Just last week, Secretary of U.S. Veterans Affairs Doug Collins announced he would be cutting the department’s workforce by 80,000 people, which includes numerous veterans.

It’s an issue close to the heart of Army veteran and Syracuse Assemblywoman Pam Hunter, speaker pro tempore of the state Assembly. Hunter is a member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs as well as the chair of the Subcommittee on Women Veterans.  

“This is not what our veterans deserve,” she told Capital Tonight. “They deserve someone to answer the phone when they call the suicide hotline. They deserve to have a non-family member be able to visit them in a VA hospital.”

Regarding ongoing state budget negotiations, Hunter understands why Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to deal with the federal budget as it looks now rather than preparing for cuts that may come months from now, but she also says she believes in preparing for the worst. 

“A service member who takes their own life because services are not there, that’s unacceptable,” she said. “Not on the state’s watch, not on the federal government’s watch.”

She is also concerned that the budget process is taking too long. 

“All of this policy is… adding more time (to the negotiating process),” she said of Hochul's push to add legislation to the budget dealing with the process of electing a lieutenant governor. 

“I am frustrated. I know that the rest of the leadership is frustrated. We want to get this budget done,” she said.

If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, call 988 — the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number.