Tommy Tuberville Asks VA Nominee About Correcting 'Failures' In VA Department's Suicide Crisis Hotline

During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing last week, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke about the VA Department's suicide crisis hotline.

Transcript

00:00Inspector General, and that is why I will object to your nomination.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:05Thank you, Senator.

00:06Senator Tuggerville.

00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:09Ms. Mason, thanks for being here.

00:11The Office of Inspector General recently put out a report highlighting reports

00:15within the fiduciary program, such as failures with training protocol.

00:21Can you commit to working with me and my staff to developing solutions

00:25to make the program work better for our most vulnerable veterans?

00:28Ms. Thank you, Senator Tuggerville, and absolutely I can commit to do that.

00:32I think that's extremely important.

00:36The Inspector General has put out several reports highlighting failures with suicide crisis line.

00:43How would you work with Secretary Collins to ensure these recommendations are implemented

00:47to support veterans and reduce suicide?

00:50Thank you for the question, Senator Tuggerville.

00:53As we discussed in your office, suicide is very personal to me.

01:01I've had two suicides in my family.

01:03One, both were veterans.

01:05And so I take that very seriously.

01:06And I've looked at the IG reports, and I've looked at the other things the department is doing.

01:11And there are several activities going on now.

01:13Currently, as a senior advisor at VEO, I'm looking at some of the suicide actions that are being taken

01:20to do prevention and awareness in our partnerships, and I would continue to advise to do that.

01:27If confirmed as IG, I would continue to look at those actions to include the grants on mental health

01:34and suicide that the department has, make sure there's appropriate oversight into that,

01:39as well as what the crisis line is doing, ensure that they are properly staffed

01:43and have the right support and resources they need to answer those calls,

01:47because those calls do save lives.

01:50When confirmed, what will be your first thing that you want to do as a new IG?

01:57Thank you, Senator, for that question.

01:59I think, you know, the first thing I want to do is really get a good assessment of the office.

02:04I want to make sure the accountability is extremely important and the integrity of that office

02:09is extremely important, and I have no reason to think that they don't operate that way now,

02:14but IG has to operate that way as independent and impartial.

02:19And so I want to make sure that they, one, are operating that way in everything they do,

02:24but they also have the adequate resources.

02:26And then find out what their current investigations are, see where they are in those investigations,

02:30but right behind that is follow-up on those open, unimplemented recommendations

02:35and figure out how we bring those to close with the department and with this committee.

02:42I yield my time.