A San Antonio advocate is raising questions about current access to care for veterans, one day after KSAT reported President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 federal budget includes $30 million to buy land for a new veteran medical center in the city.

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones joined KSAT’s 6 O’Clock News on Tuesday to discuss topics ranging from a new veterans medical center to her recent trade trips to Taiwan and Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 includes $30 million for land acquisition for the site of a new veteran medical center in San Antonio. If approved, a new center would replace the current Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital.

Next year’s proposed federal budget includes $30 million for land acquisition for the site of a new veterans medical center in San Antonio.

After the second suicide in the last eight months happened last week outside the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital, veteran advocates said addressing the topic head-on is necessary.

Another call for change came outside Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital on Monday, as dozens demanded accountability and better accessibility to mental health services.

A man who died by suicide in the parking lot of the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital this week was confirmed to be a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, a military spokesperson said.

San Antonio police said a man died by suicide in the parking lot of the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning an “aggressive” reorganization that includes cutting 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care for retired military members, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.

A former Veterans Affairs contracting official from San Antonio was sentenced to four years probation and six months of home detention related to a bribery case.

The Veterans Affairs secretary is reversing a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” photograph showing a Navy sailor kissing a woman he did not know on the streets of New York at the end of World War II.

A Kerrville man was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for stealing medicines from Veterans Affairs patients and selling them for profit.

The US Dept. of Veterans Affairs is taking significant steps to encourage veterans to seek support if they are struggling with mental health.

A Texas veteran who faced an uphill when looking for coverage for his living donor through the Veterans Choice Program led the effort to change a system flaw to help others.

The funds will help expand the Dallas facility into a long-term spinal cord injury treatment center and pay for a new health care facility in El Paso.

A new law allows nearly 3.5 million veterans exposed to burn pits to get health care through the VA without proving their illness was a result of their service in the military.

San Antonio veteran uses VA loan to purchase home for her Gold Star family.

The Wounded Warriors Project has seen a lot of predatory schemes targeting the military community.

FILE - In this July 7, 2020 file photo, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Richard Wilkie speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. Confronted with a sexual assault allegation at a veterans hospital, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie repeatedly sought to discredit the female congressional staffer who made the complaint. The groups pressed Trump to act in the last weeks of his administration since Wilkie had refused to accept responsibility and was refusing to resign. Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. Wilkie is Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018.

“It is unfair to expect accountability from the nearly 400,000 VA employees and not demand the same from its top executive. Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. Wilkie is Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rebuild trust in the VA when he takes office on Jan. 20. He has selected Denis McDonough, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, to be VA secretary.

“The accountability, professionalism and respect that our veterans have earned, and quite frankly deserve, is completely lost in this current VA leadership team,” said B.J. Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. Wilkie is President Donald Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018. “VA can and must do better,” said Randy Reese, executive director of Disabled American Veterans’ Washington headquarters. He has selected Denis McDonough, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, to be VA secretary.

“The response of Secretary Wilkie and senior VA officials to the veteran’s complaint of sexual assault was troubling,” Missal said in a statement. “The tone set by Secretary Wilkie appears to have influenced aspects of the initial VA police investigation and the conduct of other VA employees,” the report said. On Thursday, Biden said he will nominate Denis McDonough, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, to be VA secretary. VA officials did not examine the information, the report said. A study released by the VA last year found 1 in 4 female veterans using VA health care reported inappropriate comments by male veterans on VA grounds.

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Two workers were killed in an explosion Friday while repairing a steam pipe in a maintenance building at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Connecticut, officials said. Alfred Montoya Jr., director of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, said the men were in the basement of the small outer building and had just finished routine maintenance on a leaky pipe. He said the explosion occurred just after 8 a.m. as the pipe was being refilled with steam. “Our prayers are with the families of the victims of this explosion," VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said. The explosion occurred in a building that houses the hospital’s labor shops, such as carpentry and plumbing, a spokesperson for the hospital said.

Statistics like these prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. senators to draft a bill that would bring sweeping changes to the Department of Veteran Affairs' mental health services. Senate Bill 785, also known as the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, has now passed the Senate and House and is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for approval. The bill does the following:establishes increased accountability over the department’s mental health and suicide prevention programs;expands VA tele-health capabilities to better serve rural veterans;bolsters and expedites federal research capabilities;directs the VA to embark on a precision medicine initiative that will improve how mental health conditions are diagnosed and treated;makes necessary improvements to the VA mental health workforce. “Mental health is widely misunderstood, and there’s a negative culture associated with it, especially in the military. “Not everyone that they see will fit the parameters they need to see or allow them into a mental health provider.