Beto O'Rourke: “I thank the gentleman from Minnesota, our ranking member on the committee, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis…”

“I thank the gentleman from Minnesota, our ranking member on the committee, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis in suicide among veterans today in this country. The official estimate, which I agree with the ranking member, is probably an estimate that is too low: 20. I think the real number is much higher than that, but 20 a day, we know for sure, are taking their own lives in this country after they have put those same lives on the line for this country. Amidst that crisis, we know that those veterans who have an other than honorable discharge are taking their lives at twice the rate of those veterans who have an honorable discharge. Thanks to Mr. Coffman, my colleague from across the aisle, thanks to the bipartisan support of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the leadership from the chairman and the ranking member, we are beginning to address that, in ensuring that the 22,000 veterans who have an other than honorable discharge since 2009, who incurred post- traumatic stress disorder or military sexual trauma while in service to this country will now be able to see mental healthcare providers. Before this, they were precluded from that.…”