Prepared Statement only.

I think this is moving in a direction that many of us wanted to see.

It is time to think outside the box and tackle this very pervasive problem.

I really want to commend a candidate... this is in yesterday's Politico, 'One Candidate's Risky Bet Talking About his PTSD,' he is running in Delaware and he is a veteran.

We know the private sector can't fix it alone. And certainly the veteran and the families can't fix it alone.

After years of lobbying by his family and veterans' groups, Congress in February passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act.

Thank you on the Clay Hunt bill is near and dear to many in this room.

So one piece that I want to convey to you is that we want to help, help you to be a leader on addressing stigma and particularly for veterans.

I think you need to expand this program where you can touch a buddy that was in the service.

I think the hiring process at the VA is ridiculously long and should be shortened for not just mental health, but other providers of health care.

As a community, as a nation, and as members of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, we need to fully understand the occurrence of clustering in units and work to prevent these deaths.

you can't group us all into one big group, you have got to look at different cohorts.

I think you do have the largest comprehensive mental health program in the United States and it is not perfect, but it is certainly better than it was seven years ago.

There is a need for all of us as a whole to change the messaging around the VA and around suicide.

Having the negative messages out there that it is an epidemic, that there is 22 dying a day is increasing hopelessness in our veteran population.

I think more research is important.

I think it's one of the single easiest and best things we could do.

I just think that thinking not how things were 20 years ago, but thinking about how you're going to recruit people, millennials, of any color or any gender that want to have a different working environment is part of this.