It was a quiet week for Veterans related work at the legislature as no bills moved in committees and only a few bills were introduced.

The House Capital Investment committee did hear a presentation from MDVA regarding bonding requests for this year. Those requests include funding to aid the cost increases for construction of the new Veterans homes in Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston; an upgrade to the campus at the Hastings Veterans home and funding for asset preservation to repair agency infrastructure throughout the state.

Despite the lack of work on Veterans issues this week, the pace will pick up soon when the February budget forecast is released, ironically, in the first week of March. After that the legislature will have three full weeks until the first committee deadline on Friday, March 25. Bills must receive favorable votes in a committee before then, otherwise they will be eliminated from consideration during this year’s session. The final two deadlines are April 1 and 8. After the third committee deadline, the legislature will take time off for Easter and Passover. They will return on Tuesday, April 19. That gives the legislature a little over a month to complete its work before adjournment on Monday, May 23.