Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today in recognition of suicide prevention, to continue to shine a light on the impact of suicide and to discuss the importance of efforts to strengthen mental health care. Sadly, too many Hoosiers and Americans are taken from us by suicide, shattering families and communities. Today, I want to talk about suicide prevention as it relates to our servicemembers, our veterans, and their families. Last year, sadly, for the fourth straight year, more U.S. troops were lost to suicide than in combat. In 2015, 475 servicemembers took their own lives. Prior to that, we lost 443 servicemembers in 2014, and 474 servicemembers in 2013. We are painfully aware of the statistic that an estimated 20 veterans a day take their own lives. These numbers allude to hundreds upon thousands of individual tragedies that have rocked our families, our communities, and our Nation. These numbers represent sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives who have dedicated their lives to the service of this Nation and have succumbed to invisible wounds. These numbers illustrate the simple, terrible fact that we are losing too many of our servicemembers and veterans to suicide. These numbers demand that we keep efforts to improve military and veterans mental health services and suicide prevention efforts at the top of our to-do list in the Senate. Despite gridlock in Congress, this is an issue where we have solid bipartisan consensus.…”