Congress Got It Wrong With Clay Hunt Suicide Bill

Stateside Suicides Won't Change with Repeating Failures
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 17, 2015

Coming out against something so popular isn't easy but it would be harder for me to simply follow everyone else for me. I've looked into the eyes of far too many families after it was too late to prevent a stateside suicide of someone they loved. I've talked to too many veterans after they survived combat and then repeated attempts to end their own lives. They waited, hoped, prayed, Congress would finally get it right but more were failed by them than helped by them.

It is far too easy to simply support Clay Hunt's family on this bill instead of looking back at all the other families having to travel to Washington hoping to make a difference. They have done it for years. They have been wondering where all the outrage has been for their sake. Where are the editorials about holding someone accountable? Where are the editorials brave enough to mention how many other lives could have been saved if Congress ever once took a look at what they already did and failed with?

It isn't the money. It isn't the worthiness of Clay Hunt to have his name attached to a bill promoted as saving lives. It is the fact that there have been many more bills, just like this and suicides went up. It is the fact that Congress has not gotten a single bill written worthy of the suffering of any of them.

After years of Congress telling us they were doing something to save lives the results are veterans committing suicide at double the rate of the civilian population yet are only 7% of the general public. Younger veterans, OEF and OIF veterans, are committing suicide triple their peer rate. My heart breaks for Hunt's family. It breaks more knowing that they joined many more families hoping their loss will save lives only to discover, more suffered the same fate.

This bill should not be passed until Congress stops repeating what they have already done since 2007 with the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention BIll. That bill was pushed by another grieving family thinking they were going to make a difference only to discover Congress didn't know what they were doing. Clay Hunt deserved better than this bill and so did all the others.

The money Congress spent along with the DOD and the VA have been in the billions a year but the price cannot be measured with a dollar sign. It is measured by the tears shed for someone who should not be dead.

A soldier's suicide, our second chance
Star Tribune
Article by: EDITORIAL BOARD
January 16, 2015

It’s an outrage that vets’ legislation didn’t clear Congress last year.

The impromptu YouTube video made by Clay Hunt’s mom and stepdad last month wasn’t meant to be a tear-jerker. But it’s hard to watch the footage without being affected by the raw, emotional pain the couple shares.

Hunt, a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, took his own life in 2011 after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. In mid-December, a much-needed bill named after the young Texan, one that would improve veterans’ mental health care and access to it, was poised to easily clear the U.S. Senate after unanimously passing the House. Then it hit a roadblock by the name of Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican known as “Dr. No” for both his medical degree and his willingness to single-handedly kill bills through procedural gamesmanship.

The last-ditch video by Susan and Richard Selke was shot near Coburn’s office as they became aware that he had concerns about the bill’s expense, $22 million over five years, and necessity. Hoping Coburn would see the video, Selke asks the senator, as a fellow father, to reconsider.

“I know there are things in there [the bill] that might have saved Clay’s life, might have saved some other veteran’s life,’’ Selke said, clearly struggling to hold back tears. “It’s on your back. This is personal. Please, please don’t say no.”
read more here

A Father-to-Father Message to Sen. Coburn from Clay Hunt's Step-Dad
Can you listen to their heartbreak and then tell them honestly this bill will make a difference knowing what you know now? I can't. What I can tell them is everyday I fought to try and prevent someone like Clay from committing suicide. He did everything right. He tried to get help. He got involved with other veterans. He volunteered with TEAM Rubicon responding to disasters around the world. What more could he have done? Nothing. The rest of us should have been up to the challenge and fought for them. What excuses will we have the next time another family goes to a funeral and then to Washington hoping to make a difference?