Ben McAdams

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Staff Sergeant Stanley Nance.

In May 1944, 1,100 U.S. military men joined ranks to form what would be called ``the Ghost Army.''

Composed largely of artists, this unit had unusual orders: not to avoid detection by enemy forces, but to actively attract attention through an ingenious optical illusion.

One of them was Staff Sergeant Stanley Nance, signal Company Special of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.

The Ghost Army's tactics were to impersonate other Allied units, using inflatable tanks and jeeps made of sticks and burlap, to make the enemy believe that large factions of soldiers were on Omaha Beach and surrounding areas, after D-Day.

Massive speakers were mounted to the back of military vehicles, blasting the ambient noises of a much larger unit. They sounded like they were coming from the battlefield, but in fact had been recorded months before in fort Knox, Kentucky.

Kept a secret until 1985, the story of the Ghost Army and those in its ranks serves as a heroic tale of young Americans' bold actions to defend freedom.

Decades later, Staff Sergeant Nance's great-granddaughter, Madeline Christianson, told his story through a history project, which recently won the World War II History Award at the National History Competition. Her project is an amazing re-creation of a story of skill, courage and triumph--unique in the annals of history.

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day 2019, we honor two extraordinary generations of Utahns--the soldier who helped defeat tyranny during World War II, and his great-granddaughter who is keeping the story of heroism alive.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, I rise today to speak on my amendment encouraging the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve veteran credit reporting and to implement important financial protections for our veterans.

I thank the bipartisan cosponsors of this amendment, Representative Axne from Iowa, Representatives Gonzalez and Stivers from Ohio, Representative Barr from Kentucky, and Representative Allred from Texas.

Congress created the Veterans Choice Program to respond to inexcusable wait time delays for veterans receiving medical care at VA facilities. The Choice program allowed veterans to access non-VA medical facilities, providing for faster options in receiving necessary medical care.

While veterans saw increased access to healthcare, their financial health took a hit as the VA and third-party providers failed to process payments in a timely fashion and actually made billing errors, resulting in negative credit reporting for our veterans even though those payments were often not the responsibility of the veteran.

My amendment encourages the VA to make good on legislation that was enacted last year to ensure that these credit reporting errors are fixed.

This legislation establishes a process in which veterans can dispute negatively reported credit scores due to VA billing mishaps. It also requires credit bureaus to remove information related to a veteran's fully paid or settled medical debt that has been characterized as delinquent, charged off, or in collection. This program will ensure our veterans are not financially inhibited because of government error.

The VA was tasked with establishing a database and process to verify whether a medical debt is related to the billing errors and filing mishaps within a year of enactment. This 1-year grace period allowed the VA to establish a program to check medical debts, verify debt accuracy, and provide a solution for our veterans. However, the VA missed that 1-year period at the end of last month.

My amendment is simple. It simply instructs the VA to submit to Congress an implementation plan, including expected timeline and resource requirements for the VA to come into compliance with the law and to establish these important protections for our veterans.

Good credit for our veterans is the difference between qualifying for a home loan or not. It is the difference between investing in their education, being able to buy a car, or qualifying for a small business loan.

This important issue cannot wait. Our Nation's veterans should not be punished because of government billing errors. They deserve better, which is why I encourage a ``yes'' on my bipartisan amendment.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I encourage Members to support this bipartisan amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chair, I thank Congresswoman Murphy for her

leadership in our Future Forum and for focusing on the important healthcare issues facing our young people today.

Madam Chair, I am proud to cosponsor this amendment to invest in the Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention grants to promote outreach, education, awareness, and prevention efforts to young people in our communities and to vulnerable students on our college campuses.

Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24 in my State of Utah, and we know that we can do more to save lives.

We have tremendous leaders stepping up in Utah to change the conversation on mental health and to reach people in crisis.

In fact, Weber State University in Utah recently used a Garrett Lee Smith Campus grant to fund its peer-based support network to address mental health stigma and to expand students' access to mental health support.

Madam Chair, I am proud to support this amendment and to expand our work to invest in the mental health of our young people.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I rise to offer my amendment to strengthen our national efforts to address the public health crisis of suicide in our country.

I would like to applaud Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger for their work on this bill, as well as my colleague from Utah on the committee, Representative Stewart, who has been a champion of suicide prevention efforts in Congress.

For the first time, this legislation specifically provides funding for research, outreach, and prevention measures on the concerning public health issue of suicide through the Centers for Disease Control's Injury Prevention and Control programs. My amendment would build on this work by providing additional capacity at the CDC to ensure the agency can enhance its outreach and prevention work for youth at risk of suicide.

My home State of Utah is grappling with a suicide crisis. From seniors experiencing isolation in rural communities to young people who face bullying in schools, we are seeing rates of suicide rise across multiple populations. In fact, one high school in my district recently lost seven students to suicide in only 1 year.

Utah has the unfortunate distinction of being the State with the sixth highest rate of deaths by suicide, and suicide is the leading cause of death of Utahns 15 to 24 years old.

According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2016, per capita deaths by suicide rose 46.5 percent in Utah, well above the concerning national increase of 25.4 percent over the same period. Our youth suicide rate more than doubled between 2011 and 2015.

We have a bipartisan agreement in our State that we need to do more to understand and address this crisis. I thank our State Governor, Governor

Herbert, for convening a youth suicide task force to lead this effort, and the public and community leaders who have been working on a number of initiatives. School leaders have been working to hire more mental health professionals and to offer services to help students in crisis. Our conversation in Utah on mental health wellness has continued to evolve and bring a focus to the health needs of vulnerable people.

From suicide prevention lifelines, including those for at-risk populations like veterans, to mental health crisis training for first responders and care providers, we know we still need to invest in the services and infrastructure that serve people in crisis.

Policymakers must continue to review how we are working to strengthen our public health education on suicide prevention and ensure that people with mental health and behavioral health needs can access affordable, quality care.

I believe my amendment takes a strong step to ensuring our national and State public health experts have sufficient resources to investigate this troubling rise in deaths by suicide, particularly among young people, and to develop and implement prevention strategies.

I look forward to continuing this work with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.