West Virginia Press Association Staff Report
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Senate Military Committee, on Monday, advanced three separate pieces of legislation, each administrative in nature.
The first bill before committee members — SB 554, introduced by Sen, Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia — seeks to prohibit “certain persons from receiving compensation for advising or assisting with veterans benefits.”
As explained by Committee Counsel Mindy Parsley, “The purpose of the bill is to define veterans benefits matters, and identify actions that constitute representation, and the compensation for representing a person seeking veterans benefits.”
At the conclusion of Parsley’s explanation, Committee Chair Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, advised members of his desire to quickly pass the bill out of the Military Committee, and then refer to the Senate Judiciary Committee so that it can be worked on from there.
“Several stakeholders reached out to me over the weekend,” Weld said. “I let them know that was my intention – to move it to Judiciary (Committee), and if we decide to work it, we’ll work it from that committee.”
With no questions or further discussion, committee members abided by Weld’s intention, and advanced the bill to the Judiciary Committee for further review. Next on the agenda was the committee substitute for SB 595 – a bill seeking to “amend embalmer licensing requirements.”
Once more explained by Parsley, “The purpose of the bill […] is to permit a certain number of years of active military duty to substitute for college credit hours to substitute for licensure.”
According to Parsley, the committee substitute makes “technical changes to the licensing section,” allowing the board of licensure to “issue a license to practice embalming to an applicant who has completed at least two years of honorable active military duty as an education requirement. In addition, applicants must graduate from a school of mortuary science.
The committee substitute, Parsley added, also sets forth a definition for “active military duty” not contained within the introduced version. SB 595 was originally proposed by Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier.
At the conclusion of Parsley’s explanation, Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, shared concerns he’d heard from constituents that the particular type of military service certain applicants have may not be compatible with the profession.
Weld, himself a military veteran, attempted to address those concerns.
“There is no specificity as to what the individual’s military experience would have been,” Weld said. “But current law also doesn’t have any sort of stipulation on the two-year degree or certification that they have to have, or what the 60 hours of education would be.”
“We decided not to put any restrictions on what the military experience would be,” Weld added.
The committee substitute for SB 595 was adopted, and referred to the Committee on Government Organization for further consideration.
The final bill of the committee’s agenda – SB 600, introduced by Weld – was again explained by Parsley.
“The purpose of this bill is to revise the criteria to receive a reenlistment or retention bonus for the West Virginia National Guard,” Parsley said. “The bill allows the Adjutant General to determine eligibility for bonuses based on satisfactory service and military training, and expertise deemed satisfactory and important.”
With no questions or further discussion, SB 600 was adopted by the committee, and advanced to the Senate Committee on Finance for further consideration. The next meeting of the Senate Military Committee has not yet been scheduled.