{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-new-military-suicide-numbers-incredibly-concerning-reinforce-importance-of-passing-jacob-sexton-act", "Donnelly: New Military Suicide Numbers ‘Incredibly Concerning,’ Reinforce Importance of Passing Jacob Sexton Act", "2014-12-11", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Joe Donnelly", "D000607", "www.donnelly.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Donnelly: New Military Suicide Numbers \u2018Incredibly Concerning,\u2019 Reinforce Importance of Passing Jacob Sexton Act\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t224 Servicemembers have taken own lives in first six months of 2014 according to new Pentagon report\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, December 11, 2014\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C. \u2014\u00a0U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly released the following statement in response to the Department of Defense\u2019s (DoD) new report on military suicides through the first six months of 2014. The DoD report comes as the Senate is on the verge of passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including Donnelly\u2019s bipartisan Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act. The Pentagon reported on Thursday that 224 servicemembers took their own lives from January through June of this year, including 144 active component servicemembers, 38 reserve servicemembers, and 44 National Guard members.\r\nDonnelly, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly concerning how many servicemembers we are losing to suicide. Any servicemember lost is one too many. There are commonsense steps we can take to address the scourge of military suicide, and I hope that one step we take yet this week is passing the Jacob Sexton Act.\u201d\r\nThe national defense bill, including the Sexton Act, is anticipated to pass the Senate by the end of this week. The Sexton Act seeks to help prevent military suicide by requiring annual mental health assessments for all servicemembers, including Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve; maintaining strong privacy protections for servicemembers; and requiring a Pentagon report to evaluate existing military mental health practices and provide recommendations for expansion and improvement.\u00a0 The Sexton Act is named after Indiana National Guardsman Jacob Sexton, a native of Farmland, Indiana, who took his own life in 2009 while home on a 15-day leave from Afghanistan.\r\nFor more information on the Sexton Act, click here.\r\nFor two straight years, we have lost more servicemembers to suicide than combat.\u00a0 According to the Pentagon, in 2012, 522 servicemembers took their own lives, while we lost 316 in combat. Last year, a record number in the National Guard took their own lives, and we lost 474* servicemembers overall, more than three times the number killed in combat.\r\n[*The Pentagon report released on Thursday adjusted the number of servicemembers lost to suicide in 2013 to 474 servicemembers from the previously reported 475.]\u00a0\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Press Contact \n\t\t\t\t\tDonnelly_Press@Donnelly.Senate.Gov", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-new-military-suicide-numbers-incredibly-concerning-reinforce-importance-of-passing-jacob-sexton-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.397127052769065, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}