August 8, 2025 • 17 mins
August 8, 2025- State Sen. Jake Ashby, a Capital Region Republican who did combat tours overseas with the Army Reserves, talks about increasing services for Purple Heart awardees and reflects on the Trump administration's handling of U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
During the twenty twenty five legislative session, state lawmakers unanimously
approved legislation designating New York as a Purple Heart state.
To explain the significance of this proposal, we're joined by
the measures Senate sponsor, Capital Region Republican Jake Ashby, who
completed combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq while in the
Army Reserves. Welcome back to the studio, editor, Dave, thanks
for having me. So what is the significance of New
(00:27):
York being a purple Heart state? Does this trigger anything
or make New York eligible for anything?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
For example?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, I think it could. It's an important distinction to
recognize the service members who were wounded or killed an action,
and I think most people would then suggest that we
can do more for them. So when we recognize these
(00:53):
individuals and classify our state as a Purple Heart state,
I think it then triggers or goes to the next
step of what can we do more for them? And
there certainly is a lot more that we can do
for those who've literally shed their blood on our behalf,
and already, you know, looking at different ideas, but the
(01:15):
bill has not been signed yet. So we held a
press conference today calling on the governor to sign the
bill because today is Purple Heart Day and we are
urging her in a bipartisan fashion to sign this bill
and declare its significance.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, maybe we'll check in around November eleventh, when the
governor might have her own sort of press conference and
sign the bill.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I think that's probably a good idea.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So coming back though, to the substantive nature of this,
do we have to do something like this to make
ourselves more committed to our veterans or is this more
symbolic in nature and sort of a public commitment to doing.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
More Well, I think you could point out the you know,
ceremony fashion of it. But in New York State we
already have a Purple Heart museum. I would point out
that the first female recipient of the Purple Heart was
from New York State and World War One, and.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I think we are called to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Also, if when you look at the significance of our
contributions to our military and New York State with Fort
Drum and West Point and having one of the.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Largest Coast Guard areas of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Operation in New York based out of New York City,
I think it belongs I really do. And then again
I think when we do that, we then look at
what more can we do? Are we doing enough within
our own state? You know, largely many of the program's
fall under the federal purview within DoD and the VA,
(02:54):
but there's a lot of gaps there. There's a lot
of shortfalls that other states are more willing to pick
up the slack. So I feel like this is an
important step that we can take. Often we overlook these
opportunities for cooperation and see what they bring, and this
is an opportunity to capitalize on that and build off
of it.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Well, what would you like to see as substantive next
steps and would you like to see it targeted solely
two people who have won the Purple Heart or do
you think it should be focusing on veterans more broadly.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, they don't win it, earn it, they correct they
earn it, they receive it. And it's one of the
oldest military decorations. It was one of the first military
awards that was given to any rank. Anyone could be
eligible for it. And the other interesting part is that
the approval process for other decorations, like the valorous awards,
(03:48):
there's a approval process that goes through your chain of command.
When you are wounded in a combat zone by an
enemy combatant, you automatically receive this award. So it's different
and kind of stands out and it's nature. But to
your question of what we can do more of with that, yes,
(04:09):
i'd like to see things. I'd like to see legislation
directed specifically for Purple Heart recipients. Again, I'd also like
to see them for veterans at large, but I do
think it's an important characteristic to distinguish among veterans those
that have been wounded. And one of the things we're
actually I was just talking about it with our chief
of staff when we were walking over, was that the
(04:32):
GI Bill pays a percentage of your educational expenses. I
used it for when I went to graduate school, but
there's often some leftover expenses including tuition, you know, depending
on your length of time and service. But one thing
that I think we could do in New York State
is that if you're a Purple Heart recipient, New York
State picks up the rest. Right, So if you're utilizing
(04:54):
the GI Bill and there are leftover expenses, there are
funds already available for veterans to utilize right in conjunction
with the GI Bill through New York State. But I
think for someone who's a Purple Heart recipient, they've earned.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Us and what do you think is the best way
to ensure that veterans who've earned the Purple Heart or
maybe just served in the reserves are taking advantage of
all of the benefits that are available to them or
might be available to them in the future. Because one
of the narratives we hear is that one, this is
a population that doesn't always self identify as a veteran,
(05:33):
so the people who are maybe working with them on
different programs don't know to tell them about something. And
two that they might feel uncomfortable about actually utilizing some
of this stuff. So how do we maximize all that?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I think we need to do a better job with
a New York State of communicating the available resources that
are out there working with our counties because largely those vsos,
those Veteran service officers within the county are doing a
lot of the work, bulk of the work and handling
people coming in looking for different resources, whether it's healthcare related,
(06:10):
education related, and then they're filtering them to the VA
and I feel like what the state is doing is
we're ushering people to the counties. I feel like we
could be developing more of our own resources and aiding
the counties and cataloging this information more effectively, dispersing it
(06:32):
more effectively, and then working.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
With the veterans to share some of that load.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
There are a lot of programs out there, and there
are many many veterans who, as you said, don't self identify,
or don't pursue or even know about.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
The resources that are available to them.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well, before we move on, I want to reintroduce you
for listeners just joining us. This is the Capital press Room,
and we're speaking with State Senator Jake Ashby, a Capitol
Regional Republican who's also an Army Reserves ve are in
with combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. So right now
in New York cross our state prison system. I think
(07:11):
there's about three thousand National Guard members who have been
deployed to augment the lack of prison guards, in part
because of a problem that predates a prison strike, but
then also the aftermath of that strike, which led to
officers losing their jobs. This has had mixed success. I'll say,
it's great to have bodies there, but this is not
(07:32):
what they were trained for, and we've seen some the
limitations of that. What's your take on this, Is this
the idea that National Guard members are ready to step
in wherever they're needed, and sure this then represents a
good use of them, or do you have concerns about
this deployment that is now three plus.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Months certainly five months?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Sorry, Yeah, I certainly have concerns. I voiced opposition to
it from the beginning and really felt that if our
National Guard members were going to be doing this, that
they should be.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Federalized so that they would be eligible.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
For additional benefits, and so far that has not happened,
and as you said, the timeline keeps growing. In that case,
the risk for them potentially needing federal benefits, I believe,
continues to grow. So I don't think that this is
an effective short term or long term solution for this.
(08:30):
It again speaks to the mismanagement and lack of leadership
that we've seen on this issue over the years. This
doesn't just fall on one person's shoulders. I mean, I
think that the staffing situation and the condition within our
state prison system has been eroding for several years, and
(08:52):
I think this highlights that and the difficulties in trying
to ameliorate it. It's not something that can be done
in a one off fashion or can be done, I think, overnight.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you mentioned earlier how the state plays a role
in providing benefits to our veterans, but a lot of
it stems from federal policies, federal funding, federal agencies, and
we've seen under the Trump administration so far that some
of this has been the subject of cuts. I think
about doge early on looking for efficiencies and opting not
(09:29):
to fill positions in the VA. And then there's the
fact that veterans are utilizing programs like Medicaid and other
parts of social safety that are under fire right now
from DC. Are you concerned at all about what's happening
in Washington, d C. It pertains the veterans.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh, of course, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I remember hearing from a few friends who work at
the VA that, you know, they got an email from
Elon Musk and you know, they called me and they said,
is this real?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I thought it was a joke, to be.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Honest, And you know, I said, I don't I don't
know and then over time, obviously we realized that it
was that it is real. And I think that in
any in any bureaucracy and any organization, frankly, you're going
to have waste there. It's just a matter of how
you deal with that, right, how you tackle it. And
(10:26):
I don't think that the way that this administration in
particular is going about and rooting out the waste within.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
The VA is advisable. And I.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Think the people that are delivering these services, who are
receiving these services, have undeniably earned them. And that doesn't
mean that we can't look for waste, and it doesn't
mean that we can't find it and deal with it.
But I don't think that we can go in there
the way that this administration has done and deal with
(11:03):
it in the fashion that they have. I think it
would be much better to do it in a more
tactful way, to include the veterans as well, because I
think I think if you talk to I think if
you talk to a lot of veterans, they'll tell you
about negative experiences that they've had with the VA, and
they'll tell you about waste that's there. Right, there's no art,
there's no argument, there I think we can work together
(11:25):
on this. I don't think it has to be this way.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That seems to be a bipartisan issue, though in a
negative way, which is that whether it's Democrats or Republicans
in the White House, the VA is never seemed to
be one of the best run agencies. And I'm curious
whether you've ever had good experiences with the VA firsthand.
And I should note for listeners that you had a
bit of a smile there.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Good.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I've had good and bad, but I've been fortunate enough
not to have any serious health issues to where I'm
going to the VA for an acute care issue. But
I remember when I came back from my second deployment
and I was using I was using the VA. I
felt like I needed a grocery cart when I was leaving.
(12:15):
Is that they wanted to give which in some ways
is nice, and that they want to give you so much, right,
But was that necessary? I don't I don't know. I
don't know if that was really I don't know if
that was really necessary. And everything that they that they
wanted all the different. I have bad sinuses and they
(12:38):
gave me everything you could think of. And that's just
my that's just my example. So I think that there's
other people out there who may have had difficulty one
seeing someone. I think that's a major major issue, is
finding a provider and being able to see them, and
I think that's gotten a little bit better over the
(12:59):
last few years. But I'll also say this, what I
see more and more is the use of talamedicine, and
I think that it's appropriate in some cases. But I
do not think that talmedicine should be equivalent to face
to face interactions with a clinician. I just don't. I
don't agree with that as a as a previous clinician
(13:23):
working in healthcare for twenty years, I don't think that
an interaction that you have over the internet with somebody
is equivalent to something face to face. Now insert the
context of that within a patient clinician relationship, right, Yeah,
there's a lot that goes on there within those face
(13:44):
to face interactions that can be missed over the internet.
And I know that there's technology out there that can,
you know, a camera and a whole system can retrieve
vitals and report that back to the other person on
the other side. But I think that there's a lot
of subjective information and I think that there's a lot
to be said within the relationships that you build with
somebody that you really need to have that face to
(14:06):
face interaction, and I think that needs to be more
of a focus. But again it goes back to staffing
issues that we've talked about in other industries and more specifically,
you know, healthcare, we need to address that. And again
that's something that New York State could help with. You know,
we talk about gaps and service. This is perhaps a
(14:26):
gap service related that we could aid the VAM.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Finally, simply because of time, there is a shift in
the veteran population that needs to be served. We're no
longer necessarily talking about meeting the needs of World War
two and Korea War veterans. In fact, it's not even
necessarily about Vietnam veterans. It's shocking how old that population
is getting. And so as your generation, the gen xers,
(14:55):
I don't know if you're maybe an elder millennial, I'm
a gen xident, I'm the last generation acts gotcha. So
you know, as your generation becomes the ones reliant on
veterans services, do you feel like there are unique needs
that your generation has? Then, say the boomers that came
before you and maybe the wars that they fought in,
(15:18):
and if so, do we need to pivot our agencies
in any way to meet the needs of this unique population.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I think that's a good question. But as everyone ages
to include veterans, chronic disease becomes the focus. And you know,
certainly there are things types of acute disease that gain
and chronic illness, burn pit registry that you know was
(15:46):
worked on for over the last decade. I'm sure that
there will be a lot more research coming out on
the respiratory and cardiovascular injuries that were sustained by service
members over there. So I think it will be important
and to devote resources earlier than later and preparing that
because as you age, they're not going to get any better,
(16:09):
you know. So if we can begin preparing for that now,
building the agency out and even at a state level again,
you know, helping with this, we're going to be better.
We're going to be better ready to serve our veterans. Well,
we've been speaking with Jake Ashby. He is a Capital
Region Republican and a veteran himself. Senator, thank you so
(16:31):
much for visiting us. I really appreciate it. Thanks Dave,
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
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a production of WCNY Connected Syracuse
During the twenty twenty five legislative session, state lawmakers unanimously
approved legislation designating New York as a Purple Heart state.
To explain the significance of this proposal, we're joined by
the measures Senate sponsor, Capital Region Republican Jake Ashby, who
completed combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq while in the
Army Reserves. Welcome back to the studio, editor, Dave, thanks
for having me. So what is the significance of New
(00:27):
York being a purple Heart state? Does this trigger anything
or make New York eligible for anything?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
For example?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, I think it could. It's an important distinction to
recognize the service members who were wounded or killed an action,
and I think most people would then suggest that we
can do more for them. So when we recognize these
(00:53):
individuals and classify our state as a Purple Heart state,
I think it then triggers or goes to the next
step of what can we do more for them? And
there certainly is a lot more that we can do
for those who've literally shed their blood on our behalf,
and already, you know, looking at different ideas, but the
(01:15):
bill has not been signed yet. So we held a
press conference today calling on the governor to sign the
bill because today is Purple Heart Day and we are
urging her in a bipartisan fashion to sign this bill
and declare its significance.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, maybe we'll check in around November eleventh, when the
governor might have her own sort of press conference and
sign the bill.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I think that's probably a good idea.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So coming back though, to the substantive nature of this,
do we have to do something like this to make
ourselves more committed to our veterans or is this more
symbolic in nature and sort of a public commitment to doing.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
More Well, I think you could point out the you know,
ceremony fashion of it. But in New York State we
already have a Purple Heart museum. I would point out
that the first female recipient of the Purple Heart was
from New York State and World War One, and.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I think we are called to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Also, if when you look at the significance of our
contributions to our military and New York State with Fort
Drum and West Point and having one of the.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Largest Coast Guard areas of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Operation in New York based out of New York City,
I think it belongs I really do. And then again
I think when we do that, we then look at
what more can we do? Are we doing enough within
our own state? You know, largely many of the program's
fall under the federal purview within DoD and the VA,
(02:54):
but there's a lot of gaps there. There's a lot
of shortfalls that other states are more willing to pick
up the slack. So I feel like this is an
important step that we can take. Often we overlook these
opportunities for cooperation and see what they bring, and this
is an opportunity to capitalize on that and build off
of it.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Well, what would you like to see as substantive next
steps and would you like to see it targeted solely
two people who have won the Purple Heart or do
you think it should be focusing on veterans more broadly.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, they don't win it, earn it, they correct they
earn it, they receive it. And it's one of the
oldest military decorations. It was one of the first military
awards that was given to any rank. Anyone could be
eligible for it. And the other interesting part is that
the approval process for other decorations, like the valorous awards,
(03:48):
there's a approval process that goes through your chain of command.
When you are wounded in a combat zone by an
enemy combatant, you automatically receive this award. So it's different
and kind of stands out and it's nature. But to
your question of what we can do more of with that, yes,
(04:09):
i'd like to see things. I'd like to see legislation
directed specifically for Purple Heart recipients. Again, I'd also like
to see them for veterans at large, but I do
think it's an important characteristic to distinguish among veterans those
that have been wounded. And one of the things we're
actually I was just talking about it with our chief
of staff when we were walking over, was that the
(04:32):
GI Bill pays a percentage of your educational expenses. I
used it for when I went to graduate school, but
there's often some leftover expenses including tuition, you know, depending
on your length of time and service. But one thing
that I think we could do in New York State
is that if you're a Purple Heart recipient, New York
State picks up the rest. Right, So if you're utilizing
(04:54):
the GI Bill and there are leftover expenses, there are
funds already available for veterans to utilize right in conjunction
with the GI Bill through New York State. But I
think for someone who's a Purple Heart recipient, they've earned.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Us and what do you think is the best way
to ensure that veterans who've earned the Purple Heart or
maybe just served in the reserves are taking advantage of
all of the benefits that are available to them or
might be available to them in the future. Because one
of the narratives we hear is that one, this is
a population that doesn't always self identify as a veteran,
(05:33):
so the people who are maybe working with them on
different programs don't know to tell them about something. And
two that they might feel uncomfortable about actually utilizing some
of this stuff. So how do we maximize all that?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I think we need to do a better job with
a New York State of communicating the available resources that
are out there working with our counties because largely those vsos,
those Veteran service officers within the county are doing a
lot of the work, bulk of the work and handling
people coming in looking for different resources, whether it's healthcare related,
(06:10):
education related, and then they're filtering them to the VA
and I feel like what the state is doing is
we're ushering people to the counties. I feel like we
could be developing more of our own resources and aiding
the counties and cataloging this information more effectively, dispersing it
(06:32):
more effectively, and then working.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
With the veterans to share some of that load.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
There are a lot of programs out there, and there
are many many veterans who, as you said, don't self identify,
or don't pursue or even know about.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
The resources that are available to them.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well, before we move on, I want to reintroduce you
for listeners just joining us. This is the Capital press Room,
and we're speaking with State Senator Jake Ashby, a Capitol
Regional Republican who's also an Army Reserves ve are in
with combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. So right now
in New York cross our state prison system. I think
(07:11):
there's about three thousand National Guard members who have been
deployed to augment the lack of prison guards, in part
because of a problem that predates a prison strike, but
then also the aftermath of that strike, which led to
officers losing their jobs. This has had mixed success. I'll say,
it's great to have bodies there, but this is not
(07:32):
what they were trained for, and we've seen some the
limitations of that. What's your take on this, Is this
the idea that National Guard members are ready to step
in wherever they're needed, and sure this then represents a
good use of them, or do you have concerns about
this deployment that is now three plus.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Months certainly five months?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Sorry, Yeah, I certainly have concerns. I voiced opposition to
it from the beginning and really felt that if our
National Guard members were going to be doing this, that
they should be.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Federalized so that they would be eligible.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
For additional benefits, and so far that has not happened,
and as you said, the timeline keeps growing. In that case,
the risk for them potentially needing federal benefits, I believe,
continues to grow. So I don't think that this is
an effective short term or long term solution for this.
(08:30):
It again speaks to the mismanagement and lack of leadership
that we've seen on this issue over the years. This
doesn't just fall on one person's shoulders. I mean, I
think that the staffing situation and the condition within our
state prison system has been eroding for several years, and
(08:52):
I think this highlights that and the difficulties in trying
to ameliorate it. It's not something that can be done
in a one off fashion or can be done, I think, overnight.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you mentioned earlier how the state plays a role
in providing benefits to our veterans, but a lot of
it stems from federal policies, federal funding, federal agencies, and
we've seen under the Trump administration so far that some
of this has been the subject of cuts. I think
about doge early on looking for efficiencies and opting not
(09:29):
to fill positions in the VA. And then there's the
fact that veterans are utilizing programs like Medicaid and other
parts of social safety that are under fire right now
from DC. Are you concerned at all about what's happening
in Washington, d C. It pertains the veterans.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh, of course, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I remember hearing from a few friends who work at
the VA that, you know, they got an email from
Elon Musk and you know, they called me and they said,
is this real?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I thought it was a joke, to be.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Honest, And you know, I said, I don't I don't
know and then over time, obviously we realized that it
was that it is real. And I think that in
any in any bureaucracy and any organization, frankly, you're going
to have waste there. It's just a matter of how
you deal with that, right, how you tackle it. And
(10:26):
I don't think that the way that this administration in
particular is going about and rooting out the waste within.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
The VA is advisable. And I.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Think the people that are delivering these services, who are
receiving these services, have undeniably earned them. And that doesn't
mean that we can't look for waste, and it doesn't
mean that we can't find it and deal with it.
But I don't think that we can go in there
the way that this administration has done and deal with
(11:03):
it in the fashion that they have. I think it
would be much better to do it in a more
tactful way, to include the veterans as well, because I
think I think if you talk to I think if
you talk to a lot of veterans, they'll tell you
about negative experiences that they've had with the VA, and
they'll tell you about waste that's there. Right, there's no art,
there's no argument, there I think we can work together
(11:25):
on this. I don't think it has to be this way.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That seems to be a bipartisan issue, though in a
negative way, which is that whether it's Democrats or Republicans
in the White House, the VA is never seemed to
be one of the best run agencies. And I'm curious
whether you've ever had good experiences with the VA firsthand.
And I should note for listeners that you had a
bit of a smile there.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Good.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I've had good and bad, but I've been fortunate enough
not to have any serious health issues to where I'm
going to the VA for an acute care issue. But
I remember when I came back from my second deployment
and I was using I was using the VA. I
felt like I needed a grocery cart when I was leaving.
(12:15):
Is that they wanted to give which in some ways
is nice, and that they want to give you so much, right,
But was that necessary? I don't I don't know. I
don't know if that was really I don't know if
that was really necessary. And everything that they that they
wanted all the different. I have bad sinuses and they
(12:38):
gave me everything you could think of. And that's just
my that's just my example. So I think that there's
other people out there who may have had difficulty one
seeing someone. I think that's a major major issue, is
finding a provider and being able to see them, and
I think that's gotten a little bit better over the
(12:59):
last few years. But I'll also say this, what I
see more and more is the use of talamedicine, and
I think that it's appropriate in some cases. But I
do not think that talmedicine should be equivalent to face
to face interactions with a clinician. I just don't. I
don't agree with that as a as a previous clinician
(13:23):
working in healthcare for twenty years, I don't think that
an interaction that you have over the internet with somebody
is equivalent to something face to face. Now insert the
context of that within a patient clinician relationship, right, Yeah,
there's a lot that goes on there within those face
(13:44):
to face interactions that can be missed over the internet.
And I know that there's technology out there that can,
you know, a camera and a whole system can retrieve
vitals and report that back to the other person on
the other side. But I think that there's a lot
of subjective information and I think that there's a lot
to be said within the relationships that you build with
somebody that you really need to have that face to
(14:06):
face interaction, and I think that needs to be more
of a focus. But again it goes back to staffing
issues that we've talked about in other industries and more specifically,
you know, healthcare, we need to address that. And again
that's something that New York State could help with. You know,
we talk about gaps and service. This is perhaps a
(14:26):
gap service related that we could aid the VAM.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Finally, simply because of time, there is a shift in
the veteran population that needs to be served. We're no
longer necessarily talking about meeting the needs of World War
two and Korea War veterans. In fact, it's not even
necessarily about Vietnam veterans. It's shocking how old that population
is getting. And so as your generation, the gen xers,
(14:55):
I don't know if you're maybe an elder millennial, I'm
a gen xident, I'm the last generation acts gotcha. So
you know, as your generation becomes the ones reliant on
veterans services, do you feel like there are unique needs
that your generation has? Then, say the boomers that came
before you and maybe the wars that they fought in,
(15:18):
and if so, do we need to pivot our agencies
in any way to meet the needs of this unique population.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I think that's a good question. But as everyone ages
to include veterans, chronic disease becomes the focus. And you know,
certainly there are things types of acute disease that gain
and chronic illness, burn pit registry that you know was
(15:46):
worked on for over the last decade. I'm sure that
there will be a lot more research coming out on
the respiratory and cardiovascular injuries that were sustained by service
members over there. So I think it will be important
and to devote resources earlier than later and preparing that
because as you age, they're not going to get any better,
(16:09):
you know. So if we can begin preparing for that now,
building the agency out and even at a state level again,
you know, helping with this, we're going to be better.
We're going to be better ready to serve our veterans. Well,
we've been speaking with Jake Ashby. He is a Capital
Region Republican and a veteran himself. Senator, thank you so
(16:31):
much for visiting us. I really appreciate it. Thanks Dave,
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
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