Still Fighting For Equity and Honor

Mission: Motivate the Assembly  (A04313) and the Senate  (S4124) to pass the Veterans' Equality Act and place it on Governor Cuomo's desk to be signed into law.

Instructions:

• Visit your Assembly representative's home office between  April 6 - April 17, call (contact list) first to get an appointment with your representative or senior staffer. They are working from their district offices during this time. Not Albany. Prep first with your own story AND these slides.
•  Call and email New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie  (718)-654-6539, Speaker@assembly.state.ny.us and New York State Senate President Dean Skelos (516) 766-8383,
  (518) 455-3171, skelos@nysenate.gov  to put A4313 and S4124 to a vote in their respective chambers.
• Call and email your Assembly Representative (contact list) and Senator (contact list) to sign on as a sponsor for the respective bills.  
• Rally support from veterans groups, women's groups and the public at large.  
• Write advocacy  letters to your local newspaper (see #7 here for an example). Here is one written by one of our own on April 6, 2015. So far this is the only one I have heard of.
• Demonstrate veteran initiative to bring attention to this cause - there is no state organization (yet) or veterans group dedicated to fighting for equity and honor for all NY's veterans.

Implementing Instructions: Utilize this website for self education and for information concerning the glaring inequities in current law.  Lead with the strongest arguments for equity and honor.

• Excluded veterans include combat, wartime, and Cold War. The most persuasive inequities are combat, women, and wartime. Study these slides to become an educated and  persuasive proponent of the Veterans' Equality Act.
• The Assembly is the weak link. Mayor de Blasio exerts great influence there. Since we know he has an ideological antipathy to the victorious Cold War veterans (his side lost the Cold War), we need to double down on the combat, wartime, and female inequities wrought by our peculiar current law. 

End State: Governor Cuomo signs the Veterans Equality Act Into Law


Inspiration:

The Military Service Credit Buyback Bill (Veterans Buyback Bill) was not included in this year’s budget. Over the last few days I have fought till the end of the budget process in hopes of having it included, down to the last minute. As the prime sponsor of this Bill I am both disappointed and angry.

While the Senate included the Veterans Buyback Bill in its one-house budget resolution, the Assembly did not. This weakened the chances of the legislation being negotiated into the final budget.

While the Governor and the Assembly did not accept the Senate’s effort to include the Veterans Buyback Bill in the budget, I want to assure everyone that this issue is not over.

The Senate Republican Conference passed the Veterans Buyback Bill twice last year and remains fully committed to it becoming law. I will continue to be the prime sponsor and advocate for this Bill; S4124.

Please consider calling your local Assembly representative to find out what they are doing to support this very important piece of legislation. I will continue to update you on the status of this Bill and also what you can do to help. God Bless our Veterans.  - Senator Bill Larkin, March 31, 2015



___________________________________________________________________________________________