One of the things that came up at the veterans roundtable in Speaker Pelosi at the VA Medical Center was the need for better outreach to veterans.
Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3681, Veterans Benefits Awareness Act of 2008, to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to advertise in the national media to promote awareness of benefits.
Here's Congressman Walz's floor statement, taken from Lexis-Nexis Congressional database:
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Thank you to the chairman for his outstanding and tireless work for our veterans. A special thank you also to Mr. Boozman, who has been an unending friend and supporter and effective leader in helping our veterans. I thank you. This is just one more example of your continued work.
I stand in strong support of H.R. 3681, the Veterans Benefits Awareness Act. This just simply, as you have heard the speakers talk about, ensures the ability of the VA to reach out and gather our veterans back in, making sure that those veterans understand all the benefits that are available to them, from suicide prevention to health care benefits, training, education, pension benefits, vocational rehabilitation, assistance for homeless veterans, veterans owning small businesses.
This Nation and this past Congress in the 110th Congress has done much to care for our veterans. One of the problems is that when our veterans return home, only about 36 percent of them enter into the VA system or apply for benefits, and what this does is take advantage of what all 435 Members of this body know well, is you need to advertise well to get that message out. The Department of Defense has done a great job of advertising for recruitment. It's time for the VA to put that money into making sure our veterans get their care.
The Rand Corporation said the capacity of the DOD and the VA to provide mental health services has increased substantially, but significant gaps in access and quality remain. There is a large gap between the need for mental health services and the use of those services.
Last year, this Congress put in a hotline for veterans seeking help with possible suicide and suicide prevention, and that hotline has received over 9,000 calls. Those may have been calls that would have never been received. So this 24-hour national hotline is working. I am pleased that the amendment that I put in to address this with the veterans suicide issue has been addressed. I would also like to thank the ranking member, Representative Buyer from Indiana, for his perfecting amendment on this bill.
This piece of legislation is a great example of bipartisan support that rises above and transcends politics to care for our Nation's veterans. This will be a good piece of legislation. It will get our veterans in. It will fulfill our moral obligation to care for our veterans and it will ensure that future generations of our young Americans understand that if they raise their hands, take an oath, and service this Nation, we will be there to serve them.
With that, I again thank Mr. Boozman. I thank the ranking member and I thank the chairman for continuously moving information and moving legislation forward that helps our veterans.
This bill will ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs is able to use the power of modern advertising to reach out in as wide-ranging and an effective way as possible to our veterans.
The bill authorizes the Secretary of the VA to purchase advertising in the national media about the benefits VA makes available to veterans. VA offers health care and mental health care benefits, including for the prevention of suicide, an issue that we have been vigorously addressing on the House Veterans Committee; education, training, compensation, and pension benefits; vocational rehabilitation; assistance for homeless veterans, opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses; and direct opportunities for employment in the Department itself, among other things.
But if veterans don't know about these benefits, they're not in a position to take full advantage of them.
There is more than enough evidence that advertising works to promote awareness of whatever the advertising is about. Study after study has shown that advertising through the major media works. In fact, the Department of Defense itself knows that. That's why it devotes a lot of time and energy to advertising, including on television, as a means of recruitment.
We advertise to recruit our servicemembers, many of whom will put themselves in harm's way; that same means should be used to tell them what benefits they have earned when they return. In effect, we are saying to VA, "If our veterans aren't coming to you, use the modern media to go to them!"
This bill is also a perfect illustration of how we on the House Veterans Affairs Committee strive to work on a bipartisan basis to serve our veterans. This bill was introduced by Congressman Boozman on behalf of himself and Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin. I offered an amendment to the bill, and then one of my Republican colleagues offered a perfecting amendment, which I was happy to accept. In that way, we worked together to produce a bill that is good for our veterans.
My amendment specified that the advertising VA would do could and should include a focus on suicide prevention, which has been an issue of much concern and some controversy lately. There have been several recent reports about VA's sometimes halting efforts to address what appears to be a series of major emerging mental health problems among our veterans. I have a great deal of confidence in the new Secretary of VA, whom I have been working with on a number of issues, and his commitment to resolve the problems that exist at VA and better serve our veterans.
An excellent and disturbing new report from the think tank the Rand Corp. observed that "The capacity of DoD and the VA to provide mental health services has increased substantially, but significant gaps in access and quality remain," and went on to say in particular, "There is a large gap between the need for mental health services and the use of those services." My amendment was meant to encourage VA to bridge that gap.
On July 25, 2007, the VA began operation of a 24-hour national suicide prevention hotline for veterans. The hotline reported greater than 9,000 calls. Callers included veterans who previously would have called a non-VA suicide hotline, veterans who would not have utilized a non-VA hotline, family members and friends of veterans, and other distressed non-veterans. Bottom line-veterans are calling the hotline. It is common sense that with more outreach, more veterans are likely to call the VA hotline. And advertising in the national media is one form of that outreach.
I am pleased that my amendment to this legislation was adopted, and perfected with the help of the Ranking Member on the VA Committee, Representative Buyer.
I strongly urge the passage of H.R. 3681.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), who has been a strong supporter of VA issues his entire time here in the House of Representatives.
Congressman Boozman's (R-AR) opened his remarks by saying:
Mr. BOOZMAN. Thank you, Congressman Miller. Thank you, Congressman Walz. I always feel like he speaks with such authority when I am around him; I am always concerned he is going to ask me to do 10 pushups or something.. . .
Source: Congressional Record, House, 110th Congress, 2nd Session, Vol. 154, No. 83: 4185-4187.
Photo: Boot camp illustration of proper form for push-ups.
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