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The Legislative Department provides frequent updates regarding the status of current Veteran related legislation.
2024 Veterans Legislation Session Summary
News updates and press releases from Minnesota Congressional Members, in addition to contact information can be found in our Congressional Corner.
3/4/2024 9:00:00 AM
Following a low-key second week of session, there was more activity last week on Veterans bills in both the House and the Senate. MDVA also gave two presentations to committees.
On Monday, the House Veterans and Military Affairs committee heard four bills related to Veterans.
The first was HF 3790 authored by Rep. Mark Wiens of Lake Elmo. It would create a standard of reports for MDVA to provide for grants issues by the agency. It was laid over for possible inclusion.
HF 1666 would allow county Veteran service officers to obtain official records and certificates, like a DD214 for free from the county. This would eliminate rare instances where the CVSO would have to pay a fee to a county recorder for the document. Rep. Shane Hudella of Hastings authored the bill. It was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
Two other bills were given informational hearing. The first, HF 3746 authored by Rep. Josiah Hill of Stillwater would provide grant funding to Hometown Hero Outdoors. The second, HF 3505 authored by Krista Knudsen of Lake Shore would increase the exclusion amount for the homestead market value exclusion for disabled Veterans.
MDVA also provided an update on agency activity since last year’s session ended. Presenters included Commissioner Brad Lindsay, Deputy Commissioner for Healthcare Eric Meittunen and interim Deputy Commissioner for Programs & Services/Legislative Director Ben Johnson.
The Senate State and Local Government and Veterans committee met for the first time on Thursday afternoon. The committee heard two Veterans related bills and a presentation from MDVA regarding this year’s infrastructure funding requests.
The first bill, SF 3876 authored by Sen. Nicole Mitchell of Woodbury would allow counties to provide no more than $300 to a Veteran service organization to celebrate Veterans Day. Previously, counties could only provide money for Memorial Day. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
SF 3452 authored by Sen. Heather Gustafson of Vadnais Heights has the same effect as Rep. Hudella’s HF 1666 heard in the House committee. It was laid over for possible inclusion.
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