U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) wants to know how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wasn’t able to spend more than $6 million in targeted federal funds this year to provide suicide prevention outreach services for the nation’s military veterans.
“At a time when a veteran commits suicide every 72 minutes in the United States, we need to do everything in our power to combat this tragic epidemic. That means spending every dollar allocated to your department for this very purpose,” Rep. Buchanan wrote in a Dec. 19 letter sent to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie that cited findings from a November 2018 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
According to the GAO, of the $6.2 million set aside for suicide prevention outreach in 2018, the VA has “somehow only managed to spend $57,000, or less than 1 percent of the total funding allocated for this purpose,” wrote Rep. Buchanan, who served six years in the U.S. Air National Guard.
The VA’s social media outreach for suicide prevention also has decreased by more than two-thirds this year compared to 2017, with “zero public outreach messages … aired nationally for over a year,” Buchanan wrote.
“This is unacceptable and disgraceful to the millions of veterans nationwide who put their lives on the line protecting our freedom,” the congressman wrote, calling the GAO report “shocking.”
He asked VA Secretary Wilkie “how these failures were allowed to take place and what you will be doing going forward to ensure that they do not occur again on your watch.”
And because reducing the veteran suicide rate is among his top priorities, Rep. Buchanan also plans soon to introduce legislation in Congress that will address these problems, according to his letter.
“As you are undoubtedly aware, an astonishing 20 veterans a day commit suicide, accounting for 18 percent of all suicides nationwide,” the congressman wrote. “Among veterans younger than 35, the number of suicides has increased dramatically in recent years. These statistics are not only heartbreaking; they are downright inexcusable.”
Rep. Buchanan requested a written response from Wilkie before the 116th Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2019.