The legislative gears began turning through the second week of the 2022 session with both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees meeting and Veterans related legislation beginning to move through the process.

On Wednesday, the House Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard four bills related to Veterans.

• HF 2561 is authored by Rep. Greg Davids of Preston and would provide additional funding to the Minnesota Veterans Home – Preston that is currently under construction. The money would be used to provide upgrades and enhancements. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus supplemental budget bill for the committee.
• Rep. Bob Dettmer of Forest Lake authored HF 3001. This would allow residents with prior military service—regardless of the branch of service—to file their discharge papers with the county recorder. Current law only cites discharge papers from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The bill was unanimously approved and re-referred to the State Government Finance and Elections committee.
• HF 3036 is authored by Rep. Heather Edelson and would provide grant funding to Metro Meals on Wheels to provide meals to Veterans throughout the Twin Cities. This bill was also laid over for possible inclusion in a budget bill.
• HF 1123 would establish a license plate for Air Medal recipients. The bill is authored by Rep. Laurie Pryor of Minnetonka. There was no action taken on the bill as it was an informational bill hearing and awaits action in the House Transportation committee.

The Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard a presentation from MDVA. Like last week in the House committee, the first part of the presentation focused on the agency’s Veterans suicide prevention and awareness activities after the legislature provided funding last year. The second part was a presentation from the Health Care division about its reserve fund and a report about staffing the Minnesota Veterans Homes.

Next week, MDVA will be presenting to the House Capital Investment committee about its infrastructure funding needs.