Veterans deserve better
It wouldn’t have taken the U.S. Senate very long to vote on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act before they left Washington, D.C., for the remainder of the year.
The bill was drafted in hopes of reducing the number of veteran suicides — now reported to be 22 a day — by, among other things, establishing a peer support system for veterans and a new pilot loan repayment program for psychiatrists who serve in the Veterans Health Administration. It was passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives and most likely would have been approved by the Senate and sent to President Obama had it not been blocked by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has earned a reputation for stalling legislation.
Sen. Jerry Moran, a strong supporter of the suicide prevention act in particular and veterans’ issues in general, to his credit has vowed to support and sponsor the measure when the new Congress convenes in January. Coburn is leaving the Senate and won’t be around then to cause further mischief, but the time lost due to a needless delay is costly, especially at the rate of 22 suicides per day.
Coburn should have stayed out of the way and let the bill become law. His reasoning for not doing so was that it would do little to prevent suicides because it didn’t reform the Department of Veterans Affairs.
http://m.cjonline.com/opinion/2014-12-22/editorial-veterans-deserve-better#gsc.tab=0
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