Veteran suicide bill moves forward in US House

A bill aimed at preventing veteran suicides is headed to the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Veteran Suicide Prevention Act would direct the VA to put together a publicly available review of suicides by veterans in the last five years. The review would look at the total number of suicides, demographic information, medical information from the VA and other information to improve the safety and well-being of veterans across the country.

Representative Elise Stefanik, D-New York, is a co-sponsor of the bill. "We have more veterans in this district than any other district in New York state, so they are a part of our everyday population. There is an epidemic of suicide in the veterans community. We need to make sure that the VA has an understanding of that epidemic that also makes the investment to combat this, to prevent veteran suicide. This is bipartisan, it's important and it will help a district like ours where we need to ensure that the mental health of our veterans, particularly in rural communities, they have the resources that they need," she said.

The bill comes on the heels of a VA report that showed at least 60,000 U.S. veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017. On average that is nearly 20 veterans a day.