{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.donnelly.senate.gov/newsroom/press/donnelly-we-are-losing-too-many-of-our-servicemembers-to-suicide", "Donnelly: ‘We Are Losing Too Many of Our Servicemembers to Suicide’", "2015-10-01", "2015", "2015-10", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Joe Donnelly", "D000607", "www.donnelly.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Donnelly: We Are Losing Too Many of Our Servicemembers to Suicide\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tOver 200 servicemembers took their own lives in the first half of 2015\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThursday, October 1, 2015\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C.  U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly released the following statement in response to the Department of Defense (DoD) report on military suicides in the second quarter of 2015 released yesterday that found over 200 servicemembers lost to suicide in the first half of 2015. The Pentagon reported that 118 servicemembers took their own lives from April through June, including 71 active component servicemembers, 20 Reservists, and 27 National Guard members. The number of suicides in the second quarter of 2015 increased in the Active and Reserve Components compared to the same period in 2014. Both active component and Reservist suicides also increased since the same period in 2013. Earlier this week, Donnelly released a statement in recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month and emphasized that more work needs to be done to address the scourge of military suicide.\r\nDonnelly, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, The new military suicide numbers released by the Pentagon remind us of what we already know: We are losing too many of our servicemembers to suicide. Although some progress has been made, we still have a lot more work to do to ensure servicemembers and veterans have access to quality mental health care. I will continue to work to have the bipartisan Servicemember and Veteran Mental Health Care Package gets signed into law this year.\r\nDonnelly has continued to fight for legislation that would improve mental health care for servicemembers, veterans, and their families. In March, Donnelly introduced the Servicemember and Veteran Mental Health Care Package (Care Package), three bipartisan bills to help expand access to quality mental health care for servicemembers and veterans through both Department of Defense (DoD) and VA facilities, as well as local community providers. Military mental health provisions from the Care Package passed the Senate in June as part of the national defense bill and would help ensure that there are a sufficient number of the best trained mental health providers for servicemembers and veterans.\r\nThe final national defense bill negotiated by the conference committee includes provisions from Donnellys Care Package. The Senate is expected to consider the final national defense bill in the coming weeks. The National Defense Authorization Act has been signed into law for 53 consecutive years.\r\nThe Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has committed to considering veterans-related provisions of Donnellys Care Package in an upcoming hearing. The Care Package would build on the progress made by Donnellys Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act, which was signed into law late last year and for the first time requires an annual mental health assessment for all servicemembersActive, Guard, and Reserve.\r\nThis latest DoD report on military suicides adjusted statistics for the first quarter of 2015, reporting 101 servicemembers took their own lives from January through March, including 59 active component servicemembers, 13 Reservists, and 29 National Guard Members. Last year, according to the Pentagon, 443 servicemembers took their own lives, including 273 Active Component servicemembers, 79 Reservists, and 91 National Guard members. In 2014, for the third straight year, more servicemembers were lost to suicide than in combat.\r\n###", 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-we-are-losing-too-many-of-our-servicemembers-to-suicide"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3970350846648216, "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"}