On the recordNovember 7, 2017
Last year, the VA's suicide data report revealed that an average of 20 veterans a day committed suicide. A year later, our Nation is still faced with this epidemic. While the VA is seeing high rates in calls to the Veterans Crisis Line, there is no overarching approach to ensure the VA is effectively preventing future suicide attempts and integrating the hotline information into VA's mental healthcare services. H.R. 4173, the Veterans Crisis Line Study Act, would address that critical gap in oversight. This bill would require the VA to study the outcomes of the VA's Veterans Crisis Line while protecting the privacy and anonymity of the veteran callers. As a proud cosponsor of H.R. 4173, I believe it is critical that Congress ensures this emergency resource for our veterans struggling with PTSD or other mental health conditions is working as it should. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support the passage of H.R. 4173.
