One federal lawmaker from Iowa recently passed legislation through the first level of bureaucracy to help reduce the number of military veteran suicides.

Iowa’s Third Congressional District Representative Zach Nunn says “The Daniel J. Harvey and Adam Lambert Improving Servicemember Transition to Reduce Veteran Suicide Act” is named after Marine Corporal Adam Lambert of Adel, Iowa and Lance Corporal Daniel Harvey from Rhode Island that served in combat together in Afghanistan. Nunn points out Harvey lost his life to suicide shortly after his military service ended and within a few weeks, Lambert also died by suicide. Nunn says Iowa veteran suicide rate is four times higher than the national average and veteran suicides were the second leading cause of death in 2020 for veterans under 45. 

Nunn notes that these suicides may be prevented if there were transitional services to civilian life and resources available to help veterans along the way. Nunn says that’s why he created this bill to bring those services to life and one important aspect being with the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) with the Veterans Administration working with the US Department of Defense.

“Now we’ve put together an actual transition program that provides our combat veterans and our folks who have served real tangible skills on how they can address stress, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), the elements of starting a civilian life where oftentimes they have a lot more personal accountability and responsibility. But most importantly it provides the bevy of resources that can come at the federal, the state, and the local level to help a veteran in a time of need.”     

Nunn appreciates the work that the Lambert family has done to support the bill.

“And so I want to salute again the Lambert family (and) the friends of Adam who have been the real ground truth champions of this legislation, along with our VFWs, our American Legions, our veterans outreach guys, to really champion this as a way to say, ‘One loss is too many.’But in Adam’s case, it’s become a rallying cry to make sure that we can help our other veterans in a similar situation.”     

Nunn says the legislation passed through the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee with bipartisan support and he believes the bill will get through the full committee, to the House floor and over to the Senate.