Senator O'Mara: State support and advocacy for veterans' services is critical

Albany, N.Y., January 31—At today’s legislative budget hearing on the human services portion of Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2024-2025 proposed state budget, legislators heard testimony from New York State Department of Veterans’ Services Commissioner Viviana DeCohen.

Senator O’Mara, who serves as the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee and has long championed programs and services to meet the challenges and needs of New York’s veterans, addressed Commissioner DeCohen on several points, including:

> Support for the recently designated New York State Veterans Cemetery (formerly known as the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery), the state’s first veterans cemetery, in Romulus, Seneca County;

> Support for the Corning-based “Research and Recognition Project,” which under the direction of its founder and CEO, Dr. Frank Bourke, is a nationally recognized and groundbreaking treatment for Post-traumatic Stress (PTS) impacting countless veterans and returning military, state and local police officers, emergency workers, trauma survivors, and others; and

> Increased support from the federal government for state-level programs and services for veterans.

Watch today's testimony HERE.

The joint Senate-Assembly budget hearings will continue until mid-February. Find out more and watch on Senator O’Mara’s website, omara.ny.senate.gov.