[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11002-11003]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ASK VETERANS ACT

  (Mr. O'ROURKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, from the day that I was sworn into office, 
I have heard from the veterans that I have the honor of representing 
that while--when they can get into the VA to seek care--the care is 
great and the providers are wonderful, it is too hard to get an 
appointment, and that appointment, once given, is often canceled.
  The VA, on the other hand, was telling me something far different, 
that there were no problems with wait times.
  To resolve the differences, we surveyed the veterans themselves. What 
they told us was that more than 36 percent of the veterans that I 
represent cannot get in to receive a mental health care appointment. 
This is at a time when we have 22 veteran suicides every day in this 
country.
  That is why I join my colleague from across the State and across the 
aisle, Mr. Flores, to introduce the ask veterans act, so that we do 
this in every community and VHA district in this country, so that 
veterans help us lead

[[Page 11003]]

the VA out of the crisis that we are currently in.
  We cannot trust the VA to tell us how the VA is doing, but we can 
certainly trust veterans to do just that.

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