House Veterans and Military Affairs Division adopts amended HF2444, sends bill to Ways and Means

The Minnesota House Veterans and Military Affairs Division on April 9 voted to adopt the DE2 co-chairs amendment to House File 2444 and referred the bill to the House Ways and Means Committee after approving several technical amendments and hearing testimony from agency officials and veteran-service organizations.

The bill, as amended, includes operating increases for veterans homes, an increase for suicide-prevention programs, reductions to certain homelessness-prevention grants, language recognizing veterans who served in the secret guerrilla units (SGU) in Laos, and multiple one-time grants and program changes. Nonpartisan staff were directed to correct remaining technical errors in the bill language and spreadsheets before the bill moves to Ways and Means.

The DE2 amendment was moved by the chair and adopted by voice vote. The committee also adopted an A2 amendment correcting an error in the average-cost care calculation for three new veterans homes and an A4 amendment, requested by the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA), that changed the terminology for the new SGU category from “certification of veterans eligibility” to “verification of veteran eligibility.” Nonpartisan staff identified a numerical error on page 2 (should read 126,748,000) and were authorized to make technical…