A Crisis We Cannot Ignore By: Dr. Phil Roe 9/3/2020 Long before COVID-19, America was grappling with another deadly affliction – veteran suicide. Every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, for two decades and counting, an average of 20 servicemembers and veterans die by suicide. That amounts to 140 lives lost every week, 7,280 lives lost every year, and 145,600 lives lost since 2000. Each one of those deaths is a tragedy and, recently, that tragedy hit close to home for those of us in East T... Read more

This week, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.) Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, penned an essay in The Ripon Forum in honor of Veterans Day. Read the article here and below: Be Grateful for the Many Sacrifices that Keep Us Free The Ripon Forum Volume 53, No. 5 By: Dr. Phil Roe 11/4/19 Every year on November 11th, Americans pay tribute to the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. While Veterans Day was deemed a national day of remembrance by Preside... Read more

In honor of Memorial Day, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.) chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs penned the below op-ed in The Washington Times: Memorial Day is a day we pay tribute to the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe and free. This year, Memorial Day takes on even greater meaning to me, as I just returned from an oversight visit to various World War I and World War II American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) sites. As chairman of the... Read more

Chairman Roe and Ranking Member Walz penned this op-ed on ArmyTimes.com. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and as legislators and leaders of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, we have a duty to ensure veterans contemplating ending their lives have access to the tools and resources they need to know they are not alone. Recent data released by the Department of Veterans Affairs highlighted that, after adjusting for differences in age and sex, risk for suicide is still 22 perce... Read more

Chairman Roe penned this op-ed on Medium. Each Memorial Day, we pause to pay tribute to the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms we hold dear. We owe them a debt we can never fully repay, which is exactly why we must strive to honor their service any way we can. One way to do that is to take care of the loved ones they leave behind. I’m proud that, just last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation to provide disabled veterans with a cost-... Read more

Chairman Dr. Phil Roe and Senators Marco Rubio and Johnny Isakson, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, penned this op-ed for Military Times: The vast majority of Americans value their jobs and understand they are accountable for their work. They know that if they perform poorly, there will be consequences, and if they engage in illegal behavior, they will likely be fired immediately. Things are much different if you work for the federal government, especially at the Department... Read more

Chairman Dr. Phil Roe penned this piece for Military Times. I can still remember the look on Johnny Parham’s face when I passed him the baton during our 2-mile high school relay race. We were pretty good, if I do say so myself. Johnny was my friend. Even though it’s difficult for me to get through, I still tell his story because, even after all of these years, I often think of him. You don’t get to choose your war. My service as a member of the 2nd Infantry Division sent me to Korea, near the De... Read more

The VA must be held accountable. Here’s what Congress needs to do By Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. FoxNews.com A recent study completed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that, on average, it takes six months to a year to remove a permanent civil servant in the federal government. Oftentimes, it takes even longer. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is not exempt from the red-tape that prevents agency leadership from firing or disciplining employees within their agency. President O... Read more

The Department of Veterans Affairs has received a lot of negative attention lately for failing to adequately deliver the care and benefits America promised our veterans. In addition to the department’s massive disability-benefits backlog, a disturbing pattern of preventable veteran deaths and other patient-safety issues has emerged at VA hospitals around the country. Read more

Veterans Affairs Department officials assured lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday that VA has taken measures to ensure it will not waste taxpayer dollars on lavish conferences such as two widely criticized human resources training events held in Orlando, Fla., in the summer of 2011. But the hearing turned contentious, with one Republican going as far as to say he “could care less about the bureaucrats” at VA. Read more