Senators prepare bill to deliver better services to veterans
By The Star Staff
Seeking to do more justice for veterans and ex-military personnel, Sen. Marissa Jiménez Santoni called a meeting in her Capitol office with the aim of offering better mental and emotional health services to both sectors.
“Our goal is to find a series of immediate solutions to their greatest needs,” Jiménez Santoni said in a written statement.
The Carolina District senator said the first thing they are doing as they work on the bill is reaching collaborative agreements with different agencies related to the subject.
At the meeting were the veterans advocate, Agustín Montañez; Correction and Rehabilitation Secretary Secretary Ana Escobar; the New Progressive Party (NPP) minority leader in Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz, who chairs the Veterans and Security Committee in the upper chamber; and Jiménez Santoni, as a member of the aforementioned committee.
“We have – in the District of Carolina – a very large population of ex-military personnel who need these services immediately,” Jiménez Santoni said. “We have many cases reported to our office.”
“We have also met -- to talk in depth about the matter -- with the administrator of the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, Dr. Carlos Rodríguez Mateo, with whom we have also reached collaborative agreements to give much more support to the two populations,” she added.
“In the coming days we will be drafting a bill that will seek to do justice for our veterans and ex-military members, so that they are given the honors they deserve after having put their lives at the service of the nation,” Jiménez Santoni said. “We will also help those who are imprisoned, and are already about to go out to the free community, have housing.”