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Committee renews STRONG Act; limits, reimbursement timing clarified
Summary
The Education Full Committee approved House Bill 114, renewing the STRONG Act with a clarifying amendment that makes the Department of Military the payer of last-dollar in-state tuition and shortens reimbursement request windows; the committee voted 18-0.
The Education Full Committee voted 18-0 to advance House Bill 114, a renewal of the STRONG Act, after adopting Amendment 3428, a clarifying amendment carried by Chairman Moon.
The amendment makes clear that “the Department of Military shall pay 100% of the maximum resident in-state tuition” and that the benefit functions as a last-dollar reimbursement, Chairman Moon said. He told the committee the bill would also shorten the time members have to request tuition reimbursement from 90 days to 45 days and authorize the Department of Military to set an annual cap on mandatory fees. The renewal would sunset June 30 of this year, Moon said, and the program was included in the governor’s proposed budget at about $4,000,000.
Committee members praised the program’s value to Guard members. Representative Hakeem said the clarification that the funding comes from the state — not a federal source — addressed an outstanding question.
After brief discussion and no objections to adding the amendment, the clerk recorded 18 ayes and 0 nays and the bill was moved out of committee.
The committee did not record individual roll-call votes by name in the transcript; the clerk reported only the final tally.
No additional implementation deadlines or fiscal offsets beyond the governor’s budget figure were specified in the committee record.
