From THE HILL – 16 Dec 2014
Lawmakers vowed to renew their push for a bill aimed at boosting suicide prevention for military veterans in 2015.
The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, passed the House but was blocked Monday night by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who decried its $22 million cost and said it duplicated programs at the Veterans Affairs Department.
“Im going to be objecting to this bill because it actually throws money away,” Coburn said on the Senate floor. “Were the ones to blame for not holding the VA accountable.”
The move infuriated supporters of the bill, which is named after a young Iraq veteran who killed himself.
“Make no mistake, the fight isn’t over,” Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), one of the original sponsors of the bill, said in a statement. “We will rally from this setback; I will reintroduce this important legislation immediately in the 114th Congress, and there is no doubt in my mind it will eventually become law.”
He said that based on the VAs own math, around 8,000 veterans commit suicide every year.
“Each day we fail to address this problem, more veterans die. It’s incredibly disappointing that this commonsense legislation was stymied by the only member of Congress in either the House or Senate who objects to the bill,” Walz said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is slated to be the ranking member on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee next year, said that, if the bill “fails this time, we will bring it back.”
“As parents who experienced the pain of losing a veteran to suicide, it is shocking to see this bill blocked because of one lone Senator’s agenda,” Susan Selke, Hunts mother, said in a statement put out by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).
Paul Rieckhoff, IAVAs CEO and founder, called Coburns move “unconscionable.”
“Have no doubt, we will be back with reinforcements when the next Congress arrives,” he said.