Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. AGUILAR. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer this amendment that would set aside $1 million for studying a neglected segment of suicides within our Armed Forces. Our brave men and women in uniform risk their lives every day to keep us safe and free, yet they often don't get the care that they deserve.

While attention has been given to the subject in the past, we have recently seen a need for research that deals with high suicide rates among our female servicemembers and veterans. This week, the Los Angeles Times reported on a recently released study which found female military veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate of other women.

This new government research released in the journal of Psychiatric Services went even further, reporting that female veterans between the ages of 18 and 29 are nearly twelve times more likely to commit suicide than nonmilitary women. We need to do better by the women who risk their lives to protect our Nation. We cannot sit idly by while our female servicemembers and veterans suffer in silence.

My amendment would set aside $1 million to study the possible causes for this level of suicides among our women in uniform. Service-related causes like traumatic brain injuries and PTSD, in addition to nonservice related factors such as adverse childhood experiences, financial troubles, and other external stressors, must be investigated if we hope to seriously confront this travesty head on.

In addition, according to the VA, the suicide gap between men and women is shrinking. Men typically have higher suicide rates than women. When military service is incorporated, the gap between the two shrinks significantly.

This is a serious problem and one that we don't know enough about to confront. Until we understand why we are seeing this horrific trend, we cannot help the women who bravely serve.

When we are faced with rising generations where female veterans are twelve times more likely than nonmilitary women to commit suicide, we need to take action. My amendment will conduct a study to understand how we get here, so we can move forward and take real action to address this crisis.

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