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Committee advances MDVA housekeeping bill with title changes, eligibility updates and repeals
Summary
House File 35 44, a Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs housekeeping and federal-conformity bill that reclassifies a leadership title, aligns state benefit eligibility with federal forfeiture rules and repeals outdated statutes, was re‑referred by the division after MDVA testimony about implementation and scale.
Representative Rupinski introduced House File 35 44, a housekeeping and federal-conformity bill that updates multiple MDVA statutory provisions. The author said the bill modernizes leadership titles and ensures benefits and program eligibility align with federal forfeiture determinations under U.S. Code Title 38, chapter 61.
John Kelly, MDVA director of government affairs, described operational implications and said the proposal is intended to provide organizational clarity without increasing compensation. He said the current chief of staff position oversees a large central-office portfolio including facility management across 71 buildings totaling about 1,600,000 square feet, human resources, finance for an "over $200,000,000 budget," and roughly 1,800 staff. The bill would reclassify the chief of staff to deputy commissioner of administration, maintaining the requirement that any MDVA deputy commissioner be a U.S. citizen and a veteran.
Kelly also said the bill contains two repealers, including the Environmental Hazards and Information and Assistance Act provisions that MDVA has not staffed since 2001 and a data-collection statute the department cannot effectuate because of federal data-sharing limits. MDVA asked the committee to re-refer the bill to the health finance and policy committee so agencies can incorporate the statutory updates into operations.
