Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 183, I was predisposed at this time.

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

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 182, I was predisposed at the time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor fireman Edwin Jeffrey ``Lance'' Wentzel, who tragically lost his life in the line of duty serving the residents of Youngwood Borough and Southwestern Pennsylvania on Saturday, March 22, 2014.

Lance Wentzel was part a large group of volunteers searching North Versailles for a senior citizen who had been lost for days. Tragically, Lance lost his life during the search. A dedicated public servant, Mr. Wentzel sacrificed many hours away from his family, without pay, to help those in need.

Lance Wentzel was a distinguished thirty-five year member of the Youngwood Volunteer Fire Department. Ready and willing to serve his fellow citizens in need, Mr. Wentzel volunteered at Ground Zero in New York City following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In 2012, he was named the department's ``Firefighter of the Year.''

Born on October 16, 1956, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Lance was active in the 14th Quartermaster family support group, attended St. Mark Lutheran Church in New Stanton, and was an accomplished marathon runner.

We offer our prayers and thanks to his family: wife, Judith; two sons, Jeffrey Jeremiah Wentzel, and Christopher William Wentzel; two stepsons, Justin Martin Vestrand, and Jason Mac Vestrand; three grandchildren, Oscar Thomas, Nevaeh and Urijah Wentzel; a brother, Philip A. Wentzel; four sisters, Judith C. Wagner, Connie L. Watson, Bonnie Kucenic, and Doris Santone.

Mr. Wentzel's sacrifice and service to the Youngwood Volunteer Fire Department, the community, and the country will not soon be forgotten. Tonight, as we say our evening prayers, let us thank God for men like Lance who without a second thought to their own well-being, are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect our families and communities.

Madam Speaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, a gifted and talented actor, didn't have to die. His death is all too common. In the past 6 years, heroin use has doubled, with 1 million ER visits and several thousand deaths that will occur this year from an overdose.

This is not just a law enforcement issue but a public health issue because addiction is a mental disease.

Many treatments for addiction are modeled on peer support like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, valuable and important organizations that provide a pathway to helping a person overcome an addiction through peer support, but peer support is only support. It is not the whole treatment.

In Time magazine, a parent whose son died of a drug overdose said:

I did everything I could, but I failed him. Everything

included eight residential treatment programs and four

outpatient programs.

Addiction programs don't always do everything right. Ninety percent of those who enter treatment programs don't receive evidence-based treatment. The fact is there is a lack of mental health professionals, broken Federal policies, and a severe shortage of acute care facilities.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in sponsoring the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 3717. Let's get people the help they need.

Mr. Speaker, ``Sonny'' Calcagno, age 85; John Ciarolla, age 83; Clark Compston, age 74; John McChesney, age 63; William Nicklas, age 87; and ``Mitch'' Wanstreet, age 65 are the victims of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the Pittsburgh VA health care system in 2011 and 2012. We can never really heal the emotional scars that these families have suffered and the 21 additional families who had a family member with a case of Legionnaires', but we can work to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Today's legislation fixes one of the flaws uncovered during this investigation; and under this bill, VA hospitals will soon follow the same reporting requirements for infectious diseases as other medical facilities. This way, public health authorities will know when a disease outbreak occurs and can take immediate action.

Thanks to the dogged determination and diligence of Chairman Miller, Congressman Coffman, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the ranking member, and my colleagues, Messrs. Doyle, Rothfus, and Kelly, we now know the Legionnaires' outbreak was entirely preventable except for the gross mismanagement and negligence of a few key officials at the Pittsburgh VA.

The inspector general's report revealed some troubling findings. The VA lacked proper documentation and maintenance of the water system, and was lax in properly informing and testing patients. Further, the VA did not communicate properly with the hospital system in the detection of Legionella. That is why this bill is necessary, because timely reporting and transparency requires adherence to the strongest standards, followed by quick action.

But with this, our work is not yet done. It has been more than 2 months since I last asked VA Secretary General Shinseki to tell Congress what has been done to hold accountable those who are responsible for this outbreak, and his agency has promised to do so. But Congress is still waiting for an answer.

Transparency and accountability are essential for the Secretary to rebuild the trust in the VA. We are grateful to our veterans for their service and grateful to the hard workers of the VA hospital system. The Pittsburgh VA has been a leader in infection control work and should be commended for that, but, in this case, the failures of some are simply unacceptable.

My hope is that through this bill requiring reporting of infection cases we will be able to restore the trust that the VA has with its veterans and their families. It is so critically needed in order to make these essential changes.

I ask for my colleagues to vote in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I want to share with you a story today from Liza Long.

A year ago, Liza wrote about the difficulty she faces in raising a son who suffers from serious mental illness:

``I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son, but he terrifies me,'' she said.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to

kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his

overdue library books. His 7- and 9-year-old siblings knew

the safety plan. They ran to the car and locked the doors

before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from

Michael. I then methodically collected all the sharp objects

in the house into a single Tupperware container that now

travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream

insults at me and threatened to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a

paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive

ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental

hospital didn't have any beds that day, and Michael calmed

down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a

prescription for Zyprexa and a followup visit with a local

pediatric psychiatrist.

This problem is too big for me to handle on my own.

Sometimes there are no good options. So you just pray for

grace and trust that, in hindsight, it will all make sense.

I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I

am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris' mother. I am James

Holmes' mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. These boys--and

their mothers--need help. In the wake of another horrific

national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time

to talk about mental illness.

Liza shared her story with my subcommittee last year at a forum of parents of children with severe mental illness.

After studying our Nation's mental health system for the past year as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee, we discovered those families who need help the most are the least likely to get it. And where there is no help, there was no hope.

Federal programs meant to serve the severely mentally ill are failing. The Federal Government sets up barriers that make it increasingly difficult for mothers and fathers to care for a son or daughter coming of age who needs help for mental illness.

Our current policies block or interfere with appropriate treatment. Funds are wasted on ineffective programs, and scientific standards are not used in determining where the moneys go to for grants and treatments. Our current policies have replaced hospital beds with prison cells and homeless shelters as options for the seriously mental ill. That is wrong and that is immoral.

That is why I introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 3717, to deliver care to those with severe mental illness who need better treatment--real treatment--not excuses and not delays.

Today, Liza's son is doing better with the proper diagnosis and medical care.

She wrote about where things stand with reforming mental health this week, 13 months after her initial letter, and discussed the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. She said:

Considering our limited resources, it just makes sense to

help those who are most in need. That was the rationale

behind the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

She continued to call for what is needed to help our seriously ill children, saying it is:

access to medical care for the 11 million people who suffer

from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.

The bill seeks to accomplish this goal by empowering parents,

increasing acute care beds, and promoting assisted outpatient

treatment for as many as 50 percent of schizophrenia

sufferers whose symptoms include anosognosia, or lack of

awareness of their illness.

The bill also addresses the critical shortage of child psychologists, where there's only one for every 7,000 children in the U.S., with funds for telepsychiatry, and seeks to reform SAMHSA by redirecting funds for community-based care toward evidence-based programs.

The Wall Street Journal praised the bill, noting that SAMHSA, the government agency charged with funding community mental health treatment, has little or no focus on medically driven care, and of its 537 full-time employees, only two are physicians.

Over the past months, I have received an enormous outpouring of support from parents and caregivers of loved ones who have serious mental illness. They know this bill takes mental illness out of the shadows of ignorance, despair, and neglect and into the bright light of hope.

Each week, I will come before the House and share more stories like Liza's. I encourage my colleagues to join me in this endeavor by sponsoring the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, H.R. 3717. Where there is real help, there is real hope.

Mr. Speaker, in a couple of days we will have a moment of silence in respect and memory of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary. We need to take those moments to pause, reflect, and pray.

However, afterwards, we cannot be silent on the need to get something done, on the need to pass comprehensive and meaningful legislation, and the need to help the mentally ill.

Has the world changed since Newtown and the other tragedies?

Sadly, little has been done to get those who need help the help they need. In the past few decades, this Nation has moved forward in knowledge of what it takes to help, but has moved backward in getting the help done. And where there is no help, there is no hope.

We have fewer psychiatric hospital beds, fewer outpatient treatment options, restrictions on the use of medications that can and do help those who are mentally ill, too few psychiatrists and psychologists and clinical social workers, especially child and adolescent specialists, and especially ones who are trained and specialize in treating the seriously mentally ill.

We have too many barriers that prevent doctors from communicating with parents of the sons and daughters with persistent serious mental illness.

We have Federal barriers that block treatment, Federal dollars that go to grants for programs that do not work. The National Institute of Mental Health has insufficient money to engage in needed research.

First responders who are called to deal with mental health crises have little or no training on what to do, and they miss critically important actions.

Treatment delayed is treatment denied; and where there is no help, there is no hope.

Today, I am introducing the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. It increases access to trained professionals at community health centers and community mental health centers, and refocuses the government spending on programs that work and gets to the people that need it in communities and not remain in bureaucracies.

It reforms government spending to eliminate redundancy and waste and refocuses us on getting evidence-based help. It brings scientific objectivity to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

It opens up the door of communication between doctors and parents and legal guardians of those with mental illness. It increases inpatient treatment options and availability. No more being told that there are no more beds. Take your son or daughter home, no matter how much they are at risk of hurting you or themselves.

It increases outpatient treatment options. It increases pharmaceutical treatment options. It reduces the warehousing of our persistently and seriously mentally ill in jails or homelessness.

It improves communication between primary care providers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed mental health practitioners. It increases mental health courts. It provides training for first responders, and it gathers essential and critically important information on the relationship between mental illness and violence and victimization.

Bottom line: if we want to change these trends in victimization of the mentally ill and the persistently mentally ill; if we want to reduce the high number of suicides, homicide and assaults; if we want to get people treatment, not jail time, and not abandonment; if we want to help the tens of millions of people with mental illness and the hundreds of millions of friends and relatives who are emotionally and financially strained by the untreated problems of mental illness; if we want to prevent the Newtowns, Tucsons, Auroras, Pittsburghs, and Columbines, we have to do something comprehensive, research based, and we have to do it now.

What we need is not only for Congress to act, but during these next few weeks, while Congressmen and -women are back home, we need to hear from every doctor and first responder and teacher and parent and patient and consumer that we must act thoroughly and thoughtfully and must act now.

Those who need the help the most have the most trouble getting the help they need, and where there is no help there is no hope. We can and must and we will take mental illness out of the shadows of ignorance, despair, and neglect, and into that bright light of hope.

So I ask my colleagues to support this bill, the Helping Families and Mental Health Crisis Act, because treatment and action delayed is treatment denied.

Let us help American families get the help they need because where there is no help, there is no hope.

Mr. Speaker, another preventable tragedy: a young man searching for psychiatric help is turned away. According to news reports, just 24 hours before this deadly incident, the young man underwent an emergency psychiatric evaluation but could not get the inpatient treatment he so desperately needed. His story ended like too many others suffering from serious illness--in a violent death.

Why did the system fail him? One, there were no psychiatric beds available. In 1955, there were 550,000 beds; today, there are fewer than 40,000. Two, the standard to make sure a mentally ill person gets treatment is unworkable. Three, Federal laws like HIPAA and FERPA prevent information from being shared.

I am introducing legislation next month to fix the problems that have plagued the Nation's mental health system for decades. It will increase inpatient options and make sure people get the treatment they need. We have to advance this so we have a key to unlock the door.

I ask my colleagues to join me in working for these mental health reforms so that families can share the joy of recovery instead of the sadness of loss.

Mr. Speaker, the majority is very concerned about health insurance plans and very concerned about those people who have lost their plans.

When this bill was originally marked up a couple of years ago in the Energy and Commerce Committee, repeatedly we heard from Members on the other side of the aisle saying that if people liked their plan they could keep it. Indefinitely they were grandfathered in.

This needed a fix several months ago. The President of the United States has said he wants Republicans and Democrats to work together for a solution. We are offering to work together, and yet the President has said he would veto this. But the President offered only a partial fix. It will lead to more confusion.

The question is: Will it lead to class action suits against insurance companies who fail to comply with the law? Many States are saying this partial fix is not sufficient.

We need a legislative fix. We need a way that people can still have their option for buying their plan. What we have to see here is that it is a bigger problem for American families who have found that their insurance is lost and they want to be able to keep it.

Mr. Speaker, Dan from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, wrote to me. He said:

I am having very serious difficulties with the new health

care. I called a place from the marketplace today inquiring

about an affordable plan for my wife. I currently pay about

$300 per month through my employer just for her coverage, but

she has lost her job. The marketplace premium for her

beginning in January will be over $800 per month. How do you

think this is affordable coverage? This is a 200 percent

increase, or more, for me. My wife and I both have bills to

pay. I will lose my house if I pay this outrageous premium. I

will find it to be necessary to drop her from coverage. I

would have been willing to do my share in this, but this

increase is way beyond my reach. I will not be able to cover

my wife now. I am 62 years old. I had a major heart attack 3

years ago. I was revived four times during my heart attack

and then had complications which required emergency abdominal

surgery to save my life again. I am back to work, but I have

medical expenses, and now my premium just for my wife is

doubling. I am sorry for being angry, but I feel cheated. I

am not able to afford the outrageous premiums, and I will not

be able to cover my wife.

Mr. Speaker, this breaks your heart.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, the Capitol was in lockdown when Miriam Carey led the police on a frightening high- speed chase that sadly resulted in her death. Initial reports say she may have been delusional, paranoid, and had a prescription for schizophrenia medication.

The incident shows that a person with untreated or undertreated mental illness does not need a firearm to cause harm. It reminds us of an issue that we've been talking about since the tragedy at Newtown, and even before--the problems with our Nation's mental health system.

There were 38,000 suicides in our country recently, 750,000 attempts. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has identified inefficient outpatient and inpatient treatment. State involuntary commitment laws are failing to help those with schizophrenia and paranoid delusions. Community mental health centers are underfunded. Federal privacy laws have problems, and NIMH is woefully underfunded.

I will be introducing legislation soon to deal with these mental health issues. I ask my colleagues to help us deal with serious mental illness in a serious way.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friends, colleagues, and fellow Americans.

Please, listen. I'm not here to defend this government shutdown. Long after we are gone, people are going to remember the rancor of this House, not the good we've done. I don't defend the decision to shut down the National Institutes of Health. It's too valuable. It funds lifesaving research and has a hospital that cares for 200 adults and children waiting for experimental treatments to save their lives.

When asked about shutting down the NIH, even if it saves one child with cancer, Senator Reid said, Why would I want to do that? He added that he has people on an Air Force base with ``problems of their own.'' Now, I don't think the Senator is heartless as some have alluded. Rather, I believe he's an honorable man, and it pains him to know that the NIH is closed just because reasonable people cannot sit down and talk.

I also believe the President is an honorable man who doesn't want the NIH to close, even though with the stroke of his pen he could declare it open. But here he is immersed in a battle just because some people refuse to sit down and talk.

I believe our colleagues are honorable, Mr. Speaker. None of us want people with terminal illness hurt. Let's not make the NIH a political battlefield. While some still refuse to sit down and talk, at least let our hearts be with those who suffer. Let us do the honorable thing and keep alive the hopes of those who wait for a cure.

Friends, colleagues, fellow Americans. I'm not here to defend this government shut down. Long after we are gone people will remember the rancor of this House, not the good we have done.

It is not good for America when we fight partisan politics rather than work out our differences. It is not good when we confuse anger with action and rage with results.

I believe members here are more honorable than to just play out each vote in a way that they can use against each other in the next election.

I do not defend the decision to shut down the National Institute of Health. It is too valuable. Not just because it funds life saving research, and has a hospital where 200 adults and children lay waiting for experimental treatments to save their lives.

When asked about shutting down the NIH even if it saves one child with Cancer, the leader of the Senate Harry Reid said ``why would I want to do that?'' and added folks at Nellis Air Force base have ``problems of their own''. Now I don't think the senator heartless as some have alluded. Rather, I believe he is an honorable man and it pains him to know the NIH is closed just because reasonable people could not sit down and talk.

I believe the President is an honorable man who does not want the NIH closed. He could with the stroke of a pen declare the NIH open, but here he is, immersed in a battle just because some people refuse to sit down and talk.

And I believe all our colleagues are honorable. None of us want people with terminal illness hurt wondering if they will get life saving treatment. NIH is a hospital and an institute; don't make it a political battlefield.

At least let our hearts be with those who suffer. Let us do the honorable thing and keep alive the hope of those who wait for a cure.

I thank the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, we are here today in part to deal with the issue of the compounding pharmacies which allows the FDA to have greater oversight over interstate sales.

How we got here is a tragedy. In our Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, we found that some 64 people died from this pain medication manufactured by the New England Compounding Center. These patients trusted that the steroids injected into their spine or their joints to relieve chronic pain was perfectly safe because of the confidence our Nation's health care providers place in the Food and Drug Administration.

That drug was contaminated with fungus and hurt people dramatically. More than 700 people received these lethal injections. Today, most are living with the unbearable horror of not knowing whether they will survive and must spend weeks in the hospital, missing work, holidays, and time with family, and must take large doses of morphine to ease the pain. Each day is lived under the deadly threat of an infection that could reach their brains and perhaps kill them.

This outbreak is one of the worst public health disasters in our country's history and a terrible tragedy and an epic failure.

Sadly, during our hearings, it was pointed out that while the FDA was still having multiple visits to compounding pharmacies, they still told us they did not have the authority. Unfortunately, several years had dragged on where the FDA heard numerous complaints about the problems with NECC. They told us it was too complex to act on it; but, clearly, it was not complex nor was it a surprise. Neither NECC nor its sister company, Ameridose, were operating in the shadows. They were under the nose of the FDA for a decade. The field staff were aware of it. There were warning signs, alarm bells, flashing red lights, complaints from patients, nurses, pharmacists, doctors, pain clinics, hospitals, and drug companies. So the FDA told us they need more authority. This bill will grant it to them.

But I must say, in the context of this, when Dr. Hamburg told us it was too complex, I applaud Dr. Woodcock who told us they need to think more like physicians and less like attorneys. That is the right attitude.

So with the passage of this bill, the FDA will have the authority it needs, will have to also make sure that they have the fortitude to take action on any compounding pharmacy that they see not up to the high level of standards the FDA sets, that all citizens expect.

The Drug Quality and Security Act will end these problems, we hope, and these inspection holidays and reassure the American public that these medications--wherever they are manufactured--and most by compounding pharmacies do a superb job of maintaining sterile conditions. But in all cases, the FDA will have the authority to make sure they have the inspections and they have the team that can go in there and take solid action when these centers do not adhere to those high standards.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 477, Motion to Recommit H.J. Res. 59, had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 478, Passage of H.J. Res. 59, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 479, Daines Amendment, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 480, McClintock Amendment No. 1, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 481, McClintock Amendment No. 2, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

On rollcall No. 482, Motion to Recommit H.R. 1526, had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

On rollcall No. 483, Passage of H.R. 1526, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, this week America was once again shocked by the tragic shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and once again, it raised the issue of how we're handling mental health to stop this terrible violence.

When you look at the background that was reported in the general media about Aaron Alexis, who is responsible for the shooting at the Navy Yard, we see a record of being arrested multiple times; receiving treatment at a veterans hospital; law enforcement officials in Rhode Island were called upon because he had been hearing voices in his head; he was worried and ``had sent three people to follow him to keep him awake by talking to him and sending

vibrations to his body''; he checked into multiple hotels to avoid the voices; he also had episodes of shooting firearms.

Recently, there was also a case in Georgia where Michael Brandon Hill clutched a butcher knife over his parents' bed; attempted to set the home on fire; made deadly threats through social media; was bipolar, had attention disorder, was schizophrenic; told police he was off medication; had stolen a firearm; had 498 rounds of ammunition when he entered a school. Luckily, no one was harmed.

What America has done in dealing with people with mental illness is so far short of what we should be doing, it's not surprising we are still failing the system. America has replaced its psychiatric hospitals with prisons and bridges for homelessness. Pennsylvania some years ago had 20 psychiatric hospitals and 8 jails. Now we have 20 jails and 8 psychiatric hospitals. One out of five men has mental illness, and one out of every two women in those jails has a mental illness.

Why don't we use such things as considered background checks for those to obtain guns? In 2010, when 14 million attempts were made to purchase weapons, there were 72,000 denials because those folks had pinged positive because they had an arrest record or had an inpatient obligatory stay. Of those, 34,000 had felony conviction indictments and 13,000 were fugitives. But there were only 44 prosecutions, and only a few of those were found guilty. Background checks don't even begin to deal with the millions of people who have a psychiatric illness and go untreated. There is a lack of inpatient and outpatient treatment options, and we need to finally begin dealing with these problems.

What we need are several aspects, and in the next couple of weeks I'll be offering a package of legislation that finally works towards dealing with these so we do not continue to say our primary methods of treatment for Americans with mental illness are jails and homelessness.

First, we need to recognize that we have a lack of inpatient treatment options. There were 500,000 psychiatric beds in 1955; now there are less than 40,000. What we need to do is increase the options that are available for people with inpatient and outpatient treatment.

Two, we need to get serious on research for those with mental illness. NIMH has a paltry little over $1 billion in money it can spend on research, and very little of that is spent on those with serious mental illness. Indeed, most with mental illness are not violent, but when you see someone with a selective set of symptoms with serious mental illness, we know that they may be at a more increased risk, particularly those who have a history of delusion, paranoia, and interest in violence. What happens in general, from the time of onset of first symptoms, a person may wait an average of 110 weeks before they get into treatment.

In addition, we need more research on medications. There are 11.4 million American adults that suffer from serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, but 2 million are not being treated. We need more effective research.

Three, Federal laws, which are meant to protect confidentiality, such as HIPAA and FERPA, otherwise known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, have frustrated the efforts of physicians and family to share information. Many times doctors and other officials cannot get to the very people who can prevent problems and get the person in treatment. Colleges and high schools do not share information with parents because they're afraid of getting sued. Mental health professionals hold on to information, and they wish they could talk more with parents. We need to clarify these boundaries.

Four, law enforcement officials need more training. Police officers are on the frontline of dealing with the violent mentally ill. They need to understand how to identify and handle mental health emergencies. In addition, the primary responders to these ought to be paramedics, those who are trained to deal with health issues. We need to remove the stigma. From the very beginning, we need to be dealing with this as a health issue.

One thousand homicides a year are committed by those with serious mental illness. It's only 5 percent to 10 percent of homicides, but we need to make sure we have that help. We also need to make sure we have integrated care at community mental health centers. Unfortunately, there are barriers to billing with Medicare. We need incentives for pediatricians to get additional training. We need to review what SAMHSA does with its spending, and VA hospitals need to have more help.

Overall, there are many areas that we can engage in, and we will continue to do this to make sure we effectively treat mental illness.