After a dozen bills were heard in the previous week, only a half dozen moved through committees this week. There was also news for MDVA properties from the legislature.

The House Veterans and Military Affairs committee met on Monday to hear five bills. Three of them were laid over for possible inclusion and the other two were sent to other committees.

• HF236 is authored by Rep. Mike Freiberg of Golden Valley. The bill modifies the homestead market exclusion for disabled Veterans by increasing the value of the exclusion and sets future updates to inflation. The bill also eliminates the two-year deadline for surviving spouses to claim the benefit after the death of a Veteran. Finally, it also applies for previously denied surviving spouses to reapply for the benefit. The bill was approved and re-referred to the Tax committee.
• HF837 is authored by Rep. Pat Garofalo of Farmington. The bill eliminates the burial fee for Veteran spouses and dependents in state Veterans cemeteries. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a Veterans and Military Affairs omnibus bill.
• HF904 is authored by Rep. Elliott Engen of White Bear Township. This bill adds the Disabled American Veterans to those eligible to receive special license plates. It also waives the personalized license plate fee for those eligible for Gold Star license plates.
• HF1194 is authored by Rep. Matt Bliss of Pennington. It provides funding to Camp Bliss (no relation to the author) in Walker, MN. The camp provides Veterans retreats. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a Veterans and Military Affairs omnibus bill.
• HF1353 is authored by Rep. Mary Frances Clardy of Inver Grove Heights. The bill adds spouses of Veterans and currently serving military members to those allowed to receive eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy from the Veterans Resilience Project. This group received funding last biennium, so the bill also continues that funding for the next two years. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a Veterans and Military Affairs omnibus bill.

The other bill heard this week was SF1336 from Sen. Foung Hawj of St. Paul. The bill provides many language changes for the Department of Public Safety’s Driver and Vehicle services division. For Veterans it includes the same language as HF904 benefiting DAV members and Gold Star families. The bill was approved and sent to the Senate floor.

Next week the House Veterans and Military Affairs committee will not meet, presumably due to the President’s Day holiday, but the House is in session and will give HF45 a floor vote.

Finally, the House and Senate Capital Investment committees rolled out their bonding bills. Both included funding for asset preservation for MDVA buildings as well as the state funding needed for a campus revitalization at Minnesota Veterans Home – Hastings. The committees are expected to vote those bills out of committee next week.