The legislature finished its penultimate full week of session by finishing up work on a handful of Veterans related bills. Next week's focus will be completing work on a supplemental budget, bonding bill and a tax bill.

The legislature sent three bills to Governor Dayton which he is expected to sign into law next week.

SF 3004 is authored by Sen. Mark Johnson and Rep. Dale Lueck. The bill would allow the Secretary of State's office to collect Veteran status through applications for appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions. The bill was passed unanimously in both chambers.

SF 1703 designates July 16 as Atomic Veterans Day in Minnesota. The bill was authored by Sen. Andrew Mathews and Rep. John Poston and passed unanimously in both chambers.

SF 3262 allows counties and cities to designate jurisdictions as a Purple Heart City or Purple Heart County. The bill also allows cities or counties to designate a prominent parking space at city hall or county government center for Purple Heart recipients. The bill was authored by Sen. Dan Hall and Rep. Matt Bliss. The bill passed unanimously.

Sen. Dave Senjem released his bonding bill last week. MDVA was given $9 million for asset preservation for needed repairs at MDVA properties like Veterans homes and cemeteries. Like the House proposal, which was released last week this falls short of the $13 million request that Governor Dayton included in his proposal. The Senate bonding bill also included money to build three new Veterans homes in Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston.