VA Secretary Collins Is Wrong About Veteran Suicide Prevention Funding

[Tony]

Since taking office as the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins has harped on one point repeatedly: The VA spends too much money on its suicide prevention operations and gets too little in return. Seventeen veterans die by suicide each day—a number that hasn’t meaningfully changed for 15 years—despite an annual budget of $588 million for its prevention programs that Collins says are rife with “serious vulnerabilities for waste.” He advocates for “tak[ing] the programs, let’s take the outreach we’re using and maybe redirect that $588 million to suicide prevention programs that are working.”