Republican Congressman David Young’s bill calling for the Veterans Administration to fix problems with its suicide hotline has cleared the U.S. House and awaits action in the Senate.

Young’s bill calls on the Veterans Administration to come up with a way to ensure all calls to the crisis line are answered.

Young says it means if calls continue to slip through the cracks, the V-A must tell congress they need more staff, more training for the staff already there or even better technology to deal with call volume. The crisis line fielded half a million calls last year. Young had hoped his bill would clear the Senate last week, but it didn’t. He expects the bill will pass when congress convenes AFTER the November election. About 20 veterans commit suicide in America every day, but a recent report found few of those veterans had gotten services from the V-A in the year before their death.

(Radio Iowa)