No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) for his unwavering work for the care of our veterans. And to the chairman, as has been noted so often, at a time when partisanship seems to win the day or be on the news, I can assure him that the care of our Nation's veterans knows no political boundaries, and the work that has been done should be noted.

I also want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Young) for bringing this bill forward. Like everything in life, there is a symmetry to things, and I think the story of how we got to this point might be well spoken or told. The gentleman represents the Third District of Iowa, the new one.

Back in 2006, there was a young Army Reservist named Joshua Omvig, who grew up in a small community in Iowa, literally down the road from where they filmed ``Field of Dreams.'' He returned from Iraq a week before Thanksgiving in 2006 and joined his family at that most American of all holidays to be back together. That evening of Thanksgiving, Joshua took his own life in front of his mother.

The crushing loss of a son, the crushing loss of a son of the Midwest was overwhelming. But the Omvigs did something that Americans do and something that this Nation always does. They turned their grief into action. They went to their Congressman at that time in the old Third District, Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Boswell, himself a decorated Vietnam veteran and helicopter pilot. They put together what then became the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act. This was back in 2007, when nobody was talking about 20 veterans a day and no one was talking about mental health and no one was talking much about transition. We were in the heart of the Iraq war. We were in Afghanistan. Our veterans were coming back, and, rightfully noted, we were unprepared for them.

In this piece of legislation, there are a couple of sections in here that are very clear on what Mr. Young's legislation does--exactly what it should do and what this Congress should do--provide oversight and improve on legislation.

Section 1720F said that the VA would establish 24-hour mental health care. In carrying out the comprehensive program, the Secretary shall provide for mental health care availability to veterans on a 24-hour basis. It would establish a hotline to carry this out, and the Secretary would provide a toll-free hotline for veterans to be staffed by appropriately trained mental health professionals.

And for those who don't think that that was needed, since that time, 2.5 million calls have been made to that hotline, 300,000 online chats, and 55,000 texts. When someone calls that line, they are at a breaking point. One of our warriors is at a point where they had nowhere else to turn.

The intent of this Congress and this Nation--not Democrat, not Republican--was to provide them the resources and the trained personnel necessary. What was noted in a GAO report, what Mr. Young has noted, and what this committee has noted is that the VA was not fulfilling fully what they should have. If one veteran falls through the cracks, we have failed. I don't care if 2.5 million were picked up. If 2.5 million plus one, and that last one was not picked up, we have failed.

Mr. Young's piece of legislation is simple, eloquent, asks the VA to do what they are supposed to do, and then do what should expected: report back to Congress so that we can provide our oversight ability.

I want to thank the chairman, the ranking member, and this committee for doing exactly what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to make sure that the VA fulfills the commitment that the United States and its citizens want to care for every single veteran that is out there. This was a smart piece of legislation. It was championed by the parents of a warrior who took his own life.

And keep in mind, when this was championed, we did not even bury our veterans who took their own lives with military honors because it was still something we didn't talk about. It was believed that they weren't casualties of war. In the 10 years since that time, we have made strides, we have made progress, and we understand that the cost of war continues on.

I want to thank Mr. Young for continuing the legacy that comes out of Iowa, the deep care for those that serve in our heartland, continuing the bipartisan legacy of the Third District of Iowa to improve on a really smart, needed piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this, and I encourage this body to continue to find ways to solve problems, work together, and show that, when it comes to unity around our veterans, there is not an inch of daylight between the two sides of this body.

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