Only three bills were heard between the two Veterans committees in the state legislature this week as work continues to get under way.

The House Veterans Affairs Division heard one Veterans related piece of legislation. HF 1123 is authored by Rep. Jim Davnie. It seeks to increase the homestead valuation exclusion for disabled Veterans. The increase for 70% disabled Veterans would go from $150,000 to $165,000. For 100% service connected disabled Veterans, the exclusion would increase from $300,000 to $330,000. The bill was approved and re-referred to the Taxes committee.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard two Veterans related bills. SF 3004 is authored by Senator Mark Johnson and would add Veteran status to the list of collected data that is used by the Secretary of State for state agency appointments. The bill was approved and re-referred to the State Government and Elections committee. SF 2953 is the companion to HF 2907 which would permit data sharing between county officials to administer the disabled Veteran's homestead exclusion. The bill was approved and re-referred to the Judiciary and Public Safety committee.

New Veterans related bills were introduced throughout the week. To learn more, check out the /mdva/news/legislative-updates/state-bill-tracker/index.jspState Bill Tracker.

Meeting Canceled
On Monday, March 5th there was supposed to be a joint hearing to learn about the process for acquiring new Veterans homes. That meeting was canceled because of the snow storm. It is expected to be rescheduled for a later date.

Legislative Deadlines
The legislature announced its committee deadlines for this session. These deadlines are meant to filter out and give priority to bills that have been introduced. If a bill doesn't meet deadline, it is essentially dead. The first deadline is Thursday, March 22. This deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills in the house of origin. The second deadline is March 29. This is for committees to act favorably on bills, or companion bills, that met the first deadline in the other chamber. The third deadline is on Friday, Apr. 20. This is for committees to act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills.