Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to thank, particularly, Representatives Sinema and Benishek for bringing up this Special Order hour. For my own part, I speak for the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is home to nearly 1 million veterans. These are brave men and women who serve this Nation, a Nation that has, regrettably, not always served them. Many of the veterans suffer from mental illness. A study, as you all know, has been released that found that 22 veterans commit suicide every day. This is unacceptable. As someone who deeply cares about veterans' issues, I was proud to introduce legislation in the last Congress that would fast-track the hiring of psychiatrists who have completed a residency at a VA facility, and I was gratified that the President has incorporated many of those ideas in his policy. Initially, in this Congress, I plan to reintroduce the Veterans Mental Health Accessibility Act, an important piece of legislation that aims to provide for our brave servicemen and -women when they return from combat with both easily visible and difficult-to-detect wounds. While the physical wounds are evident immediately, the mental health ones may take longer to manifest themselves. Here is the problem: as many as 30 percent of Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom veterans face the possible diagnosis of a mental health disorder.…”