It’s deadline week at the state legislature, so a flurry of bills will be heard throughout committees in the House and Senate. This year the first and second deadlines are occurring at the same time, so policy bills need to be heard in the necessary committees by Friday.

On Monday, nine Veterans bills were heard in the House Veterans and Military Affairs committee.

The following two bills were laid over for possible inclusion in a supplemental budget bill:

• HF 4769 (Hudella – Hastings) would provide grant funding to the Eagle’s Healing Nest for support and services to Veterans suffering from PTSD, anxiety or addiction.
• HF 837 (Garofalo – Farmington) would provide funding to MDVA to allow for no-cost burial fee for spouses of Veterans in State Veterans Cemeteries.

The following four bills were sent to the House floor:

• HF 1666 (Hudella – Hastings) would allow County Veteran Service Officers to receive vital records, like a DD214 without a fee from a county recorder’s office.
• HF 3677 (Elkins – Bloomington) was amended to include the language of HF 4201 (Schomacker – Luverne). The first part of the bill would add Veterans Day to the list of permissible holidays that counties can provide to Veterans service organizations, the other is Memorial Day. The second part eliminates a funding cap, allowing counties to give more money to these groups. Previously, the limit was $300.
• HF 4742 (Rehm – Chanhassen) would provide free passes to disabled Veterans to visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
• HF 4334 (B. Olson – Fairmont) was amended to include the language of HFs 4335 (Bennett – Albert Lea) and 4336 (Bliss – Pennington) to serve as a Veterans policy omnibus bill.

The next three bills all written by Rep. Mark Wiens (Lake Elmo) were sent to new committees:

• HF 4038 would provide property tax exemptions to land owned by congressionally chartered Veterans service organizations. The bill was approved and re-referred to the tax committee.
• HF 4134 was amended to allow for more Minnesota National Guard members to apply for the Veteran designation on Minnesota ID cards. The bill was approved and re-referred to Transportation.
• HF 4976 would provide Purple Heart recipients and their dependents tuition-free postsecondary education. The bill was approved and re-referred to Higher Education.

More Veterans related bills are expected to be heard in committees throughout the rest of the week. Another update will be written this week.