Gus Bilirakis

I firmly believe we must provide the benefits they have earned. This is unacceptable.

I urge all my colleagues to show your support for our nation's heros by cosponsoring and supporting this bill.

I commend him for the extensive amount of time he put into addressing mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Today, I rise to talk about one of my heroic constituents, World War II veteran Sergeant Harrison Doyle. Sergeant Doyle was assigned the task of recreating maps as a cartographer based on the remains of destroyed Nazi maps and aerial…

June is Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month. Alzheimer's is the only top 10 cause of death in America that cannot be prevented or cured; however, we are making strides. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, is a historic…

Williams syndrome is a rare neurological disease. May is Williams Syndrome Awareness Month. According to the Williams Syndrome Association, there are between 25,000 and 30,000 individuals living with this rare disease, at least one of whom…

This week is National Police Week. Every day law enforcement officials put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe. Sadly, in my district, Tarpon Springs Police Officer Charles ``Charlie K'' Kondek was shot and killed right…

May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. One person dies of melanoma every hour. There will be over 73,000 new cases of invasive melanoma in the United States this year. Early detection is crucial to prevention. I…

Representative Ellmers' proposal attempts to hold this practice accountable.

I was troubled to learn about the extent to which FCC staff has editorial privilege to substantially change and modify items after they are adopted.

It would foster research to increase the number of safe, effective, and affordable rare disease medicines.

I believe there is great promise in repurposing drugs.

Providing veterans with the care they need and deserve continues to be a top priority of mine and every member of this committee.

This commonsense bill gives the VA the legislative authority it needs to follow through with the original proposed rule.

Recent data has shown that every day in this country--an estimated 18-22 Veterans take their own lives. This statistic answers the question I posed earlier. It is obvious more needs to be done.

With statistics showing that one in five Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress, we must responsibly ask ourselves--are we doing enough when it comes to addressing mental health in our…

Thank you for holding this very important hearing and for the opportunity to discuss my bill, H.R. 271, the Creating Options for Veterans' Expedited Recovery (COVER) Act.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this draft bill and, with that, I yield back.

This bill will help give our veterans mental healthcare options that work for them and will lay the groundwork for future solutions.

The idea behind this bill is we need to give the veteran the choice because not one size fits all with regard to the therapy.

We need to do more for our true American heroes. We have that responsibility. We have that duty.

Instead of presuming to know what is best for veterans, we should just ask the veteran.

More needs to be done in my opinion.

I urge my colleagues again to support this bill and cosponsor this bill. Let's get this done for our heroes.

We need to attack it on both the supply and the demand end.