Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my thanks to Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud. I think an American public which, many times, thinks all politics is is bickering and fighting and pettiness needs to see the two examples that these leaders show, consistently putting the needs of our veterans first and foremost, finding areas to improve, and holding people accountable, but this piece of legislation, most importantly, finding solutions to make life better for our veterans. And for that, I am forever grateful to them for the work and for the staff that worked on this.

Ms. Duckworth is not able to be with us today. I said a lot of times that people talk about patriotism and service and heroics. In Tammy Duckworth's case, you just state her name, and her life is a living testament to that, and she works every day. We are just happy she is with her little one now, but she had a big part in this.

There are very few things that unite this country in the security of our Nation and in the care of our warriors, as I think many of us know, as do the millions who have fought the conflicts and who have fought extremism across the globe--people like Clay Hunt, a young marine, who went and did his duty. He was wounded in Iraq.

That was not enough for Clay, so he went to Afghanistan, where he experienced some of the most horrific conditions you could imagine. That was not enough for Clay. He came home after he did his service in the Marine Corps, and he continued to serve. He went to Haiti, taking his skills that he had learned in the military to help after the hurricane.

Then he came and sat in many of our offices and had many conversations--everything from the GI Bill to the transitioning back of our warriors who are dealing with PTS and making sure that we address their mental health issues.

I know, for many of us, Clay was the epitome of American patriotism, of strength, of everything that is right, and it comes as such a shock. I know it sounds like a cliche, but how could someone so strong and who had done so much be dealing with these demons? We know he was, and we know this Nation didn't do enough. We know he didn't receive the adequate care that he deserved and had earned. To be quite honest with you, it is in our Nation's best interest, both morally and security-wise and everything else, to give them that.

Again, he didn't stop there, and his parents didn't stop there. His parents--his mother and father--are here in this Chamber, as are his friends, to make sure this never happens to another family. Our friends at the veterans service organizations, like the IAVA and Paul Rykoff and his folks and the VFW, have asked us to do better.

The result of this piece of legislation is the folks like Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, Tammy Duckworth, Mr. Benishek, and others who have come down here to speak. Our differences are small compared to our commonalities, and our care for our warriors has to be there. You heard the specifics of this bill, some of the things that it will do.

There is not one of us who is kidding oneself that this is going to be the silver bullet, but it puts it on the forefront. It brings some solutions that came from our warriors, that came from best practices, that came from both sides of the aisle, and brought it forward to find real solutions.

The thing that most encourages me about this is that it is asking us, if things are not working, evaluate them and get rid of them, and bring the things forward that are going to work. Don't get buried in studies for 10 years. We don't have 10 years. We don't have 10 days for people. It is now.

That is, I think, the beauty of this piece of legislation. It starts to move those things forward. It starts to bring the communities back into this. It starts to understand a holistic approach to dealing with the issues of veterans' suicides, because this Nation cannot allow this to happen. We morally cannot. It attacks our soul when we do this. To be very honest, we can't afford to lose people like Clay Hunt.

Clay Hunt is our leader. He is our future leader. He is our business leader. He would at some point have been in this Chamber or wherever he would have chosen to have gone. That was his destiny, and this is happening over 22 times every day.

I encourage my colleagues to support this piece of legislation but, more importantly, to support the spirit that is behind it--bringing us together to get it right: to care for our warriors with the best possible use for our resources and an accountability to those resources to make sure that the outcome is most important.

That outcome is honoring our commitment to the reintegration of these warriors. Once they have done their service to this country, bring them home; make them whole; make sure that they are able to continue to serve this Nation as they wish.

For that, I am grateful. I am especially grateful for the leadership of Clay's family and of his mother, Susan, who absolutely said this can be done; this must be done; and it will be done. Thanks to these two gentlemen's leadership, it will.

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