Marcy Kaptur: “I thank you, Congressman Murphy, for yielding to me. I want to say how fortunate the country is that the people of…”

“I thank you, Congressman Murphy, for yielding to me. I want to say how fortunate the country is that the people of Pennsylvania have elected you here to serve the people of our Nation with the strong background that you have and with the obvious depths of knowledge that you have about those who are mentally ill and the compassion you have in a field that is very difficult, where the answers still remain incomplete. I want to be on the floor this evening to say to those who are listening in the Chamber, to those who may be listening outside, your efforts to draft the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 2646, is a watershed moment in this Congress. I have served in this Congress a lot longer than the others on the floor this evening. I was here in 1998 when, sadly, we lost two of our Capitol Police officers, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson. A diagnosed schizophrenic receiving Federal SSI benefits but off his medicines and estranged from his family headed on a rampage all across the country, all the way from the West to here, and delusionally, he set out to quash, I guess, a purple force he had tracked here to the Capitol. He broke into the majority leader's office. All the staff went under the desks. I thought, well, maybe this is the moment that Congress will finally face up to the violent impulses that have fallen right at our knees.…”