2012 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Making West Virginia More Veteran Friendly
For several years, I have served as co-chair of the Select Joint Interim Committee on Veterans Affairs. In between our yearly 60-day sessions, the Legislature holds interim meetings for three days each month to study problems and make recommendations for future legislation. The focus of the Select Veterans Interim Committee has been primarily on veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. When service members return to normal civilian life, our goal is to ensure that our state does everything possible to ease the transition for them and their families.
Our committee hit a brick wall when we tried to get information about returning veterans from the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, so we decided to gather our own information. The Legislature commissioned a survey, led by WVU researchers, of all recent West Virginian veterans who had applied for our state's veteran's bonus. Over 1,000 West Virginia veterans replied. Our committee discovered a lot about the difficulties many veterans are experiencing, including higher rates of depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than national estimates.
As a result of the data, our committee recommended and passed several pieces of legislation. In 2010, I was a sponsor of HB 4145, requiring all state colleges and universities to become more "veteran friendly." In 2011, I was a sponsor of HB 2550, the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children to promote smoother transitions in such matters as transferring school records when military families move from state to state. We also supported the Governor’s bill, SB 238, which created a cabinet level position for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and set up a program to promote veteran friendly communities.
For the 2012 session, I will co-sponsor three pieces of legislation recommended by our committee:
- A bill to make it easier for service members to obtain state certifications and professional licenses for the education, training, and experience they have had in the military and to facilitate transfer of state licenses when their spouses have to move;
- A bill to waive the costs of up to five death certificates of deceased veterans (bill andabstract); and
- A bill to provide unemployment compensation for spouses of service members who must quit their jobs when the military spouse is reassigned out of the state (bill and abstract).
In addition, our committee just obtained funding for a new survey of state veterans. With the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, increased numbers of veterans will be returning to our state. Veterans experience higher rates of unemployment (12 percent) and may be at risk for foreclosure on their homes. This new study will provide the legislature with current data on how our veterans and their families are faring, as well as information about their needs for services and their views on what types of services are helpful. (See article by David Beard)
Back to 2012 Legislative Issues