Gov. Kay Ivey said she looks forward to signing legislation reforming how leadership at the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs is selected.
The legislation elevates the Commissioner of Veterans Affairs to a Cabinet-level position appointed by the governor and makes the State Board of Veterans Affairs, which previously appointed the commissioner, more of an advisory body.
The bill is a result of an inter-agency dispute last year that led to Ivey removing former ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis from his position. Some veterans groups opposed the bill, but it passed the House last week 56–39.
“In Alabama, we have 400,000 veterans,” Ivey said on Friday (March 7). “My father was a veteran of World War II as well. So I’m passionate about taking care of our veterans. We need to take care of all 400,000, not just a portion of them. So I’m excited the bill is passed.”
Final approval
The bill got final approval Thursday, but didn’t get transmitted to Ivey’s desk. She said she expects to sign it after lawmakers return March 18.
“We as a Legislature and the governor as the executive branch, we have the duty to oversee taxpayers’ money to make sure that it’s spent properly and that we properly serve veterans,” sponsor Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, said on the House floor. “It’s our job to make sure there is accountability.”
The governor currently appoints the leaders of nearly two dozen state agencies, including mental health, corrections and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, sponsored the bill in the Senate where it was approved last month.
While some veteran groups have endorsed the bill, including The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Veterans. Others, such as the Marine Corps League and the Military Officers Association of America, have come out vehemently opposed to the proposal, all of which have argued the bill would reduce input from veterans.
Among them was Nancy Burtron with the Marine Corps League of Montgomery, who came to the State House Thursday to make her opposition known.
“When you take away authority from the veteran-appointed positions on the state board, you’re taking away a ton of trust, and we’re going to have a lot of people that are just going to back off and not seek services or benefits that they actually earned because they don’t believe in the system,” Burtron told Alabama Daily News.
Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, a veteran himself, was the first to speak on the bill, and thanked Oliver for his and Jones’ efforts to see it enacted.
“I’ve heard from opponents of this bill all week that by passing it we’d somehow be hurting veterans,” Rehm told Oliver on the House floor. “Well I am a veteran. I know you are too and we would never do anything to hurt our fellow veterans. This is an important bill and I appreciate your work on it.”
Divided reception
Conversely, Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, spoke to her concern over the divided reception the bill has received among Alabama’s veteran community.
“Some of the veterans are not in support of this bill, and usually they are almost in sync, and so that’s the thing that made me get up here,” Givan said. “I’m hearing from veterans that they don’t support this bill, period, and we all have a lot of veterans throughout our district.”
Oliver suggested that difficulty in communicating what the bill actually achieved was likely what contributed to a lot of the consternation around the bill among veterans.
“I think communication is probably the most difficult part of it,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mary Sell and originally published by Alabama Daily News. It is reprinted with permission.
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