Posted: | January 7, 2013 10:53 AM |
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From: | Senator Lisa Baker |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Baker/Strengthening County Veterans Affairs Offices |
The Director of Veterans Affairs in each county is usually the first point of contact for current members of the military and older veterans. However, the training and resources given to these important gatekeepers vary significantly from county to county. To bring a degree of standardization and uniformity to this essential and increasingly demanding post, I plan to reintroduce a bill that will delineate training requirements and set minimum standards. This bill is similar to Senate Bill 345 of last session, which was reported from the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee but did not pass both chambers. In a 2010 Senate hearing on veterans’ services and a subsequent study by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the importance of an effective Director of Veterans Affairs in each county was highlighted. This need has grown since the closing of the Governors Veterans Outreach Assistance Centers across Pennsylvania in 2009. This legislation is supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA), the Pennsylvania State Association of County Directors of Veterans Affairs (PSACDVA), and the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP). My bill proposes the following changes:
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Introduced as SB302