Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, sadly, each day we read sensationalized headlines that boggle the mind, but here is the rest of the story. In New York, headlines read a 30-year-old man has been charged with killing his father who founded a hedge fund because his allowance had been cut.

The rest of the story? He had been in a mental health decline for years. A friend told the press, clearly their son had serious mental illness. There were stories about strange things that he had been doing in the past few years, really erratic behavior. Another newspaper reports the man was off his medication.

In Florida, headlines read a 22-year-old man cut off his mother's head with an ax last week because of her nagging about daily chores.

The rest of the story? This man had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been involuntarily held under the State's civil commitment law but released. Despite his illness and past commitments, he was no longer in treatment because Florida, like most States, requires a person to be imminently homicidal or suicidal for treatment.

In Pennsylvania a former marine killed his ex-wife and five of her family members last month because of ``family issues.''

The rest of the story? The marine had been evaluated and cleared of having suicidal or homicidal tendencies by a Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist just days before, a decision we now see was wrong.

Each week there are half a dozen new reports that demand more than a sensationalized headline because the rest of the story tells the real story. Severe mental illness is a brain disease; it is not an attitude or a lifestyle choice. Psychosis, schizophrenia, and other serious mental illnesses involve disruption in typical brain functioning which translates into a very specific set of disturbing behaviors. This is not a condemnation of the mentally ill nor a criticism of those who have severe brain disorders.

Hallucinations, voices, visions, and paranoia lead to actions that aren't grounded in reasoned choices. For those who don't have a brain disease it is hard to understand, and it is unnerving to think about, but when we understand that behaviors are symptomatic of what is occurring in the brain, we can address them without judgment, just like other medical diseases and other lifesaving treatments.

The distorted reasoning why an individual acts out in a violent manner or takes the lives of innocent victims on a mass scale are complex and not as simple as a response to a mother's nagging. Sadly, in all cases I mentioned today, the families knew there was something wrong with their mentally ill loved one but they were ignored and frustrated or turned away by a broken system of State and Federal laws that create walls and barriers instead of access to care.

Parents know there is a problem, and even when they have the resources to get a child help, the family efforts are thwarted by this broken system, and they are not getting effective, evidence-based treatment. And communities rarely have the appropriate programs, resources, and doctors to deal with the most severe cases.

In the face of this growing crisis, we must approach serious mental illness as a medical emergency that engages a community and medical response to help people and families trapped in this system that is misguided, in denial, and disconnected.

We can change this tragic pattern, and that is why I will be reintroducing the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

My legislation makes sure the most severely mentally ill have access to

treatment. It fixes the shortage of psychiatric beds. It clarifies and simplifies HIPAA privacy laws. It reforms Federal programs to focus on programs that research shows work, not feel-good fads. It helps patients who aren't able to understand their need for treatment get meaningful care.

We know that, for example, 50 percent of people with schizophrenia suffer from something called anosognosia--they are not even aware that they have problems--and this leads to noncompliance with treatment and helps to explain why 40 percent of Americans with serious mental illness don't get any treatment.

Anosognosia occurs most frequently when schizophrenia or a bipolar disorder affects portions of the frontal lobe, resulting in impaired executive function. The patients are neurologically unable to comprehend that their delusions or hallucinations are not real.

This is different than denial; this is a change in the wiring of the brain. We need to understand and respect that. The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act also ensures there is accountability for how public health dollars are being spent.

We owe it to the 10 million Americans with a serious mental illness and the 5 million who are not with treatment to take meaningful action to fix the chaotic patchwork of programs and laws that make it impossible to get meaningful medical care until it is too late to do anything beyond mourning.

Each day, I receive countless letters and telephone calls from parents across the country who must courageously battle a broken system when trying to help a loved one in mental health crisis. I admire their courage, their compassion, and their passion. Let their struggles be our motivation to take action of our own now.

As I said, I will soon be reintroducing my Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, and I welcome all Members interested in joining me in this quest to work together as we reintroduce this to make sure we get treatment before tragedy.

Mr. Speaker, on roll call no. 564 had I been present, I would have voted YEA.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to extend my thanks to Alejandro Joshua Barlock of Unity Township, Pennsylvania for his service to the Greater Latrobe community by planning and installing a new veterans memorial at Barnes Place, a senior living community.

Alec is a student at Greater Latrobe High School and a member of Boy Scout Troop 327 in Youngstown, Pennsylvania. Alec had noticed that his grandfather Eugene Jones, 89, a World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, could no longer travel from Barnes Place to local Veterans Day ceremonies. Thus, Alec decided for an Eagle Scout project to build a memorial for his grandfather and all of the Barnes Place veteran residents.

He spent nearly nine months planning his project and approximately twenty hours constructing the memorial with the help of his family and fellow scouts. The memorial is now open for use of the entire community for special patriotic ceremonies.

By building this memorial to honor our veterans, Alec has answered the call of the Scout Oath to show ``duty to country.'' Mr. Speaker, I again congratulate Alejandro Barlock on a job well done, and I ask that all Members join me in thanking him for an Eagle Scout project that remembers the sacrifice of America's service men and women.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 480, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize a true American treasure and one of my constituents who still spends his summer months in his native Youngstown, Pennsylvania, Arnold Palmer.

Today, Arnold celebrates his 85th birthday, and he continues to serve as an inspiration to me and the millions who make up ``Arnie's Army.''

Arnold rose from humble beginnings and has achieved remarkable things in his life. Taught the game of golf at the age of 3 by his father, Deacon, who was the golf pro at Latrobe Country Club, Arnold made a name for himself in the amateur ranks. His promising collegiate career was cut short when he enlisted in the Coast Guard in honor of a friend who died. After he fulfilled his military service, Arnold returned to Wake Forest and won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1954.

Arnold's achievements on the golf course are nothing short of legendary: seven-time major champion; 1960 and 1962 PGA Player of the Year; and 92 overall professional victories.

Perhaps Arnold's most enduring legacy, however, lies in his decades of philanthropic work. Over the years, he has raised millions of dollars for the Latrobe-area hospital for charitable care. He helped to build a 30,000-square-foot cancer center and sponsored construction of a nature preserve for all of Westmoreland County to enjoy.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to call Arnold Palmer a son of western Pennsylvania, as well as my friend, and I ask that all Members wish him a very happy birthday.

Mr. Speaker, ``cowardly,'' ``a heathen,'' ``selfish''--those are the words some used to describe Robin Williams' suicide. These underscore that there is a great deal of ignorance and misunderstanding about suicide.

Myths surrounding suicide are pervasive and persistent. Given that September is National Suicide Prevention Month, we have an opportunity to dispel these common misconceptions, such as ``suicide is not that common.'' This year, 9.3 million adults will have serious thoughts of suicide, 2.7 million will make suicide plans, 1.3 million will attempt suicide, and nearly 40,000 will die by suicide. One suicide occurs every 16 minutes, and one veteran commits suicide every hour. More will die by suicide this year than in car accidents.

Here is another misconception: ``Those who die by suicide should just have sucked it up.'' But the vast majority of individuals who have died by suicide had a diagnosable mental illness. Mental illness is a contributing factor in 90 percent of suicides, and the risk of suicide increases more than 50 percent in individuals experiencing depression.

Consider this mistaken belief: ``Suicide is well planned and a thoughtful act.'' Twenty-five percent of people who attempt suicide do so within 5 minutes of their initial decision, and 75 percent do so within the first hour.

Although there is a lot we know about suicide, these myths continue to perpetuate because we don't understand enough why certain populations are at higher risk and what is happening in the brain at the time of suicide.

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in the last decade, here is what happened with suicide rates:

The rate for those 35 to 64 years of age increased 28 percent; for women, it increased 31 percent; for white Americans, it increased 40 percent; for American Indian and Alaska Natives, it increased 65 percent; and the use of suffocation or hanging increased 81 percent. And despite a continued focus on youth suicide, it remains either the second- or third-leading cause of death for those between the ages 10 and 25. Rates have also increased dramatically among elderly White men.

The report goes on to note that ``additional research is needed to understand the cause of the increase and why the extent of the increase varies.''

Suicide is a public health crisis demanding a policy response that, to date, has been tepid at best. The impulsive nature and correlation with mental illness requires us to treat suicide as a mental health crisis. To this end, I have introduced the Helping Families

in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 3717, which authorizes research at the National Institute of Mental Health to enhance our understanding of suicide and advance evidence-based approaches to prevention that are not solely centered around raising awareness.

Families of those with serious mental illness already are aware that there is a problem. Unfortunately, a small percentage of those with serious mental illness are not aware they have a problem, but everybody is also painfully aware they cannot get help when someone is in mental health crisis.

We can save lives and help families in mental health crisis, but only if we, as a Nation, have the courage to confront mental illness head on rather than just use phony, feel-good measures.

My legislation also reauthorizes the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which is the largest youth suicide prevention and early intervention program in the country. However, this program does not address the full scope of suicide, which can affect individuals of any age.

Thus, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which I chair, will continue its investigation into our Nation's broken mental health system by looking at proven strategies to reduce the staggering number of suicides. It begins with fixing our broken mental health system and providing hope and evidence-based treatment to individuals and families in crisis. I call upon Members to cosponsor that bill.

Mr. Speaker, we need to tell Americans that if someone you know needs help, they should call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They can also find more online at www.afsp.org, the Web site of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

It is clear that this is a national crisis. If we saw any other disease in this country that had numbers as high as these--1 million attempts and 40,000 deaths--we would call upon Americans, the National Institutes of Health, and others to take action. Certainly, we would call upon Congress to take action. This is demanding our action, for every day more and more take their lives from this serious public health problem. Let us address this. Let us no longer ignore it. So many more lives are at stake.

Mr. Speaker, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act reforms our broken and harmful mental health system. Here are some reasons why we need it.

For some who are experiencing the most serious mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, they don't think their hallucinations are real; they know they are real. Their illness affects their brains in such a way that they are certain, beyond all doubt, their delusions are real. It is not an attitude or denial. It is a very real brain condition.

With that understanding, we are left with a series of questions: Do these individuals have a right to be sick, or do they have a right to treatment? Do they have a right to live as victims on the streets, or do they have a right to get better? Do they have a right to be disabled and unemployed, or do they have a right to recover and get back to work? I believe these individuals and their families have the right to heal and lead healthy lives.

But they are sometimes blinded by a symptom called anosognosia, a neurological condition of the frontal lobe which renders the individual incapable of understanding that they are ill.

Every single day, millions of families struggle to help a loved one with serious mental illness who won't seek treatment. Many knew that Aaron Alexis, James Holmes, Jared Loughner, Adam Lanza, and Elliot Rodgers needed help.

Their families tried, but the individual's illness caused them to believe nothing was wrong, and they fought against the help. These families watch their brother, their son, or their parent spiral downward in a system that, by design, only responds after crisis, not before or during. The loved one is more likely to end up in prison or living on the streets, where they suffer violence and victimization, or cycle in and out of the emergency room or commit suicide.

In a recent New York Times article about Rikers Island prison, they report that over an 11-month period last year, 129 inmates suffered injuries so serious that doctors at the jail's clinics were unable to treat them; 77 percent of those inmates had been previously diagnosed with mental illness.

Rikers now has as many people with mental illness as all 24 psychiatric hospitals in New York State combined, and they make up nearly 40 percent of the jail population, up from about 20 percent 8 years ago.

Inmates with mental illnesses commit two-thirds of the infractions in the jail, and they commit an overwhelming majority of assaults on jail staff members. Yet, by law, they cannot be medicated involuntarily at the jail, and hospitals often refuse to accept them unless they harm themselves or others.

Is that humane? Shouldn't we have acted before they committed a crime to compel them to get help?

According to the article, correctional facilities now hold 95 percent of all institutionalized people with mental illness. That is wrong. Yet with all we know about mental illness and the treatments to help those experiencing it, there are still organizations, federally funded with taxpayer dollars, that believe individuals who are too sick to seek treatment will be better off left alone than in inpatient or outpatient treatment. It is insensitive. It is callous. It is misguided. It is unethical. It is immoral. And Congress should not stand by as these organizations continue their abusive malpractice against the mentally ill.

The misguided ones are more comfortable allowing the mentally ill to live under bridges or behind dumpsters than getting the emergency help that they need in a psychiatric hospital or an outpatient clinic because they cling to their fears of the old asylums, as if medical science and the understanding of the brain has not advanced over the last 60 years.

We would never deny treatment to a stroke victim or a senior with Alzheimer's disease simply because he or she is unable to ask for care. Yet, in cases of serious brain disorders, like schizophrenia, this cruel conundrum prevents us from acting even when we know we must because the laws say we can't. We must change those misguided and harmful laws.

The system is the most difficult for those who have the greatest difficulty. Why are some more comfortable with prison or homelessness or unemployment, poverty, and a 25-year shorter life span?

I tell my colleagues: Do not turn a blind eye to those that need our help. The mentally ill can and will get better if Congress takes the right action.

Tomorrow, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and I will hold a briefing at 3 p.m. on the rights of the seriously mentally ill to get treatment. I hope my colleagues will attend and understand that we have to take mental illness out of the shadows by passing the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 3717, because where there is no help, there is no hope.

Mr. Speaker, this week, the largest ever study of schizophrenia reported that the condition is tied to more than 100 genes.

This discovery shows more evidence that schizophrenia is a clinical condition just like other medical conditions. Severe schizophrenia, therefore, must be treated with a medical approach, using evidence- based therapies that work.

We know 50 percent of persons with schizophrenia suffer from a neurological impairment that makes them incapable of understanding that they are ill. This lack of awareness, termed ``anosognosia,'' is the leading cause of noncompliance with psychiatric treatment. This neurological problem helps to explain why 40 percent of Americans with a serious mental illness do not receive treatment, and it explains how our system fails to help those most in need.

Anosognosia occurs most frequently when schizophrenia or a bipolar disorder affects portions of the frontal lobe, resulting in impaired executive function. The patients are neurologically unable to comprehend that their delusions or hallucinations are not real. This is different than denial; this is a change in the wiring of the brain. These individuals don't recognize they are ill. When they don't meet the 200-year-old definition of being in imminent danger to harm themselves or others, their friends and families are powerless to help them. Uninformed observers wrongly believe that, because the patients can look at them and talk to them, they must be fully functional and aware, but they are not.

Much like if they had Alzheimer's disease or were in a coma, these individuals with schizophrenia can't voluntarily request treatment on their own. We would never deny care to a stroke victim or to a senior with Alzheimer's simply because he or she couldn't articulate her need for treatment. Yet, in cases of serious brain disorders, we allow millions to suffer because of the chaotic patchwork of State and Federal laws that says we can't even act when we know we must.

Further, when a patient is discharged from a hospital with anything from a minor cut to a heart transplant, there must be a written treatment plan, and that plan is readily shared with family members who will assist with followup, but not so with serious mental illness. Again, we would not do this to someone with Alzheimer's. We would not say, ``I can't treat your grandmother until she is well enough to tell me to treat her, but I can't tell you about her treatment until she gives you permission.''

These mentally ill men and women who are in need of medical attention end up sitting in jails, sleeping behind dumpsters, or being sedated and chained to hospital gurneys in emergency rooms. They cycle in and out of prison, the ER, and shelters. That is a lifestyle we have relegated 3.6 million Americans to. We deny people the right to treatment. We deny them the right to get better. How cruel is that?

As a result, 1 million Americans last year attempted suicide, and 40,000 people died from suicide. There are 300,000 homeless, 500,000 in jail, and 700,000 in other prisons. The mentally ill are also more likely to be robbed, physically assaulted, raped, and sexually assaulted. So, while several States and counties have taken bold action to help those who have been cast aside by our current system, the Federal Government sits, oblivious to the problem, and, in some cases, actually creates barriers to treatment for those who need help the most.

Serious mental illness is more detrimental to your long-term health than being a heavy smoker, and it increases your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It reduces your life span by some 25 years. There is also a financial toll. A study conducted by Duke University determined that assisted outpatient treatment saves taxpayers $50,000 per patient. It also increases medication compliance and decreases incarceration, hospitalization, and homelessness.

The problem is that four States still prohibit the use of this medical model, and most county health systems haven't implemented it; and studies have shown that each time individuals with mental illnesses experience a break from reality, their brains actually suffer from permanent injury. All of this is happening at a time when we know more about the brain than we ever have.

We tell families that Federal laws prohibit you from knowing why your loved one is in a mental health crisis, and doctors tell the family, ``Your son is only a little dangerous right now, but please bring him back when he becomes truly violent, and then he can be treated.'' How absurd. Can you imagine if we told someone with diabetes, ``Your blood sugar is too low, but we are going to wait until you are in a diabetic shock before we give you insulin''? The doctor would be fired, and the hospital would be sued. We would ensure that it never happens again. Yet, for families in a mental health crisis, this scenario plays out every single day, and not a word is spoken about it. The reason is that people don't understand the neurological basis of mental illness.

What we need to do is have a Congress that is able to confront its own denial and change the laws that need to be changed. We can fix the mental health system but not if Congress does not act. We must pass H.R. 3717, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, because ignoring this problem will not make it go away, and where there is no help, there is no hope at all.

Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the House observed a moment of silence to remember the loss of two heroes who gave their lives to protect others.

The deaths of Detective John Gibson and Officer Jacob Chestnut are heartbreaking. An additional tragedy, however, is that this House has not taken action to prevent such incidents from happening again.

The man who took the lives of the two police officers had paranoid schizophrenia and had previously been committed to a psychiatric hospital after threatening to kill the President, a hospital technician, and his neighbors. His paranoid delusions told him to attack the Capitol. Weston cycled in and out of emergency rooms as he refused medication and followup treatment.

We know that the perpetrator had a brain disease, but our broken mental health system prevents others like Weston from being treated. The sad truth of this situation is it won't be long before we read in the headlines of another preventable tragedy.

The memories of Detective Gibson and Officer Chestnut deserve our respect, their families our gratitude, but all families deserve our action.

We must pass H.R. 3717, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, because where there is no help there is no hope.

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

I thank the gentleman and I also thank the chairman and the ranking member of the committee.

I should say that, in addition to being a Member Congress, I am also a member of the Navy Reserve as a psychologist, but I want to make it clear I am not here representing the Navy or Navy psychology, but talking about those things which I see in our military.

We have the best military in the world. We are strong, we are filled with strong servicemen and servicewomen, but our country has a crisis on its hands.

On average, 22 military servicemembers and veterans die each day by their own hands. Nearly 1 in 5 suicides nationally is a veteran, even though veterans only make up 10 percent of the population, or about a million or so overall, 2 million overall.

The suicide rate for veterans increased an average of 2.6 percent a year from 2005 to 2011, more than double the rate of increase for civilian suicide.

Let me tell you what I hear from servicemembers: that those who are in high-tempo work, such as those in SOCOM, those who are Active Duty, those who have come back from Guard and Reserve, they have a very difficult time accessing mental health care.

Whether it is family problems, financial crisis, or adapting from the stress of combat or post-traumatic stress, and preventing it from becoming post-traumatic stress disorder, we know that treatment early and identification early can be effective.

But, quite frankly, there are just too few providers. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and clinical social workers and therapists are burdened with paperwork and screening duties, and oftentimes have too little time to counsel.

We hear, time and time again, where someone has sought help off base, only to find there people who may not themselves understand all the needs of someone in the military.

Plus, many times, those in the military dealing with classified missions, particularly those in SOCOM, need to have folks that they can talk to and deal with these problems so they do not become worse. Or if they transfer to Guard and Reserve, many times they have no one they can go to. The purpose of this amendment is to help make sure we are providing more of those services.

A survey by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America showed that 30 percent of servicemembers have considered taking their own life; 45 percent say they know an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who has attempted suicide.

While DOD has done many things, and should be complimented for the work that they have done, we still have a serious, serious problem on our hands. The reason we are offering this amendment today is to do all we can to help provide more providers.

Granted, I do not believe this will be anywhere near enough, but it does give us a surge of providers at a time when it is needed, at a time when the suicide rate has climbed, at a time when many servicemembers continue to need help. So I am offering this, and I hope it will be accepted.

I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. Chairman, let me just close with this. In this, I know for example those who come back from SOCOM, from being the tip of the spear, a very important part of their return are such things as Third Location Decompression. They come back, they meet with psychologists, with detailed review.

What we also have to make sure is, for so many others who come back, whether they have been on a combat mission or even a training mission that can have its own stress associated with that, we want to prevent these from accelerating to the level where later on they will need VA services, where we have so many families deteriorate.

I thank the chairman, I thank the ranking member, et cetera, and I ask my colleagues to support this amendment so we can get help to our military in need.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 254, had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, last week, a gunman with a history of mental illness killed one and wounded two others at a Seattle university.

Just before Memorial Day, a young man known by his family and therapists to be mentally ill killed six people and himself in another awful episode of mass violence.

Before there was Elliot Rodger, there was Adam Lanza in Newtown; Jared Loughner in Tucson; James Holmes in Aurora, Colorado; and Aaron Alexis at the Washington Navy Yard.

There was Gus Deeds, another young man who was in a mental health crisis, but was denied extended inpatient care at a hospital before he killed himself and stabbed his father, a Virginia State senator.

All had untreated or undertreated serious mental illness. All spiraled out of control within a system that lacked the basic mechanisms to help. Many had parents who were pleading for more help.

How many more must die before we finally deal with our broken mental health system?

Violence amongst persons with mental illness is extraordinarily rare and is far more likely to be self-directed. Last year, there was 40,000 suicide deaths and almost 1 million attempts.

The mentally ill are more likely to be the victims of violence, robberies, beatings, rape, and other crimes. The mentally ill are also 10 times more likely to be in jail than a hospital. That is because the seriously mentally ill often encounter law enforcement after refusing medical care.

What makes these painful episodes so confounding is the reality that so many tragedies involving a person with mental illness is entirely preventable. For example, in 34 States, Elliot Rodger's family would have been able to ask a court to order an emergency psychiatric evaluation, but in California the law says they cannot.

The families know when their loved one is in a mental health crisis and their condition is gravely deteriorating; but as our yearlong investigation performed at the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations revealed, families are shut out from being part of the care delivery system.

As revealed in our subcommittee review, for far too long, policymakers have been in denial about brain disease and serious mental illness as well as the need to address these medical issues in the policy arena. We pretend like it doesn't exist and, therefore, don't have policies in place to help families and patients in mental health crisis.

Congress has been more comfortable in the behavioral wellness realm than in confronting the difficult and painful reality that persons with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major clinical depression are more likely to end up homeless, in prison, or dead by suicide than in a meaningful health care treatment setting because of our failure to make courageous, substantive legislative changes.

We pretend that all the seriously mentally ill are fully aware of their symptoms and welcome treatment. The fact is many don't. Forty percent of persons with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not even recognize their delusions and hallucinations aren't real. They refuse treatment and don't get better.

They have a right to get better, and don't they have a right to get treatment?

Our investigation paved the way for the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. With nearly 90 cosponsors, my bipartisan measure fixes the shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, clarifies HIPAA privacy laws so families are part of the frontline care, and helps patients get treatment well before their illness spirals into crisis. The bill has been endorsed by nearly a dozen publications, including The Washington Post, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Each day, I hear from families in crisis from across the country who are counting on our efforts to bring positive changes to the mental health system. We cannot let these families

down. Lives are depending on it. We cannot wish this away, and denial is not a treatment.

I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort by cosponsoring H.R. 3717, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. Please help, because where there is no help, there is no hope.

I thank my friend, Mr. Doyle.

On Monday, May 19, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania filed an indictment against five members of the Communist Chinese military, affirming what I as chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus and other lawmakers have contended for quite some time. This indictment proves we are losing manufacturing jobs not because the U.S. stopped making great products, but because the Chinese Government is stealing ideas, inventions, and intellectual property straight out of western Pennsylvania.

The Chinese Government has hacked into our computers, stolen business blueprints, erected trade barriers, and manipulated currency markets to give state-owned enterprises an unfair and illegal advantage in the American marketplace.

For example, in 2010, as American factories were shutting down because of dumped and illegally traded Chinese pipe, Chinese agents were trying to cheat in court as well. The Chinese army hacked into computers at U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers Union in 2010 to obtain privileged legal communications about the crucial unfair trade case then being litigated before the International Trade Commission on the oil country tubular goods from China.

This amendment will help us continue this effort and apply the same crackdown on trade crimes. By dumping sophisticated, high-cost oil country tubular goods onto the U.S. market, countries like China are in clear violation of their obligations under international trade agreements.

Western Pennsylvania--nor the rest of this country--won't be a welcome mat for the Chinese or any foreign competitor to walk over.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 180, I was predisposed at this time. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 181, I was predisposed at this time.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''