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Today, Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared at the start of the subcommittee’s oversight hearing to dive into the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) mental health policies, processes, and quality of care decisions regarding mental health care access. Recent reports by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) have identified deficiencies in the mental health care intake process and adherence to suicide risk identification screening guidance. Recent reports over the previous few years have also highlighted gaps in safety plan compliance, a need for suicide risk and intervention training, and the lack of adherence to suicide risk identification screening and evaluation at VA.

Good morning, everyone, the Subcommittee will come to order.

I would like to welcome our witnesses, my fellow Members, and the audience to this hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Today we will dig deeper into VA’s mental health policies to gain insight into the processes and quality of care decisions regarding veterans’ mental health care.

From speaking with veterans in my district, it’s clear that we have a lot of ground to cover to fix the mental health crisis in the veteran community.

One of the concerns I hear most often from veterans is how long it takes to schedule their appointments for mental health treatments.  Delayed mental health care in the age of telehealth is well within our ability to address – veterans deserve timely care.

Despite VA investing billions into PTSD treatment, suicide prevention, and alternative approaches to mental health, we continue to lose too many veterans to suicide. One veteran suicide is one too many.

In 2022, 6,407 veterans died by suicide.

That is 17 veterans a day.

Unfortunately, it does not stop there.

 An additional 20 veterans die every day by “self-injury mortality,” which generally means overdose. I have heard horror stories from constituents who have been prescribed pain medication and told to take more when they feel bad, and less when they feel better.

As a provider, I would not even feel comfortable prescribing two medications that might interact with one another without first consulting a psychiatrist.

This is unacceptable.

It’s impossible to cover every detail of every case, but we know that we are losing veterans.

Despite a seemingly endless amount of resources spent, these numbers have failed to substantively decline.

One veteran suicide is one too many.

These men and women volunteered to serve their country in a variety of roles throughout our armed services.

They have answered the call to serve and as a veteran and a nurse practitioner, it’s alarming that we have allowed VA to fail to move the needle for this long.

We must do better.

We have tried to throw more money at the problem. VA’s budget has risen 479% since 2001.

And yet despite a shrinking veteran population – the veteran suicide rate has remained virtually stagnant.

Unfortunately, VA’s own numbers have only shown that they are doing less with more.

This is not a question of spending more taxpayer dollars but getting veterans what they need when they need it.

Making progress means that we must take a closer look into VA’s bureaucracy and improve our oversight of the processes and policies that determine the quality of veteran mental health care.

Suicide prevention and veteran mental health are bipartisan issues.

Losing these veterans impacts red states and blue states.

I hope that this hearing will yield results to important questions about VA mental health care:

How are these policies developed?

What steps has VA taken to adjust its approach?

How does VA use science and data to improve veteran care?

And most importantly, how can VA better serve the veteran?

The answers that we hear today will inform our next steps to address these urgent issues.

Veterans should not have to wait for mental health care, and it is our bipartisan responsibility to ensure VA has up to date policies and is enforcing these policies to ensure no veteran slips through the cracks.

This is a bipartisan issue, and we cannot let politics stand in the way of making progress. There was spirited conversation during our last full committee hearing on the impact VA’s workforce reform efforts would have on delivering mental health care to veterans.

The Secretary already addressed this misinformation and let me reiterate, no mission critical employees, including those at the Veterans Crisis Line, have been terminated from VA. I am committed to ensuring that VA works for veterans and their caregivers with a functioning, quality workforce. 

With that being said, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I now recognize Ranking Member Ramirez for her opening comments.