A piece of legislation championed by Iowa’s Third Congressional District Representative Cindy Axne has been signed into law by President Joe Biden. 

The Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans’ Mental Health Act aims to expand Veterans Administration mental health programs for rural veterans. Axne says she is excited for what the new law will bring for rural veterans. 

“This was a long time coming and I think (it) was a wonderful day. So what this does is a couple things. It instructs the Veterans Administration to establish three new rural access networks for growth enhancement programs, or we call them RANGE, and essentially it establishes programs to help with the mental healthcare that our veterans returning home need.”

Axne tells Raccoon Valley Radio it will not only provide mental healthcare but it will also authorize studies on whether or not the Veterans Administration is meeting the needs of rural veterans. 

“Not only are we going to put pieces in place to address the needs our veterans have with mental healthcare but we will study it to ensure that we are actually hitting everything to make sure that we are not missing out and could improve this program. I am looking forward to seeing this actually start working and hopefully in the end we don’t see another Bev having to see her son take his life because he couldn’t get the support that he needed.”

Sgt. Ketchum served in the Marine Corps and did tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and took his own life in 2016 after being denied mental health services.