American Legion urges higher state grant, says regional-hour rules hobble service officers

At a House Families and Veterans Committee hearing, American Legion and Michigan Veterans Coalition leaders urged legislators to increase state funding for veteran service officers and to remove regional-hour requirements they said keep staff from serving veterans where demand exists.

The witnesses told the committee the statewide veteran service provision grant currently provides $4,250,000 split among coalition organizations, but rising costs and administration practices have reduced field capacity. They said personnel dropped from 72 service officers at the start of the fiscal year to 64 and that an MVAA administration charge of $214,000 is being taken from grant funds.

The American Legion presenters framed the request in fiscal terms: the coalition brings federal benefits into Michigan communities at a multiple of the state grant, they said, and modest increases in the grant would sustain and expand that return. "We have brought in over $68,000,000 just in the last 6 months," Gary Easterling, director of Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation for the American Legion Department of Michigan, told the…