On June 7, 2023, Senator Jim Tedisco (R,C-44th Senate District) and Assemblymember Marianne Buttenschon (D-Utica/Rome) announced that both houses of the New York State Legislature have passed their bipartisan Veterans Internship Program (V.I.P.) legislation to enable honorably discharged veterans to participate in the legislature’s annual paid legislative internship program that could help lead them to future employment.
Tedisco and Buttenschon’s V.I.P. legislation (S.291/A.1347) sets aside 10 percent of the current legislative internship program positions in the Senate and Assembly for veterans to see the inner workings of the representative democracy they put their lives on the line to defend.
Veteran participants in the Veterans Internship Program would receive a stipend that’s equivalent to what graduate students currently receive in the Senate ($50,000) and Assembly ($17,000). The Senate and Assembly internship offices would work with county veterans services agencies to identify and recruit eligible candidates. There will be no additional cost to taxpayers to implement the V.I.P. law.
Click HERE for information about this Internship Program.