Lee Zeldin: “I thank Congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia for being here and for cosponsoring this bipartisan bill. There are a lot of…”

“I thank Congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia for being here and for cosponsoring this bipartisan bill. There are a lot of people on both sides of the aisle who have signed on, on this effort. Congressman Carter has the expertise to understand what has been a longtime, conventional treatment, where doctors would just be prescribing a medication. The value of thinking outside the box has just saved so many lives. To be able to bring this program to Georgia, to Florida, to California, all across our entire Nation, would be enormous. I want to thank all my colleagues who joined me here today in sharing stories of veterans they represent or served with during their time in the military, and some of their own experiences. I look forward to continuing to work with each of them to expand and improve access to lifesaving mental health resources for our veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI. We are less than 2 months removed from the 20th anniversary of the 9/ 11 terror attacks and less than 3 months since the withdrawal of Afghanistan. The tragic events that unfolded in Afghanistan were hard for Americans to watch, including many Afghanistan vets who are speaking out. What was interesting to note, and not surprising for many, as we are having our individual conversations, especially with the Afghan vets, the calls rose to the Veterans Crisis Line, online chats with the crisis line staff were up almost 40 percent, and texts to the crisis line rose by 98 percent.…”