The House Veterans and Military Affairs committee met on Monday and heard five Veterans bills. All were MDVA legislative priorities.

Committee ranking member Rep. Matt Bliss (Pennington) presented the first bill, HF 4336. The bill would authorize MDVA to seek a fifth State Veterans Cemetery that would serve Northwest Minnesota. The bill was approved and re-referred to Capital Investment.

The next bill was HF 4334 authored by Rep. Bjorn Olson (Fairmont). This bill would align state policy with federal policy by eliminating eligibility for Veterans state benefits for those that lose their entitlement to the benefits under United States Code, Title 38, Chapter 61. Examples include treason, genocide, fraud, subversive activities and more. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.

Rep. Peggy Bennett (Albert Lea) shared HF 4335 with the committee. The bill is technical and strikes a line in statute that says that Veterans homes administrators report directly to the MDVA commissioner. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.

HF 4344 authored by Rep. Nathan Coulter (Bloomington) would streamline and modernize the education benefits for MDVA’s State Soldier Assistance Program. There are four main changes that the bill would do, including:

• Sunset the Veteran Education Benefit currently provided within Minn. Stat. §197.75
• Expand the Surviving Spouse and Dependent Education Benefit to spouses and children of Veterans with a service-connected disability of seventy percent (70%) or greater as rated by the United States Veterans Administration
• Incorporate the provisions of Minn. Stat. §197.752 (Educational Assistance to POW/MIA Dependents) within Minn. Stat. §197.75 and repeal Minn. Stat. §197.752 as a stand-alone statute.
• Increase the annual educational assistance stipend from $750 to $1,500 to account for inflation.

The bill was approved by the committee and re-referred to the House Higher Education committee.

The final bill was HF 4412 by Rep. Emma Greenman (South Minneapolis). It would create a line in statute authorizing the central pharmacy that MDVA already operates for the state Veterans homes. The bill was approved by the committee and re-referred to the House Health Finance and Policy committee.

Additionally on Thursday, MDVA provided a presentation to the Senate Capital Investment committee on infrastructure priorities the agency is seeking.