Veterans' Care Quality Transparency Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the Veterans' Care Quality Transparency Act.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, I am humbled to see these bipartisan efforts to bring forward legislation that will help all veterans receive the care that they have earned through their service to our Nation.

I am so pleased to see the chairman's focus on ensuring access to healthcare for veterans, particularly women veterans, who face unique challenges navigating a VA system originally designed to serve men.

I am committed to working to make needed improvements to the VA by working with my colleagues on the Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus and on the Women Veterans Task Force.

I am also pleased to see this bipartisan, wide-ranging focus on veterans' mental health and suicide prevention.

Our work, however, has just begun. We have an urgent responsibility to continue to fight for the highest standards of care on behalf of veterans.

Despite much good work by the VA and significant Federal investment, the veteran suicide rate hasn't gone down. We must empower the VA to find innovative, effective ways to end this crisis. That is why I have introduced this bill, which will address a vital but overlooked part of veteran suicide prevention.

The bill directs the GAO to evaluate the effectiveness of agreements that the Department of Veterans Affairs has with outside providers for mental healthcare and suicide prevention services.

Expanding access to care for veterans struggling with mental health or with thoughts of suicide is an essential part of reducing veteran suicide rates, and partnering with providers outside the VA is just one way to do that. But there just isn't enough data on the ability of these outside providers to meet the high standards of care we expect from the VA.

All veterans deserve access to convenient and high-quality healthcare, and it is unacceptable that outside providers are not currently held to the same high standards as the VA.

The mission of the VA is undermined each time a veteran receives substandard care. My bill would help ensure outside providers are held to the standard of providing high-quality mental healthcare and suicide prevention services.

Our efforts to stop veteran suicide need to focus on wider, better informed, and data-driven paths to tangible results so that we can save lives. This bill is about increasing transparency so that we can ensure that those who have served our Nation are not left behind when they return home.

I am grateful to my colleagues on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs who have reaffirmed their commitment to this issue and who have acted so quickly to respond to the veteran suicide crisis with the focus and resources it deserves.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill.

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