Barack Obama's final budget as president includes millions of dollars needed for the construction of a new national veterans' cemetery in western New York.
Sen. Charles Schumer says the president's budget for the federal fiscal year 2017 includes $36 million for the construction phase of the cemetery to be built on 132 acres in the Genesee County town of Pembroke, in between Rochester and Buffalo.
While funding for the design and planning phases was already in place, the New York Democrat said in December that he would push Veterans Affairs officials to make sure money was set aside in the upcoming budget so construction could begin in 2017.
The closest veterans' cemetery to the Buffalo and Rochester areas is in the Southern Tier in Bath, about 60 miles from Rochester and 90 from Buffalo.
