Political Briefs 09.29.16

Zeldin Focuses on Veterans

Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican seeking re-election in New York’s First Congressional District, hailed the unanimous passage in Congress of the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act. The act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a management plan for a suicide hotline for veterans and to develop a plan to ensure that every communication received by the hotline is answered individually in a timely manner. Mr. Zeldin is a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

“There is absolutely no reason that a struggling veteran who calls the suicide hotline should ever be sent to voicemail, especially since the V.A. receives tens of billions of dollars each year for veterans’ health,” Mr. Zeldin said.

Last week, Mr. Zeldin participated in a Veterans Affairs Committee field hearing at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center intended to assess deficiencies at the center. Last month, a 76-year-old veteran committed suicide in the parking lot of the medical center, where he had been a patient, and the center’s operating rooms were shut down in February due to decaying conditions.

“All allegations regarding the care of our veterans must be taken very seriously, which is why my office shared this information with the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in order to conduct a full and fair review of the information,” Mr. Zeldin said at the hearing.

Last weekend, Mr. Zeldin attended a fund-raiser in Patchogue to raise awareness of the epidemic of veteran and active-duty service member suicides.

Throne-Holst Hits Zeldin on Guns

Former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, the Democratic Party’s candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District, continued to criticize Representative Lee Zeldin on gun policy this week. A release issued by Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign said that Mr. Zeldin’s position is more conservative than that of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, who announced his support for legislation that would prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying firearms. Mr. Zeldin endorses Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

“Lee Zeldin’s hard-line position on common-sense gun safety is so extreme even his party’s presidential nominee cannot support it,” said Andrew Grunwald, Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign manager. “First District voters deserve a representative in Congress who will address gun reform head-on and put forward legislation that will protect Americans from senseless gun violence.”

Gabrielle Giffords, the former representative from Arizona who was critically wounded by a mentally ill gunman in 2011, and her husband, the retired Navy captain and astronaut Mark Kelly, endorsed Ms. Throne-Holst’s candidacy last Thursday.

In endorsing Ms. Throne-Holst, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also criticized Mr. Zeldin on gun policy. Mr. Zeldin, he said, “has voted time and again against common-sense gun legislation on the federal level, and has reinforced the inaction and gridlock crippling Washington.”