.
       As a veteran myself, I thought I should try to help him the 
     best that I could. So I called the VA Suicide Hotline to get 
     answers on how I should handle the situation.
       Here's the problem. I called the Iron Mountain VA. The call 
     started out saying, if you are having a medical or mental 
     health emergency, please hang up and dial 911.
       If you are having thoughts of hurting yourself and want to 
     talk to a mental health professional, please hang up and dial 
     1-800-273-8255.
       If you are thinking of committing suicide, you are already 
     frustrated to the point that you would be glad to talk to 
     anyone, even if it is someone at the VA.
       Can you imagine a veteran in this position even having a 
     paper and pencil in hand to write the number down?
       If he is unable to get the correct number the first time, 
     he must redial the VA, go through the whole spiel again and, 
     hopefully, write the number on a paper the second or third 
     time before he can try dialing. Once dialed, the voice comes 
     on the phone and says, if you are a veteran push 1 and so on.
       When I called the hotline after I pushed 1, listened to 
     music for several minutes before a voice came on the phone, 
     she told me that she was not a veteran, nor did she know much 
     about PTSD veterans. What I needed was advice on how to 
     handle the veteran I was working with, which she did give me.
       How many veterans have committed suicide because of the 
     VA's red tape?
       Here's a solution. When the VA is called and the veteran is 
     contemplating suicide or hurting himself, you should be able 
     to push 1 to get a direct line to the suicide hotline. It 
     should automatically register that the call is coming through 
     the VA system and, yes, it is a veteran calling.

  This constituent was able to get the veteran he referred to the help 
that he needed, but he raised an incredibly good point that I brought 
up repeatedly with the VA.
  The VA told me it would take 6 months to change from an 800 number to 
simply dial 1. This is unacceptable. I call on the VA again today to 
make this change immediately.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from Nebraska (Mr. Ashford).
  Mr. ASHFORD. I thank the gentleman for the time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss a subject many of our veterans 
and their families understandably find great difficulty in discussing.
  Veteran suicide, as we have already heard, is a major problem in our 
country. We have all heard the numbers. An estimated 22 veterans commit 
suicide every day. That is one life every hour.
  Please keep in mind those horrific numbers have names, the names of 
men and women who put themselves in harm's way in order to keep each 
and every one of us safe.
  Earlier this year we passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention of 
American Veterans Act. It addresses the need for more mental healthcare 
experts inside the VA along with expanding the time available to 
veterans to seek mental health care through the VA.
  The new law also calls for an evaluation of all VA mental health care 
and suicide prevention practices to determine what is working and make 
recommendations on what is not. This is a major step in the right 
direction, but we must continue to do more.
  I am proud to say, Mr. Speaker, that, in Omaha, we are currently 
working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a center of 
excellence, a national model for veterans' care that will include top-
flight mental health care and other services so much needed by our 
veterans in our community. That treatment would cover post-traumatic 
stress disorder, depression, anxiety and problems relating to other 
people.
  The debt we owe the men and women who serve this country is a debt 
that can never be repaid. But we must continue to ensure that we keep 
our promises to our veterans and support their very unique healthcare 
issues.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague, the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello).
  Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the 
gentleman from Michigan for hosting this Special Order to raise 
awareness for an issue that impacts constituents in all of our 
congressional districts.
  We can all agree that, as Members of Congress, we need to prioritize 
our veterans. We also need to raise awareness about the invisible 
wounds many of them face. I am speaking about post-traumatic stress 
disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, which can and often does 
lead to thoughts of suicide.
  Mr. Speaker, we also need to make sure that the loved ones of these 
veterans have the support they need so that they may best help those 
who are suffering from these invisible wounds.
  I have been here 9 months. The House has taken some very positive 
steps to help veterans since I have been here and improving suicide 
prevention programs.
  It has been said by several Members already here on the floor today, 
the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act, a commonsense bill that is going 
to increase access to mental health by creating a peer support and 
community outreach pilot program.
  It is going to boost accountability with mental health care by 
requiring an annual evaluation of VA mental health and suicide 
prevention programs.
  It is proof that, when we put party politics aside around here, we 
can get good things done. We should all be proud of that.
  I would like to direct Members' attention to H.R. 2915, the Female 
Veteran Suicide Prevention Act, which has been just passed out of the 
Veterans' Affairs Committee. It is time to bring this bill to the 
floor.
  It will direct the VA to identify mental healthcare prevention 
programs and metrics that are effective in treating female veterans as 
part of the evaluative process required by the Clay Hunt Act, and it 
would require the VA to accommodate a veteran's obligation to not 
properly disclose classified information.
  Mr. Speaker, suicide prevention programs are key to maintaining 
continual engagement with veterans and communities, as well as to raise 
awareness and to help intervene, when necessary.
  I would also add, let's keep in mind the Economic Opportunity 
Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs, which I serve on, with many other 
hardworking Members who are working in a consensus-oriented fashion.
  We need to make sure that the Transition Assistance Program is 
working for our veterans. We need to make sure that, from a veterans' 
hiring preference program, that that is working.
  We need to make sure that we are utilizing the best that the private 
sector has to offer for workforce development training for veterans 
returning to civilian life.
  We know that there is an unfair stigma associated with those who may 
need to seek assistance with mental health.
  Part of the value of why we are here today is to raise awareness and 
help reduce that stigma and say that we understand that there are 
challenges for veterans returning to civilian life and we are here to 
help.

[[Page H6216]]

  We want to raise awareness. We want to make sure that the programs 
that we have in place are working. We are going to continue to do that.
  I applaud those who helped organize this Special Order here today, 
and I am honored to participate in it.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from Illinois 
(Mrs. Bustos).
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from 
Arizona (Ms. Sinema) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek) for 
convening this important discussion this afternoon.
  As I am sure we agree, we need to continue shining a light on the 
epidemic of veteran suicide so we can push to improve the resources 
available to the brave men and women who have served our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I come from a region of Illinois called the Quad Cities. 
For more than two decades, my seat was held by one of the strongest 
advocates for veterans who has ever worked in these Chambers. I am 
talking about the late and the great Congressman Lane Evans.
  Congressman Evans was a veteran of the Marine Corps who served this 
body from 1983 all the way to 2007. I was proud to call him my friend.
  As a veteran, he understood the challenges that many of our returning 
heroes confront after they come home. Congressman Evans was a tireless 
advocate for expanding resources to our veterans and providing the 
mental health services that many of them need to make a successful 
transition back to civilian life.
  Today, after more than a decade of war, this generation of veterans 
faces a new set of challenges. We have an obligation to those who have 
served our Nation.
  As my friend, the gentlewoman from Arizona highlighted earlier in her 
remarks that an estimated 22 veterans commit suicide every single day. 
That is nearly one every hour.
  And we all know the statistics driving this epidemic. Military 
suicides are at their highest rate in 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, veterans make up 20 percent of our suicides, despite 
making up only 10 percent of our population. Thirty percent of veterans 
have considered suicide. 37 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans 
have been diagnosed with PTSD.
  And of the approximately 22 veterans who take their lives every day, 
roughly five actually get care through the VA health system.

                              {time}  1630

  It is easy to get lost in all those statistics. They are numbers. But 
behind each and every one of those is a real human being, a veteran 
with a real story that we must tell. We have a duty to help them.
  We all know how hard the Department of Veterans Affairs is working to 
keep up with this ongoing and persistent challenge, but we have to do 
more. That is why I proudly supported the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention 
for American Veterans Act, which was signed into law earlier this year. 
Once this legislation is fully implemented, it will take critical steps 
toward curbing the epidemic of veteran suicide by improving the VA 
resources and increasing oversight of programs designed to help our 
veterans get the care that they deserve.
  This is an important step toward stemming the ongoing crisis of 
veteran suicide, but it is not enough. This is why I have called on the 
Appropriations Committee to increase funding for veteran suicide 
prevention programs and outreach services. I hope all of you will join 
me in demanding more action for our veterans.
  If Congressman Evans were alive today, he would not rest until all of 
our veterans get the care and the support they have earned for 
protecting our Nation, and neither should we.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Goodlatte).
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an epidemic 
that is plaguing our servicemembers and our veterans, and that epidemic 
is suicide. Each day it is estimated, on average, 22 veterans commit 
suicide in the United States. That is more than double the rate for the 
civilian population, and it is an extremely tragic statistic.
  Earlier this year, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American 
Veterans Act was signed into law to help combat this very serious 
problem. I applaud this step forward, but our work is far from over. We 
must continue to ensure that those veterans who are suffering know that 
they are not alone; they have family, friends, and resources readily 
available to help them heal and move forward.
  These men and women have given so much to this great Nation. It is 
our duty to walk with them during and after their service.
  I remain committed to providing the highest quality medical care and 
resources for these brave men and women who were wounded in the course 
of defending our freedom.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to improve timely access 
to mental healthcare services to ensure our veterans in crisis receive 
the help that they need.
  I thank Mr. Benishek and Ms. Sinema for organizing this Special Order 
hour.
  Mr. BENISHEK. I yield to my colleague from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell).
  Mrs. DINGELL. I thank my friend from Michigan for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank my friends Congressman Benishek, 
Congresswoman Sinema, and Congresswoman Bustos for their leadership and 
for hosting this Special Order this evening on an issue that we all 
care very deeply about: the high rate of suicide among our veteran 
population.
  September is Suicide Prevention Month, and it is important that we 
draw attention to this critical issue. The facts are stark. My other 
colleagues have already mentioned them. A veteran commits suicide every 
65 minutes. That means that 22 veterans a day are dying.
  Today we honor those that we have lost already and the families who 
have suffered so much and are left behind. These veterans were true 
American heroes who served their country and came home tormented. We 
can never forget the sacrifices that they have made.
  It is great, on this evening, to see my colleagues from both sides of 
the aisle here to talk about this issue, because it is my sincere hope 
that we can come together and rededicate ourselves to doing what is 
right for our veterans and making sure that we are dedicating 
sufficient resources to veterans' care.
  On Sunday night, in Michigan, I will gather with the family and 
friends of those veterans who have committed suicide in Michigan. They 
have built a cross for each of those lives to try to raise awareness in 
our community.
  In addition, at a meeting that I hold with my mayors, where normally 
we are talking about infrastructure or roads, two-thirds of that 
meeting was spent talking about veterans and the emotional issues we 
are dealing with in our communities as we see these veterans 
struggling.
  The mayors and I have started a task force to address these issues. 
We have started a veterans' court that has been following the model of 
other places, trying to raise awareness so that in the community, we 
see when someone is struggling and are able to put out a helping hand.
  My next-door neighbor's young son, when tormented, needed help; and 
when he called, he couldn't get it.
  We all have got to come together. These brave young men and women 
have served our country. When they came home from World War II and 
Korea, we celebrated them. We thanked them for their service. We formed 
a community around them.
  These young men and women are fighting for us. They are fighting for 
freedom. They are fighting for world security. We have an obligation to 
help them when they come home, to help get them the resources that they 
need. They have memories that haunt them. They have memories that 
torment them.
  This Suicide Prevention Month, we have to take the stigma away from 
mental illness. We have to recognize that young people need help 
sometimes, and we have to be there for them.
  Tonight I thank my colleagues for organizing this Special Order so 
that we remind people that those who have served us sometimes need that 
helping hand. If we can prevent it, we must, any young person from 
taking their

[[Page H6217]]

life because of the service that they gave this country.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, nearly 10 million Americans have serious 
mental illness, and millions go without proper treatment or care 
because our Nation's mental health system is broken not only for our 
veterans, but for our nonveterans as well.
  My next speaker is Dr. Tim Murphy from Pennsylvania, the author of 
the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 2646. This will 
overhaul our Nation's mental healthcare system, adding grants for more 
psychiatrists, authorizing intervention programs, and fixing current 
nationwide shortages of crisis mental health beds.
  I yield to my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy).
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman for organizing this 
very important Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I will tell the stories of three servicemembers that I 
have known in my time in the Navy, in my work at Walter Reed Hospital:
  One is of a soldier who tried to kill himself. He put a gun to his 
head, pulled the trigger. The gun fired, but it didn't kill him. It 
left him partially blind and with a significant head injury. He 
struggles through life. He continues to live, but the things that 
caused him to do that have not left.
  The second is of a marine that I knew, the son of a friend, who died 
recently. I went to his funeral and saw him lying there, looking so 
peaceful.
  The third, a soldier, I was called upon by the family to go visit him 
because he had been in his room for months. He covered the windows with 
camouflage. Bottles and bottles of medication littered his room, holes 
were punched in the walls, and he felt abandoned.
  There was nothing more we could do for the soldier who had killed 
himself; there were some things we could do for the soldier who harmed 
himself; but there was a lot we could do for the soldier who hid 
himself.
  When soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coastguardsmen look down 
the road to suicide, there are multiple reasons. Very often it is 
because they have faced those unspeakable horrors of war. Perhaps they 
have had multiple deployments, strain within the family, the lost 
social relationships, divorce, job complications, which whittled and 
chipped away at their strength. Perhaps they lost that sense of 
belonging that they had with their platoon or their company, that 
friendship with those who faced battles with them that somehow helped 
prop them back up.
  In many cases, it is dealing with the traumatic brain injury, of the 
multiple blasts, explosions, the primary, secondary, or tertiary wounds 
that they had which affected their brain functioning and leaves them 
with symptoms oftentimes of psychological disorders. Sometimes that 
psychological disorder is that path to depression, that feeling of 
hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness that comes with clinical 
depression, when the person sometimes says: There is no treatment that 
can help me; I might as well give up.
  First let me say to veterans, Mr. Speaker, that there is treatment 
that can help. There is reason to hope. It is important that veterans 
seek out a therapist; and if that therapist doesn't seem like a good 
mix, seek another one. If that one doesn't seem like a good mix, seek 
another one. Keep going until you find the right person.
  It is important veterans understand their life is worth living. Yes, 
you are suffering in the moment, but you can't stop pursuing treatment. 
Don't seek the permanent solution to the temporary problem. There is 
always another way out besides suicide.
  Now, we make this more complicated for veterans, as we do with the 
rest of the community of people who are suffering from mental illness, 
by we simply don't have enough professionals out there to help. We have 
family members who don't see the signs of isolation and anger and 
drinking and drug abuse and irritability. But just because there is a 
healthcare provider out there, the family should not ever feel that 
they can't talk to that person.
  The healthcare provider, even without permission of the soldier, can 
listen; and it is important that family members contact someone even 
when that soldier says, ``I don't want to talk to anybody,'' because, 
very often, that is the disease speaking, that is the brain illness 
speaking. That is the part of the illness that says ``I either want to 
give up'' or ``I don't recognize I have a problem.''
  Loved ones can call for help, but we need other things taking place 
here as well. We have to have families who can help that person get out 
of a crisis. We have to help the family understand they need to remove 
the means of a suicide--if it is a firearm, if it is weapons, if is 
drugs.
  But what we need to do and what my bill (H.R. 2646), the Helping 
Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, does is it changes the dynamics 
of what our country is doing, that has abusive policies and antifamily 
policies which actually prevent people from getting help.
  What we have to do is make sure we have more access to treatment. We 
need more psychiatrists and psychologists--it is as plain as that--by 
the thousands and tens of thousands. We do not have enough. So even 
when someone tries to seek help, it is difficult.
  We need more psychiatric hospital beds for those moments when a 
person needs a respite, someplace to go away from the crisis of 
everyday life. We don't have enough. We had 550,000 psychiatric 
hospital beds in the 1950s. We have less than 40,000 now. Part of that 
is because we have Medicaid rules out there and other rules that say, 
you know, we don't want hospital beds anymore.
  Look, I don't want to see people go back to the old asylums, but 
sometimes a person with that sense of helplessness and worthlessness 
needs a place to go to recover, to get better.
  We also have a VA system which has said: You are not going to 
continue some of these drugs. Your drug isn't on our formulary list. 
You are not going to take it anymore.
  I have other legislation in which says that, if a Department of 
Defense doctor prescribes a person medication and it is working, the VA 
should automatically, without question, carry that medication and 
provide ease of access for it. One of the reasons we even have the Clay 
Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans bill is because he 
couldn't get the medication that worked.
  It is our fault. We have met the enemy, and he is us, as one 
character famously said.
  The General Accounting Office also tells us we have a disorganized 
system, 112 Federal agencies--112--that are supposed to deal with 
mental illness. The GAO tells us they don't keep track of data. There 
is not accountability. They don't meet. Many of these agencies haven't 
even gotten together since 2009 to coordinate services. Twenty homeless 
programs, programs scattered throughout the Federal Government--we make 
it the most difficult for those who have the most difficulty.
  Sometimes what we do, though, is we reauthorize programs that work. 
But make no mistake, it is not enough. Anyone who thinks that Congress 
has been adequately addressing the needs of the mentally ill, the 
seriously mentally ill veterans, is naive. We are disillusioning 
ourselves into thinking that, because we did something, we did the 
right thing.
  So let me speak honestly: Congress' lack of comprehensive action and 
its snail pace in dealing with this shares the blame. We are not 
passive in this. We are active and codependent in this crisis that is 
inflicted upon Americans.
  When we are in this Chamber and we hear another tragic story of 
someone who has perhaps killed many people in the community and then 
killed themselves or they did suicide by cop, we have a moment of 
silence--and so we should--as we grieve over the loss of innocent life. 
But that moment of silence should not be accompanied with silent 
behavior. What we need are moments of action, and strong action at 
that.
  Not only do we have the soldier suicides, we had 41,000 suicides in 
this country in this last year; 43,000 drug overdose deaths; homicides 
by those with serious mental illness; people with mental illness who 
are the victims of crime and homicide.

                              {time}  1645

  Then we have that slow-motion death of the homeless and the seriously 
mentally ill who, themselves, have come to so many other chronic 
illnesses that--do you know what? They are not even a statistic. We 
don't count them.

[[Page H6218]]

  If people want to help, if Members want to do something, here is an 
action plan: become cosponsors of the Helping Families in Mental Health 
Crisis Act, H.R. 2646. Don't sit idly by. Don't say, ``Some other 
Member can do this; let it be someone else's problem.'' It is not. It 
is ours.
  As a nation, wouldn't we do better to act instead of grieve, to turn 
a blind eye and to hope that someone else takes care of it, or, worse 
yet, to be caught up in the politics, the partisan politics and the 
games that plague this Chamber that says: ``I am not going to let this 
party have a win or this party have a win''? In the meantime, people 
are dying, and we sit idly by.
  Mr. Speaker, suicide is a plague on our Nation, on our veterans. It 
is a plague on, as was said in Samuel 16, the last, the least, and the 
lonely. We must change this system that makes it difficult for those 
who have the most difficulty. We must remove abusive Federal policies 
that say that you can't see two doctors in the same day; you can't have 
more than 16 hospital beds; that say it is okay to have Federal 
programs and grants going out there for absurd concepts like making 
collages, making masks; telling people to get off their medication; a 
Web site to help people in Boston, when it is cold, deal with the 
anxiety of snow; a $425,000 Web site for 3-year-olds with sing-along 
songs; and a $22,000 painting which sits in the Office of Substance 
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to give them awareness. 
The only thing I am aware of, Mr. Speaker, is that it is a waste of 
money--a waste of taxpayers' money--and a waste of lives.
  If this Congress gets its act together and admits it, and if our 
leadership says that we can run lots of bills--and we can run lots of 
bills real quick--and we can suspend the bills and bring bills to the 
floor in a moment's notice, I have had this bill sitting around 3 
years. We revise it and revise it again. We have the support of 
multiple organizations across the country, whether they represent 
parents or consumers or professionals, and another day goes by; and 
every few seconds another person commits suicide or has a drug overdose 
death, and we go home at night and sleep snugly in our beds.
  It doesn't have to be this way if we have more providers and if we 
have a Federal Government in Congress that says that we must be guided 
by wisdom, compassion, and faith, that says we will not wait anymore 
and that we will take the collective voice of every Member of Congress 
to do that.
  A few hours ago, we had the Holy Father, Pope Francis, speak in this 
very Chamber. His words still echo in this community. But he called us 
to do things together, to be motivated by love, to be engaged in a 
dialogue and conversation, and that is a conversation we must be having 
about mental illness as well, to say that we can no longer put this 
off.
  I hope Members, if they really are concerned about veteran suicide--
as I believe we are--if they are really concerned about the problems of 
serious mental illness--as I know we are--if Members are tired of 
moments of silence in those times when we come together for a few 
minutes of compassion, we recognize that is not enough--and I know we 
are--then I hope every Member, every Democrat and Republican, talks to 
their leadership, talks to their committee members, talks to each other 
and says, ``Move this bill. Make something happen.''
  By the way, Mr. Speaker, let me close with this. The story I told you 
has a good ending.
  The soldier that I visited in his home with the windows covered with 
camouflage, with medications scattered throughout the house, and with 
holes punched in the wall because of his anger, we did get him help. He 
got stabilized. He took those barriers off the windows. He let the 
bright light of the world shine in again, and he engaged with people 
again. He has hope again.
  That is a story that comes because people stepped forward and helped 
him. The people at hospitals and military hospitals can do that. Let's 
make sure that the others like him whom we have not discovered yet, who 
are still hiding in their rooms, we get to them before their lives are 
taken. This is what we should be doing as a nation. Failing to do this 
means we are culpable as this tragedy continues.
  Mr. BENISHEK. I would like to thank my colleague for his passion on 
this issue.
  I would now like to yield to my colleague from California (Mr. 
Peters).
  Mr. PETERS. I want to thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to 
thank Congresswoman Sinema and Congressman Benishek for their 
leadership on this issue, which is also of prime interest to me, this 
epidemic of suicide in our veteran community.
  Mr. Speaker, San Diego has the third largest population of veterans 
in the country, more than 235,000. One of the most important jobs we 
have here in Congress is to honor their service by keeping our promises 
to them.
  September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time to focus on ending the 
scourge of veteran suicide that has hurt families and communities 
across the country. Combating suicide takes the full spectrum of 
services, including deployment, education, drug and alcohol abuse 
treatment, and ending the stigma around mental health.
  In San Diego, I am pleased to say, the nonprofit sector has really 
stepped up. We have been at the forefront of finding innovative ways to 
approach veteran suicide by providing services and developing cohesion 
in the local veteran community that came together after the Vietnam war 
to increase collaboration among government, private groups, and 
community partners.
  San Diego is the home of, in my district, 0800, which is an 
organization doing innovative work to assist easing the transition 
between Active Duty and civilian life. It is a community-based 
nonprofit that takes the existing service structure, works with the 
servicemembers before they leave the military to get them set, and 
provides the case management after they return to the civilian world to 
ensure that the benefits and services that veterans have earned are 
provided to them.
  Another organization, the Three Wise Men Foundation, founded by 
combat veteran Nathan Fletcher, utilizes community engagement and 
workout trainings to help veterans who were in combat and have 
struggled to reintegrate after coming home.
  There is a powerful article by Dave Phillips that The New York Times 
highlighted this weekend about how many veterans are turning to each 
other to survive. To quote that article: ``Feeling abandoned, members 
of the battalion have turned to a survival strategy they learned at 
war: depending on one another.''
  We have all heard the devastating statistics of veteran suicides in 
the country, but thus far, the response has failed to properly address 
the dire situation, and we have a responsibility here in Congress to do 
much more than we have. The statistics don't tell the heart-wrenching 
stories that so many of us have heard from parents, spouses, and the 
loved ones of the veteran who has taken his or her own life.
  One such couple that Congresswoman Sinema and I know, and I have been 
honored to work with, is Dr. Howard and Jean Somers, who, after losing 
their son, Daniel, to suicide, have become tireless advocates to fix 
and reform the broken healthcare system at the Department of Veterans 
Affairs.
  We know that bipartisan reforms to the VA can make a difference. The 
Clay Hunt Act showed us that and garnered a new generation of mental 
health and suicide prevention services at the VA, and the Veterans 
Choice Act will bring accountability to a system wrought with oversight 
and leadership challenges, allowing for faster service closer to the 
veteran in need.
  But fixing an inefficient VA requires more than just increased 
funding. It requires real changes to get veterans care in new and 
flexible ways. We need to allow the VA to better use innovative 
technologies, like wireless medicine, that allow veterans access to 
care from the comfort of their homes, which can save lives and decrease 
costs to taxpayers.
  We need to break the stigma around mental health, particularly post-
traumatic stress. The service-connected injury needs to be treated with 
the same gravity and respect as the physical injury that so many of our 
valiant warfighters have battled.
  So thank you again, Congresswoman Sinema and Congressman Benishek, 
for your consistent advocacy on reforming the VA and on ending the 
tragedy of veteran suicide. We have much more

[[Page H6219]]

work to do, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to work 
with you on it.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Abraham). The gentleman has 8 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. BENISHEK. I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to thank my 
colleagues, Representatives Sinema and Dr. Benishek, for their 
leadership in arranging such a Special Order on such an important topic 
and for the invitation to speak this afternoon on suicide prevention 
awareness.
  September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It is so important 
that we have an open and honest dialogue about the issue of suicide. 
The more we talk about it, we increase people's awareness, and they are 
there to help the people in need.
  There are alternatives, and they do not have to suffer in silence. 
From comedian Robin Williams, to bullied young kids, to the brave men 
and women from our Nation's military returning from the battlefield, 
suicide does not discriminate. Emotional pain and despair can set in 
and take root in the minds and bodies of all ages across all 
demographics. Often, the signs of suicide go undetected, which leave 
those left behind asking: Why did this happen, and what could I have 
done to prevent this tragedy?
  Today a disproportionate amount of our Nation's veterans are falling 
victim to suicide. After all they have given to this country, it is 
tragic and unacceptable that our Nation's veterans often suffer in 
silence until it is too late for those around them to help.
  By shining a light on veteran suicide and all suicides, we as a 
nation can start to understand the urgency with which we need to solve 
and prevent this epidemic that our veterans, their families, and their 
friends struggle with. Not recognizing the signs early enough all too 
often leads to a loss of life. This is an important thing that we as a 
nation need to come together and have a strong support system in place 
so that those in need will reach out and not be stigmatized.
  Again, I want to thank our colleagues.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Cartwright).
  Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and 
I want to thank, particularly, Representatives Sinema and Benishek for 
bringing up this Special Order hour.
  For my own part, I speak for the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. 
Pennsylvania is home to nearly 1 million veterans. These are brave men 
and women who serve this Nation, a Nation that has, regrettably, not 
always served them.
  Many of the veterans suffer from mental illness. A study, as you all 
know, has been released that found that 22 veterans commit suicide 
every day. This is unacceptable.
  As someone who deeply cares about veterans' issues, I was proud to 
introduce legislation in the last Congress that would fast-track the 
hiring of psychiatrists who have completed a residency at a VA 
facility, and I was gratified that the President has incorporated many 
of those ideas in his policy.
  Initially, in this Congress, I plan to reintroduce the Veterans 
Mental Health Accessibility Act, an important piece of legislation that 
aims to provide for our brave servicemen and -women when they return 
from combat with both easily visible and difficult-to-detect wounds. 
While the physical wounds are evident immediately, the mental health 
ones may take longer to manifest themselves.
  Here is the problem: as many as 30 percent of Operation Iraqi and 
Enduring Freedom veterans face the possible diagnosis of a mental 
health disorder. But after 5 postservice years, if a condition is not 
diagnosed, veterans would go to the back of the line. They have missed 
their statute of limitations in 5 years and then experience an average 
wait time to receive benefits of more than 1 year. This could mean the 
difference between life and death.
  Unfortunately, mental health disorders are harder to diagnose, may 
take much longer to manifest, and many veterans might delay seeking 
treatment. We are putting it on them to self-diagnose and report within 
that 5-year span.
  We should not hold mental health disorders to the same timeline as a 
broken leg. The Veterans Mental Health Accessibility Act would ensure 
that no veteran would be denied mental health treatment no matter when 
combat-related mental health disorders first appear.
  I believe we owe a great debt to those warfighters who serve our 
country through military service, including those who stood ready at a 
moment's notice to fight for our freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, as long as I am a Member of Congress, I will be working 
to increase knowledge on this subject, to correct the shortcomings of 
the VA system, and to ensure that the men and women of our Armed Forces 
who bravely serve this country receive all the benefits to which they 
are entitled.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Nice comments, Mr. Cartwright. I appreciate it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski), 
my colleague on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
  Mrs. WALORSKI. Thank you, Mr. Benishek.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Michigan and the distinguished gentlewoman from Arizona for yielding.
  In honor of Suicide Prevention Month, I rise today to increase 
awareness about some of our bravest and most at risk: our veterans. 
Many of our Nation's troops, both past and present, face struggles many 
of us can never imagine. Every day 22 veterans take their own lives.
  I have experienced this same tragedy in my own district. In 2013, a 
constituent in my district, a former marine who served in Vietnam, 
began experiencing severe pain over his entire body. After visiting 
four VA clinics and facilities, doctors could not diagnose his 
condition and instead prescribed morphine for ongoing and oftentimes 
excruciating pain.
  To help manage his undiagnosed condition, doctors recommended he 
enter a nursing home. Unfortunately, he discovered he did not meet the 
eligibility requirements. Later that day, his wife was told that she 
had 1 hour to pick him up or they, the VA, would send him home in a cab 
without clothes since he did not have any at the hospital to wear. Two 
days later, just a week before Christmas, the pain proved too great for 
him to bear and he took his own life.
  His story details the urgency our Nation's heroes deserve. Instead of 
ending in heartbreak, veterans and their families need to know their 
lives count, which is why we must improve veterans' access to physical 
and mental health care. Together, we can change this system to prevent 
tragedies like this from ever happening again.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. BENISHEK. Thank you very much, Mrs. Walorski. I really appreciate 
your comments.
  I think Dr. Murphy brought up a good point when he was speaking. We 
just recently in this House passed the 21st Century Cures Act, H.R. 6.
  That has been endorsed by a wide variety of professional and medical 
organizations, such as the American Association for Cancer Research and 
The Cure Alliance. We passed this bill by an overwhelmingly bipartisan 
vote of 344-77.
  This is a piece of legislation that is going to change the way we do 
research at the NIH, that is going to change health care for all 
Americans. There is no reason that we shouldn't be able to pass a 
mental health care bill similar to that with a wide bipartisan effort.
  Today Ms. Sinema and I are leading a bipartisan group of Members of 
Congress to make mental health care an issue on which to move forward, 
and it has really been a great way to get this started.
  I yield to Ms. Sinema if she would like to add a few more thoughts in 
that regard.
  Ms. SINEMA. Thank you very much, Congressman Benishek.
  I know we will be continuing this in the next Special Order so as to 
allow more of our colleagues to speak, and I am really looking forward 
to that time.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page H6220]]

  

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