Snapshot 2022 State Military and Veterans Affairs Legislation

A total of 34 bills that addressed education related to military service members and veterans were enacted in 21 states. Topics covered were tuition, residency, course credit and course access, student status, enrollment, and state administrative and governing duties.

Ten states and 13 bills addressed tuition. Several states dealt specifically with education and the National Guard. For example, Oklahoma (SB 1418), Tennessee (HB 83), Vermont (HB 517) and Washington (HB 1642) enacted bills providing for resident tuition and other tuition benefits for National Guard members enrolled in higher education institutions.

Employment and occupational licensing were the subjects of 23 bills in 14 states. Enacted bills covered employment preference for veterans, temporary occupational licenses for military spouses, license reciprocity, and veteran-owned small businesses. Alaska enacted HB 125 that broadened employment preferences to include not only active service members and veterans, but also spouses and dependent children of active service members and veterans, among other categories. Hawaii passed HB 961 to grant a temporary occupational license for 25 occupations for spouses accompanying an active-duty service member to an official permanent change of station at a military installation. 

Bills to enact or extend tax credits or exemptions that benefit military veterans were passed in 12 states. Arizona enacted HB 2062 to expand the vehicle license tax exemption to recipients of the Purple Heart who were honorably discharged from the armed forces. LD 647 in Maine extended the existing veterans property tax exemption to those who served on active military duty from 1955 to 1961. Oklahoma SB 1670 exempted from state sales tax the sale of tangible personal property to the surviving spouse of a person determined to have died in the line of duty if the spouse has not remarried.

Eleven states with 14 bills addressed mental health topics. Bills focused on a range of issues including suicide prevention, representation on mental health boards, funding, barriers to obtaining needed services, information resources, mental health coordinators and suicide reporting. The 11 states considering bills were California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Massachusetts enacted SB 3907 that addressed barriers to care for mental health through the development of a comprehensive plan, development of interagency initiatives and enhanced data collection. 

Suicide prevention task force enactments related to veterans included Florida (SB 1712), which passed a suicide prevention training pilot program, Maine (LD 693) which made permanent a pilot program for mental health case management services for veterans, and New York (SB 1788) which created a veteran’s suicide prevention temporary task force. A California bill (AB 738) required at least one member of the mental health board to be a veteran or veteran advocate in counties with a population of 100,000 or more. Smaller counties were also addressed in the bill. Indiana (S 84) and New York bills (A 3237) addressed reporting of a veteran’s suicide by a medical examiner and/or the state department of health. HB 1477 implemented the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline system in Washington state.