Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam President, recently I met with members of the American Legion of Arkansas during their annual convention. This year they celebrated 100 years of helping veterans. I was honored to join them on this occasion and share how proud we are of their efforts to serve their fellow veterans.
Since its founding, Legionnaires have been leading advocates for veterans and their families. They are committed to strengthening the policies, programs, and institutions to support those who have worn our Nation's uniform.
One of the ways they have been instrumental in achieving this is bringing Legionnaires from across the country to Washington to share the Legion's priorities with me and my colleagues. Members from Arkansas expressed that one of the top issues for the Legion this Congress, as has been the case for the past several years, is suicide prevention.
The American Legion and other VSOs like the VFW, AMVETS, IAVA, Wounded Warrior Project--and the list simply goes on and on--are pressing for action to improve access and treatment for veterans who are at risk of suicide. We all know there is room for improvement on this front.
Congress has provided significant funding increases to the Department of Veterans Affairs to decrease veteran suicide rates. In fiscal year 2010, the VA requested $62 million for suicide prevention outreach. That number nearly quadrupled to $222 million within 10 years. Despite the sharp increase in resources, sadly, 20 veterans commit suicide each day. That number has, unfortunately, remained roughly unchanged throughout the years. Tellingly and sadly, only 6 of those 20 veterans are receiving healthcare services at the VA.
Veterans are particularly vulnerable to mental health struggles which, when untreated, can lead to increased risk of suicide. They suffer a disproportionately higher rate of suicide compared to the general population.
In Arkansas, veterans represent about 8 percent of the population, but, sadly, they account for one-fifth of the suicides in my State. So you have 8 percent of the population yet 20 percent of the suicides.
I have heard the anguish of family members and friends who miss the signs of mental health struggles in their loved ones. We have read and heard in the news about veterans who have taken their own lives on VA properties. They were so close to help yet felt that their situations were beyond repair. We need to close the loop to ensure that individuals at risk make contact with professionals trained to respond to address the needs of these vulnerable veterans.
Congress is actively engaged in fighting this public health crisis. In 2015, we passed and the President signed into law the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act. This was an important step to providing the VA with the tools and flexibility to get help for veterans living with mental illness. We knew this was just the start.
My colleagues and I on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee are continuing to build on that foundation. I am hopeful that we can advance the three particular pieces of legislation I am about to highlight so that we can give help to veterans at risk of suicide.
Senator Warner and I recently introduced the IMPROVE Wellbeing for Veterans Act. This bill will enable the VA to harness the potential of what is already occurring in communities by allowing it to provide grant funding to nonprofits and local organizations for expanded outreach to veterans.
Our bill enhances coordination and planning of veteran mental health and suicide prevention services and will better measure the effectiveness of these programs in order to reduce the alarming number of veteran suicides.
We can work with veteran-serving nonprofits to create and use a standard measurement tool that helps us in this area.
Some nonprofit groups have implemented their own tools to track progress and monitor the results of their programs.
The VA should examine how it can work with partners to develop or adopt a measurement tool that will be used uniformly across all groups. This will allow the VA and its partners to identify which suicide prevention efforts are having the most impact so that resources can be concentrated appropriately.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie called the IMPROVE Wellbeing for Veterans Act ``key'' to unlocking the veterans suicide crisis.
I am pleased with the support we have received from the Secretary, members of the committee, and other colleagues, and I encourage other Senators to cosponsor this important legislation that will make a positive impact on our effort to reduce veteran suicides.
It is also important to make it easier for veterans in crisis to get the help they need. That is why I teamed up with Senator Manchin to introduce the SPEED Act. This legislation would establish a three-digit number that is easy for veterans to remember in order to reach the Veterans Crisis Line. In a crisis, time is of the essence. Providing a more direct line of communication will save lives.
Created in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered over 3.5 million calls. This has been an essential tool to prevent veteran suicides. By taking an additional step to simplify the number, we can make further strides and expedite assistance to veterans in crisis.
The VA has indicated that suicide prevention is its highest clinical priority. To help improve its operation, oversight, and evaluations of its suicide prevention media outreach campaigns, we have partnered with Senator Richard Blumenthal to introduce the Reach Every Veteran in Crisis Act. This bill supports recommendations by the Government Accountability Office study that found gaps in the VA's suicide prevention media outreach activities.
By delivering an action plan for the VA to follow, we can isolate meaningful suicide prevention programs and ensure resources are focused on efforts that save lives.
An important provision of the legislation requires establishing targets to evaluate the effectiveness of the outreach campaign. It is vital that we have metrics to measure the success of the VA's mental health and suicide prevention programs.
As the chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, I have been pushing the VA to incorporate measurement tools so that we can better evaluate the effectiveness of VA programs. That is why, in the subcommittee's fiscal year 2019 bill, we incorporated language requiring the VA to report to Congress the metrics it uses to evaluate the efficacy of all of its mental health and suicide prevention programs.
My colleagues and I are committed to upend the trend of veteran suicide. We are blessed to have many organizations devoted to this common goal.
Together, we can make a positive difference in the lives of veterans and their families and give them hope for a brighter tomorrow.
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