releases: https://davidyoung.house.gov/media-center/weeklyreport/bill-improve-veterans-crisis-line-signed-law
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://davidyoung.house.gov/media-center/weeklyreport/bill-improve-veterans-crisis-line-signed-law | Bill to Improve the Veterans Crisis Line Signed into Law | 2016-12-09 | 2016 | 2016-12 | Republican | House | IA | David Young | Y000066 | davidyoung.house.gov | legacy | Bill to Improve the Veterans Crisis Line Signed into Law Here at home in Iowa, I make it my mission to meet with and listen to folks in all of the 16 counties of the Third Congressional District every month. I believe the best way to serve the Iowans I work for is by being consistently available, and I stand always ready and willing to listen to the issues, concerns, frustrations and ideas of folks in our state. When I visit with our veterans, service members, and the organizations which exist to support them, I hear too often about the problems plaguing veterans’ mental health services, including the Veterans Crisis Line, which is the confidential, toll free hotline for veterans seeking suicide prevention and crisis resources help from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) responders. This critical mental health tool for our veterans has come under fire after veterans in crisis received busy signals, answering machines, or no answer at all, when seeking help they desperately needed at a moment of crisis. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan government watchdog organization, released a report confirming the problems, as nearly 30 percent of text messages they sent as a test to the Veterans Crisis Line went unanswered. A report from the VA Inspector General, which is the investigative arm of the VA, disappointingly reported the same issues and failures. Because our veterans deserve better, I introduced the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act, legislation seeking critical improvements to the Veterans Crisis Line. This legislation requires the VA identify what is causing the failures and openly tell us what improvements and fixes are needed, to ensure that every veteran’s call is answered and that they are given the help they need. In a victory for our veterans, the president signed this bill into law on November 28, 2016. The No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in September by a vote of 357-0 and was later approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. The support of this legislation has been widespread, and I am pleased this this legislation has been enacted. However, our work continues. I have already met with a member of the president-elect’s transition team to lay out the priorities for this new law and I will continue to monitor the progress of Veterans Crisis Line improvements. Because our veterans deserve better, I am fighting for the additional resources and changes needed to ensure that no call goes unanswered. # # # | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |