Posted: | January 16, 2024 10:37 AM |
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From: | Representative Joe Webster |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Expanding Grant Opportunities for Veterans’ Service Organizations |
The Veterans’ Trust Fund Grant Program provides grant funding to organizations that serve Pennsylvania veterans’ vital needs: transportation, food and housing insecurity, behavioral and mental health, suicide prevention, and legal assistance. Veterans’ service organizations and other nonprofits offer these valuable and life-saving services to our veterans, but they are limited to receiving $40,000 per year from the Veterans’ Trust Fund to accomplish these goals. I plan to introduce legislation to increase the maximum funding an organization may be eligible for from the Veterans’ Trust Fund from $40,000 per year to $250,000 over a three-year period. The current annual funding cap is unnecessarily restrictive. By restructuring the grant parameters, organizations will be able to plan and execute better and more comprehensive programs. This change will allow organizations to plan for and invest in multi-year projects, increasing both efficiency and efficacy. The Veterans’ Trust Fund is subsidized through private donations to the fund and proceeds from the sale of “Honoring Our Veterans” and “Honoring Our Women Veterans” license plates. This means that an increase in the funding cap for each organization does not require an increase in taxes or a line item in the state budget. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to better equip organizations to support Pennsylvania’s veterans for years to come. |
Introduced as HB2010