Omnibus veterans and military affairs law includes new funding, policy changes

A new law will provide a $50.5 million increase over base for veterans and military affairs funding and make a handful of policy changes.

Sponsored by Rep. Matt Bliss (R-Pennington) and Sen. Aric Putnam (DFL-St. Cloud), the law, effective July 1, 2025, will spend $365.23 million from the General Fund in the 2026-27 biennium.

Of the increased funding, $40.9 million is targeted to the Department of Veterans Affairs, with $39.17 million to support operations at the state’s eight veterans’ homes, including staffing increases for the Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston facilities (each opened early in 2024) to reduce the waitlist of veterans seeking to live there.

Other department increases include a nearly $1.19 million operating adjustment; $300,000 to increase suicide prevention; $300,000 to expand home-delivered meals to veterans, including in Greater Minnesota; $120,000 to provide technical assistance to county veterans service officers for three areas: women veterans, suicide prevention and justice-involved veterans; and $100,000 to Hometown Hero Outdoors to fund outdoor recreational activities and mental health services for currently serving military personnel and veterans.

A fiscal year 2026 allocation of $118,000 is for a task force to develop eligibility requirements for “Veteran of the Secret War in Laos” status. The task force must first meet by Sept. 15, 2025, and it will expire Feb. 15, 2026.

Such status will be granted under state law to certain people who served with special guerilla units or other irregular forces in Laos: naturalized under the federal Hmong Veterans’ Naturalization Act of 2000 or whom the Department of Veterans Affairs has determined “served honorably with a special guerrilla unit or other irregular forces that operated from a base in Laos in support of the armed forces of the United States at any time during the period beginning Feb. 28, 1961, and ending May 14, 1975, and is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States.” An eligibility certificate for the benefits and privileges will be provided to show a veteran’s status.

Five spending increases are targeted to the Department of Military Affairs: $8 million to maintain enlistment and retention bonuses, a $599,000 operating adjustment, $750,000 to sustain the agency’s current Cyber Coordination Cell program that provides “sustained support for Cyber operations readiness within the Minnesota National Guard,” $242,000 in fiscal year 2026 to operate the Holistic Health and Fitness program for the Army National Guard, and $4,000 so 5% of service member base pay is a pension offset for those activated for state active duty. Prior to the law taking effect, only federal active service days are credited towards a National Guard member’s pension.

The law eliminates a $200,000 appropriation each year to the veterans resilience project, an organization that makes eye movement and desensitization and reprocessing therapy available to veterans, current military members and the spouses of each, suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and trauma.

Other policy in the law will:

• increase the maximum bonded indebtedness allowed for the State Armory Building Commission from $15 million to $45 million;

• increase to $160,000 the annual grant amount that can be made from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Minnesota Association of County Veterans Services Officers, and allowing up to $60,000 be used “to train technical assistance coordinators and for technical assistance coordinators to travel to consult with Minnesota counties on specific areas of expertise upon request”;

• extend the Department of Veterans Affairs’ read-only access to MAXIS, a computer system used to determine eligibility for public assistance;

• update state statutes governing burial provisions to align with federal laws governing eligibility for burial in veterans cemeteries;

• allow surviving spouses of service members who die because of their military service to remain eligible to use the service member’s education benefits even if the surviving spouse remarries; and

• require placement of a memorial plaque in the Court of Honor on State Capitol grounds to recognize the service and sacrifices of Minnesota’s Gold Star and Blue Star families.

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