The Senate passed the final Veterans budget agreement on Saturday, which 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 in 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. 

“These are benefits meant for American service members: our veterans, our National Guard, our Reserve soldiers,” Senator Bill Lieske (R-Lonsdale) said. “I have a deep respect for the sacrifice of those SGUs who fought alongside U.S. troops, but we made them a promise: if they helped us, we’d give them a shot at a better life. We kept that promise when we welcomed them as citizens. But now we are giving out benefits that we don’t even offer all our own Minnesota service members, and that crosses a line for me. It is not right, and it doesn’t sit well with the veterans I am hearing from. This is about priorities. With a $6 billion deficit and rising veteran homelessness, our commitment should be to the Minnesotans who wore the uniform of the United States military first and foremost.”