Veterans and Military Affairs Committee raises six bill concepts, advances emergency response funding concept

Madam Chair opened the Feb. 17 meeting of the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee and moved to raise six bill concepts for public hearings. The committee voted to raise the concepts after a motion from Representative Boyd and a second from Representative Heffernan.

The chair described one concept, No. 4, as a proposal to create a budget-neutral emergency response funding mechanism for the state military department so the National Guard can be deployed to respond to state active-duty emergencies more quickly. “There have been moments in time in our state's history where our National Guard has been deployed to act to a state level emergency and the time that it takes for money to be moved from the accounts that it needs has delayed, service or reimbursement to our military department for services,” the chair said. She said the goal is “in a budget neutral way, [to] move money from an account where we believe there is already some money so that the military department can quickly deploy to, for example, natural disasters.”

On whether federal reimbursement would be sought later, the chair said that would “depend on what the call is issued as, whether or not they'd be eligible for federal reimbursement,” and added, “but if they are eligible, then, yes, that would be the goal.” The chair clarified the account would be used for governor-activated state duty: “This account would be they'd be called up by the governor.” She noted past uses of a similar mechanism for a bridge response in Senator Austin’s district and for wildfire responses.

Representative Lanoue asked for the roadmap and intent behind the emergency-funding concept; the chair offered to provide additional information about prior uses of the authority. Representative Vail asked the chair to read aloud the titles of the six concepts for viewers at home. The chair read them as: (1) protections for individuals regarding providers of assistance for certain veterans and military-related benefits; (2) military protection orders and other interpersonal violence protections; (3) housing for certain impoverished veterans; (4) emergency response funding for the military department; (5) military honor guard compensation; and (6) honoring the heroism of veterans and members of the armed forces.

The chair called for a vote to raise concepts 1 through 6. A member answered “Aye.” The chair asked if there was any opposition; hearing none, she stated the motion passed and that the concepts will be raised for public hearings. The committee adjourned and the chair said a calendar invite will be shared for the next meeting, referenced as the 26th.

Next steps: the concepts will be scheduled for public hearings in the coming weeks; the chair offered to provide additional background and prior-use details on the emergency-funding concept ahead of that hearing.