ODVA director details Measure 96 spending on veteran programs; committee requests accounting

Dr. Nikkia Council Daniels, director of the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, told the House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans on June 3, 2025, that Measure 96 lottery funding has been the largest investment in veteran services since ODVA’s founding and has supported a wide range of programs across the state.

The funding stream comes from Measure 96, passed by Oregon voters in 2016, which dedicates 1.5% of net lottery proceeds to veteran services. “Measure 96 represents the largest investment in veteran services since ODVA was founded in 1945,” Daniels told the committee. She said the department serves more than 260,000 veterans in Oregon and that lottery dollars have doubled funding for county veteran service offices and supported veteran transitional housing, campus veteran supports and outreach to underserved populations.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed ODVA for clearer accounting of the Measure 96 allocations so lawmakers can confirm the money is being used to expand services rather than supplant other agency funding. Representative Lewis asked the department to provide a biennial breakdown of receipts and where the 1.5% has gone since the measure’s passage.

Daniels described several specific programs funded or supported with lottery dollars: county and tribal veteran service officers who assist with VA claims; veteran services grants totaling more than $3,000,000 since inception for transportation, legal services, education, housing security and mental‑health supports; and a large investment in an affordable housing project in Salem. “There was $7,000,000 invested in that building to provide affordable housing for veterans in Salem with 34 units with wraparound services,” Daniels said of Courtney Place. She added that $500,000 this biennium supports wraparound services statewide.

Daniels also described the department’s aging‑veterans outreach and representative payee services, a volunteer program that provides local outreach, an incarcerated‑veterans reentry grant, and tribal memoranda of understanding. ODVA has signed MOUs with five tribes—the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians; the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; and the Coquille Tribe—and Daniels said the agency is planning an additional MOU that will bring TVSO coverage to six tribal offices.

Committee members asked several follow‑up questions that Daniels said she would provide in writing. Lawmakers asked ODVA to: confirm which agencies receive Measure 96 dollars and whether the Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) receives any Measure 96 funding; provide usage and cost data for the Lifeline/988 veteran routing and the vendor that handles those calls; and provide documentation about the Courtney Place funding and related wraparound dollars. Chair Tran explicitly asked ODVA to ‘‘get us the number’’ and to send the requested documentation to committee members.

Questions from members also raised program‑level issues that Daniels either answered or said she would follow up on in writing, including the flow of specific 2023 appropriations (mentioned by members in relation to behavioral health and dental programs) and confirmation of the number of agencies that receive Measure 96 allocations. Daniels said ODVA receives its portion through the legislative budget process and does not act as the sole passthrough for all Measure 96 dollars.

The committee did not take any formal vote on legislation; members directed staff and ODVA to provide the requested accounting and program data.

Looking ahead: Committee members asked staff to include the requested data in meeting materials and follow up at upcoming legislative meetings so they can track how the 1.5% measure has been allocated and whether those funds are being used to expand and not supplant veteran services.