Today the Senate passed the final Veterans budget agreement that includes a handful of beneficial policies for veterans, including provisions that combat veteran homelessness and additional funding for Veterans homes in Montevideo, Bemidji, and Preston.

Unfortunately, the positives are outweighed by a controversial provision involving those who served in the Special Guerilla Units (SGUs) during the Secret War is Laos. This bill’s language creates an advisory task force that will establish criteria for determining which Minnesotans served in the special guerrilla units or with the irregular forces in Laos, and will establish criteria to decide which of those individuals are qualified to receive the benefits of a veteran under Minnesota law. This means that those who are deemed “deserving” will now receive benefits traditionally reserved for veterans, including the “veteran designation” on drivers’ licenses, grave markers, and burials in state veteran cemeteries. 

“We all want to help our veterans – we want to make sure they are taken care of during every step of their post-service lives,” said Senator Jeff Howe (R-Rockville). “What I take issue with is extending those same benefits to those who maybe fought alongside our veterans, and were already compensated with citizenship. Our country upheld our end of the bargain by allowing them to become American citizens, and now we are extending them extra benefits that we don’t even give to our National Guard and Reserve Soldiers.”

Included in the final iteration of the bill is bipartisan language authored by Howe that provides continued education benefits to surviving spouses of veterans, regardless if they remarry or not. 

“The one bright spot of this bill is this commonsense language – survivor benefits are important to our veterans, their spouses, and their children, and I’m glad we could at least make this commonsense change,” Howe said.