Throughout the past week the legislature has been working on a series of supplemental budget bills. These bills feature Veterans related provisions, including the funding for three new Veterans homes.

These are the other provisions that were included in supplemental budget bills.

Veterans homes

The House State Government Finance bill included the funding of three new Minnesota Veterans Homes. If enacted, these homes would be located in Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston.

Veteran's Voices

$50,000 was appropriated in the House Legacy funding bill to the Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations (AMPERS) to produce radio programs chronicling the experience of Korean War Veterans.

Bridges honoring Veterans

The House Transportation Finance bill includes two sections that honor Veterans by renaming bridges in the areas that they lived. In Eveleth, a bridge on U.S. Highway 53 will be designated as "Specialist Noah Pierce Bridge." In Rosemount, a U.S. Highway 52 bridge will be renamed “Warrant Officer Dennis A. Groth Memorial Bridge.”

Centers for Independent Living

In the House Job Growth and Energy Affordability omnibus bill $590,000 was appropriated to the Centers for Independent Living to hire eight full-time employees that focus on providing targeted services to Veterans.

These bills were all sent to the Ways and Means committee. In years past, all of the supplemental budget bills that have come out of separate committees are usually combined into one supplemental budget bill that is voted on by the full House or Senate.

In addition to the work on supplemental budget bills, the House Veterans Affairs Division held its last scheduled meeting of the biennium.