Rodney Frelinghuysen: “I appreciate the gentleman from New York's kind words. The committee recognized that suicide remains a very serious…”

“I appreciate the gentleman from New York's kind words. The committee recognized that suicide remains a very serious problem in the military, particularly among National Guard and Reserve troops. I am proud to say that our bill strongly supports the efforts of the services to address this crisis. The report includes language which speaks directly to the gentleman's interest in the pilot program that was created to treat servicemembers suffering from mental health disorders in the National Guard and Reserve components through community partnerships. In addition, the bill provides $158 million in requested funding for suicide prevention, mental health, and risk resiliency programs for the services. This includes an extra $39 million for suicide prevention programs, including the $19 million specifically for our special operators. All the military services have taken significant steps to make suicide prevention a top priority and to improve the resiliency and health of our servicemembers. We support those efforts, and I will continue to work with the gentleman from New York and his colleague, Mr. King, to address these important issues.”