Chairman Takano on the Five Year Anniversary of the Clay Hunt SAV Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mark Takano (CA-41) released the following statement to mark the five year anniversary of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act’s passage.

“Five years ago, Congress passed the Clay Hunt SAV Act-- key legislation to reduce veteran suicide. Our hope was that the bill would memorialize Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who died by suicide in 2011, but unfortunately, this well intentioned effort hasn’t done enough to reduce veteran suicide. 

“It’s clear we need to deepen our understanding of suicide risk and continue our work to develop effective solutions to prevent suicide deaths. This must include ensuring timely access to high quality mental health care for veterans-- that’s why we adopted a comprehensive framework with 7 goals to ensure we examine every angle, intersection, and factor that can eliminate suicide. And it’s why I introduced the Veterans ACCESS Act last month to make sure any veteran in crisis-- regardless of discharge status or VA eligibility-- can receive the emergency mental health care they need without ever seeing a bill. 

“We have more work to do, but by adopting a holistic approach, we can help save veterans’ lives.”

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