Md. vets commission bill seeks to aid military members, families
Two Anne Arundel lawmakers are proposing legislation in the General Assembly aimed at making Maryland “the best state for veterans and military families.”
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dawn Gile and Del. Andrew Pruski, both Democrats, would create a commission composed of lawmakers and representatives across the military community. Over the next year, the Maryland Commission on Veterans and Military Families would be tasked with developing a strategic plan for how to best meet the needs of Maryland’s veterans and military families through legislation and budget items.
Other Anne Arundel sponsors include Sens. Pam Beidle, a Democrat, and Bryan Simonaire, a Republican, as well as Dels. Heather Bagnall and Joseline Peña-Melnyk, Democrats, and Brian Chisholm and Nicholaus Kipke, Republicans.
This is one of a number of bills Gile and Pruski are working on to improve life for military families. Another proposes renaming the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs as the Department of Veterans and Military Families and adding a deputy secretary of military family policy and programs to the office. Gile also sponsored a bill that would prohibit discrimination based on military status in housing, employment, education, insurance and more.
For Gile, the topic of military families and their specific needs hits close to home. She is married to a 24-year U.S. Army veteran and campaigned in 2022 on a platform of advocating for the children and spouses of military members.
She noted military spouses, who are mostly women, have an exceptionally high unemployment rate, often due to how frequently they need to suddenly move. They also have a hard time securing much-needed child care in an unfamiliar state with a spouse on deployment and a family support system across the country. The moment the families set foot in Maryland, the odds are stacked against them for a successful life, she said.
“We need to compete with other states. We have talent here. We have jobs here,” Gile said. “We also need to consider how much talent we are losing from service members, once they retire, once they separate from the military, leaving the state because we should be having better policies in place to support the service member and their family.”
The idea for the bill came from conversations Gile had with Anthony Woods, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Veterans Affairs. They met with Blue Star Families and talked about how the General Assembly often passes legislation to aid veterans, but sometimes their families get lost in the mix. With Gov. Wes Moore declaring in December that 2024 was the “Year for Military Families,” it seemed the perfect time to address the issue.
“All too often we have good work to serve veterans but there’s a lack of coordination,” Pruski said when presenting the bill to the House Health and Government Operations Committee on Jan. 23.
Pruski has also experienced the challenges military families face; his family cared for his uncle, who served in the Vietnam War, during his childhood.
“Maryland is known for supporting veterans, but we could always do better,” Pruski said.
Under the bill, the commission would be required to work with the Office of Military and Federal Affairs and the Maryland Military Installation Council in the Department of Commerce to develop a plan to improve Maryland’s offerings to military members and families. The commission would also be tasked with identifying performance indicators to track its progress and compare that performance to other states. Members would present their report on Dec. 1.
The commission would be run by the secretary of Veterans Affairs or a designee and staffed by that office. It would also include the adjutant general, chair of the Maryland Veterans Commission, the chair of the Maryland Veterans’ Home Commission and the chair of the Maryland College Collaboration for Student Veterans Commission, or designees they select.
The governor would be required to appoint a representative from a women’s veterans organization, a person from the reserves of any military branch, a military spouse or representative from a military spouse organization, a health care professional and a workforce development professional.
Veterans advocates praised the sponsors for including a member of the reserves in the commission. It’s a military class often left out of these quality-of-life conversations, Gile said.
Meanwhile, the Senate president and the speaker of the House would appoint a current and former member of the Maryland Senate and House veterans caucuses, respectively, and each select a representative from a veterans/military families advocacy group.
Christopher Arnold, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Mid-Atlantic regional liaison, spoke to the positive effects this bill could have on Maryland’s 77,000 service members and their families at the January hearing.
The bill “enables states to consider the unique needs and priorities of military service members and their families across critical issue areas such as education, healthcare, housing, employment, childcare, nutrition and other key quality of life areas that benefit service member and family readiness, retention, recruiting and resiliency,” Arnold said at the House committee hearing.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill have been passed out of their initial committee assignments. The Senate bill passed the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee with 10 votes in favor and one excused. The House bill was voted favorably by 21 of the 23 members of the Health and Government Operations Committee last month. The other two members were absent or excused.
Next, the two versions of the bill will be heard in their opposite chambers. The Senate version will be heard in the House’s Health and Government Operations Committee on Tuesday and the House bill will heard in the Senate’s Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee at a date to be announced.