Reed Urges Passage of Clay Hunt Act to Help Prevent Veterans' Suicides

Press Release

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today urged his Senate colleagues to pass the bipartisan Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (Clay Hunt SAV) Act, a bill that seeks to address the growing epidemic of veteran suicide in the United States. The legislation, which is cosponsored by Reed, aims to expand mental health resources and accountability at the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA).

The legislation is named in honor of the late Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran and suicide prevention advocate Clay Hunt, who was dedicated to serving his fellow veterans before tragically taking his own life in March 2011. The Reed-backed Clay Hunt SAV Act passed the House in the last Congress, but was blocked from Senate passage late last month over objections by a single retiring Senator.

"We must do everything we can to improve access to high-quality mental health services for our nation's veterans. No veteran should ever have to wait for this type of critical mental health care," said Reed, who has worked as a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction-Veterans Affairs to increase funding for the VA's mental health and suicide prevention budget. "The Clay Hunt SAV Act is a bipartisan, commonsense proposal that helps remove barriers to support and would allow the VA to expand its reach by jointly carrying out its suicide prevention programs with nonprofits dedicated to promoting mental health. It would also strengthen oversight of the VA's existing suicide prevention programs by having outside, independent experts review them to gauge their effectiveness."

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