On the recordSeptember 13, 2016
I thank my friend from Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't going to speak tonight; but after listening to so many folks, I decided to say just a few words. I do want to leave most of the time left for my friend, Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania, who has been a leader on the mental health front. But I do want to say a couple of things on this issue. Mental health is a really, really important issue to me as it is to so many folks in this body and around the country. I often talk about my mom. She was a single parent with an 11th grade education who struggled with mental illness. Her whole adult life, she was in and out of institutions. This is personal for me. My wife Terry and I, we have two Marine children. My stepson, Terry's son, and his wife are Active Duty at Camp Pendleton. They have a couple of little kids. We do what we can to help them on that front. We had a recent suicide in Iowa City at the VA Medical Center, and we are struggling with how to deal with that as a community and I think as a country overall. The Office of the Inspector General is now looking into the circumstances of that suicide. On Sunday, on 9/11, we had an event that I was honored to attend in honor of Sergeant Ketchum and his family in an attempt to raise money so that we can deal with the issue of PTSD in the military.…
