Suicide Prevention Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Sinema). I appreciate our working relationship on this issue and so many others.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, every day, as we know, and we hear it too often, 20 veterans take their lives. Mr. Speaker, this is simply unacceptable.

In April, an Iowa veteran called the VA Veterans Crisis Line, the confidential, toll-free hotline providing 24-hour support for our veterans seeking crisis assistance. This veteran was having a rough day. This veteran needed help.

As the veteran sought the help he desperately needed, the phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. He tried again. But the only answer was: ``All circuits are busy. Try your call later.''

This hotline designed to provide essential support for veterans and their families and friends let him down. This heartbreaking story is tragically true. It is not unique, though. Thankfully, this veteran was able to contact a friend who got him the help he was seeking.

In 2014, a number of complaints about missed or unanswered calls, unresponsive staff, as well as inappropriate and delayed responses to veterans in crisis, prompted the VA Office of the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation into the Veterans Crisis Line.

Both investigations found gaps in the quality assurance process and provided a number of recommendations to address the quality, responsiveness, and performance of the Veterans Crisis Line and the mental health care provided to our veterans.

Despite promises by the VA to implement changes to address problems facing veterans who use this crisis line, these problems are still happening. They happened to constituents in the district I am privileged to represent, and they are, without a doubt, happening in the districts of my colleagues.

Veterans deserve more. They deserve quality, effective mental health care. A veteran in need cannot wait for help. Any incident where a veteran has trouble with the Veterans Crisis Line is simply unacceptable. How did we let this go on?

The Iowa veteran's experience that Saturday evening in April has troubled me. His experience is why I have been working on a bill in a bipartisan manner which upholds the promises our country has made to our veterans.

My bill, the bipartisan bill, the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act, H.R. 5392, requires the VA to create and implement documented plans to improve responsiveness and performance of the crisis line. It is an important step to ensure our veterans have access to the mental health resources they need and they deserve. The unacceptable fact is, while these quality standards should already be in place, they are not. They are not in place, and they should be.

My bill does not duplicate existing standards or slow care for veterans. Instead, my bipartisan bill puts in place requirements aligning with recommendations made by government accountability organizations to improve the Veterans Crisis Line.

My bill requires the VA to develop and implement a quality assurance process to address responsiveness and performance of the Veterans Crisis Line and backup call centers, and a timeline of when objectives will be reached.

It also directs the VA to create a plan to ensure any communication to the Veterans Crisis Line or backup call center is answered in a timely manner, by a live person, and to document the improvements they make, providing those plans to Congress within 180 days of the enactment of this bill. We cannot wait any longer. We cannot wait any longer.

Our bipartisan bill would help the VA deliver quality mental health care to veterans in need.

Iowa veterans and all veterans have faced enormous pressures, mental and emotional war wounds, sacrificed personal and professional gains, and experienced dangerous conditions in service to our Nation. Many are returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder and other unique needs which require counseling and mental health support. We should thank them for their service, but thanking them is not enough. They deserve better. That is why I have introduced, with bipartisan support, this bill to honor and thank our veterans and let them know America supports them. Our veterans answered our Nation's call, and we shouldn't leave them waiting on the line.

I thank the leadership of my colleague, Ms. Sinema of Arizona, for taking the time to bring attention to this important issue, and all our other colleagues here on both sides of the aisle.

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