[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16475]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ADDRESSING VETERANS' INVISIBLE WOUNDS

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, our troops are returning from all over the 
world having suffered from many wounds, but many of the wounds that 
they're suffering from are not visible to the naked eye. Those wounds 
are psychological wounds. And tragically, our veterans system is not 
equipped, as we've seen this last week from a series by the Washington 
Post, to address many of those concerns.
  Our Nation needs to be better prepared to address the psychological 
and emotional wounds that our veterans are facing. And tragically, this 
country has not come to grips with the mental health crisis that even 
our own citizens face.
  This Congress needs to address this problem. It needs to address it 
within the Veterans Administration, and it needs to address it for this 
country by passing mental health parity and by making sure that we 
address PTSD for our veterans, making sure we have oversight of the VA, 
and making sure that they address the needs of our veterans, both 
visible and invisible wounds of our Nation's veterans.

                          ____________________