![]() TESTER: Look, I think the CHOICE Act was a train wreck, and it was for those very reasons you talked about: providers not getting payment. Once the Committee approves a bill, this bill-I would guess it's nearly unanimous in the Committee, if not totally-I think it's a bill that can work its way across the Senate floor despite all the challenges we have with other things that compete for Senate floor time. And we would welcome the input of our colleagues. We want to make sure that while we think the bill that we've introduced is good, we want to make sure it's comprehensive, that we haven't missed anything. Almost every member of the Veterans Committee has indicated or has introduced bills or has talked about issues related to suicide, issues related to mental health. So as the Committee, we want to get-certainly Senator Tester has taken a lead in this Hannon Mental Health Act, but we want to make certain that our colleagues have input too. And I think that's true not just in the Committee but on the Senate floor. We are, Veterans, is one of the places in which the partisanship has been significantly less. ![]() All those things are hard to keep-to remain true. ![]() I mean, the number of arenas, I remember we used to say when I was a House member, we talked about how the House Agriculture Committee, which I was a member of, is one of the last places in which things are still bipartisan. But we still have to convince the VA under their community care programs under what used to be CHOICE, what's now MISSION, to contract with, to allow in this sense the private sector in these, it's actually public agencies, public entities that are providing mental health services to Kansans, use them to meet veterans' needs as well. Can we use the community providers that already exist in rural America to meet the needs? And so while we talk about a shortage of professionals, no doubt about it. The congressional district when I was a House member that I represent, is about the same size as Illinois. For a decade I have been trying to convince the VA to contract with those community mental health centers to utilize those professionals to care for veterans who live a long distance. They provide mental health services to Kansans, generally. But for example, in the state of Kansas, we have community mental health centers where there are occasionally a psychiatrist but often a psychologist, social workers. ![]() There should be a greater mental health component to all community care. There is a mental health component to the MISSION Act. MORAN: Could I make one more point on this? We may talk in this conversation about choice, about mission act, community care. ![]()
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