The work at the Minnesota Legislature is close to full swing with the majority of committees now working on bills rather than having overviews and other presentations. That holds true with Veterans legislation as eight bills were heard across three committees this week.

The House Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard presentations from the Minnesota American Legion and DAV of Minnesota. After that they heard two Veterans related bills. Rep. Brian Johnson’s HF 530 would provide funding for a domestic abuse prevention program geared towards Veterans. It was passed and re-referred to the Public Safety committee. The next bill was HF 586, authored by Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn. It would set the first Saturday of every October as Veteran Suicide Awareness Day in Minnesota. The committee approved the legislation and sent it to the Government Operations committee.

The House Government Operations committee heard two bills on Thursday. HF 826 and HF 562 are authored by Reps. Dave Lislegard and Dan Fabian, respectively and they would would urge the President and Congress to hold a state funeral for the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. The bills were approved by the committee. It is expected that they will next be heard in Rep. Ecklund’s Veterans and Military Affairs committee.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard four bills on Thursday. The first one was Sen. Mark Johnson’s SF 686 which is a bill to Rep. Fabian’s HF 562. It was approved and re-referred to the committee on Rules and Administration. Then SF 242, authored by Sen. Dan Hall, which would establish a POW and MIA Recognition Day in Minnesota was approved and sent to the Senate floor where it will await a vote by the full Senate. The third bill was SF 503 which was authored by Sen. Andrew Lang. The bill appropriates money for the Veterans Defense Project so that they can continue their work of helping Veterans that run have legal issues. The committee supported the bill and re-referred it to State Government Finance. The last bill was Sen. Michael Goggin’s SF 300 which would establish a tax credit for employers that hire unemployed or disabled Veterans. It was passed and re-referred to the Tax committee.

Next week

Governor Walz will be unveiling his budget on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at noon. This will include the budget for MDVA.

The House Veterans and Military Affairs committee will meet on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Veterans of Foreign War will give the committee a presentation. There will be two bills heard, HF 430 authored by Rep. Jay Xiong and HF 998 which is authored by Rep. Rob Ecklund, the committee’s chair.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee will meet on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 8:30 a.m. There will be three Veterans bills heard. SF 1118 is authored by Chair Bruce Anderson, SF 266 is authored by Sen. Jerry Newton and SF 1153 is authored by Sen. Roger Chamberlain.

New Senator

On Wednesday, Jason Rarick was sworn in as the state senator representing district 11 after a special election was held on Feb. 5 to fill the seat of Tony Lourey who resigned to become the commissioner for the Department of Human Services. He was previously a member of the Minnesota House dating back to 2015. A special election will take place on March 19 to fill his House seat.