Growing up in family in which we had our own Gold Star Mother, respect for veterans has always been a personal matter for me. As Americans, it must be a personal matter for each of us.

America is unique in that it has always been protected by citizen soldiers, whose valor and dedication have often been disdained by our enemies, much to their eventual dismay. Today’s wars again find our neighbors in the National Guard and Reserve, as well as our professional forces, in harm’s way.

Current deployments to the Middle East involve long and repeated tours of duty. Our troops and their families are performing above and beyond the call of duty. Because the current federal administration is not providing adequate services for our veterans and their families, I am proposing legislation which will be known as the New York Veterans’ Bill of Rights which will include:

Iraq/Afghanistan Theater Veterans Counseling: Designed to create a public/private partnership to provide additional counseling services to the thousands of New Yorkers returning from the war and their families focusing on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and physical care;

National Guard and Reservists Financial Security Act: Active duty state and private employee veterans will be entitled to their full civilian pay during overseas deployment; for private employees, tax credits will be employed to encourage their employers to provide such compensation;

Education Incentives: Those returning from overseas deployment will be entitled to free tuition at New York’s public universities and community colleges. The spouses and children of our troops killed in action or seriously injured will also be entitled to this benefit;

Homeless Veterans: Recent news accounts relate that the number of homeless veterans is far greater than previously believed. For that reason, the State Director shall also investigate and report annually on the actual number of homeless veterans in New York;

Veteran Suicides: The State Director shall also investigate and report annually on the actual number of veterans committing suicide in New York.

While the New York Veterans’ Bill of Rights will cost us some tax-payer money, that amount pales in comparison to what we are spending to prosecute this war, and whatever it does cost will not only be money well spent, but it will certainly be the least we can do to support and salute our fellow citizens who are risking their lives to protect us.

Let us take a moment to recognize and appreciate the sacrifices made by our troops and their families. And let us do so each and every day.

I will continue to seek support for this proposed law when we return to Albany for the 2008 legislative session. The bill will impose a sentence of five years consecutive to the prison sentence imposed for an underlying offense when a weapon or lethal device is possessed by a criminal while committing any other crime. A lethal device is defined as a machine gun, pistol, revolver, shotgun, rifle, assault weapon, electric dart, stun gun, explosive device, bomb, grenade, rocket or missile. The extra five years will not be imposed so long as the offender truthfully identifies the source of the lethal or explosive device. This will enable law enforcement to learn about and prosecute the lucrative networks that smuggle these devices into New York. It will also help us combat gangs and criminal enterprises which cannot function when their secrets are revealed.

After spending their summer vacation diligently working in a Stony Brook University laboratory, these outstanding young women discovered a way to block the reproduction of the bacteria of drug resistant tuberculosis.

As their Assemblymember, I want to express the pride of our entire New York community in Janelle and Amanda’s remarkable achievement, a true testament to the benefits of public education in our nation.