Governor Ivey Signs Bills to Enhance Benefits for Alabama Military Members, Veterans and Their Families

Governor Ivey Signs Bills to Enhance Benefits for Alabama Military Members, Veterans and Their Families

MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey has signed into law legislation passed this session to expand benefits for Alabama Guard personnel, veterans and their families. These new laws will improve education and workforce training assistance for Guardsmen, offer temporary teaching certification for veterans and expand employment opportunities for military and veteran spouses.

“Alabamians are among the most patriotic Americans and their dedication to protect our country and safeguard our freedom continually deserves our praise and support,” said Governor Ivey.  “I was pleased to sign into law this session legislation addressing military education and workforce training benefits and promoting greater employment opportunities for military spouses. These measures and others I have signed further demonstrate our gratitude to our military and their families for their service as well as leveraging their unique skills in growing Alabama’s workforce.”

Legislation signed by Governor Ivey to benefit military members and veterans include:

Alabama National Guard Education Assistance Program (HB233)
Expands ANGEAP tuition assistance for Alabama Guardsmen to include workforce development training in addition to traditional degree programs. Furthermore, it ensures more timely delivery of education assistance funds to students’ accounts.

Expanding Employment Opportunities for Military Families (HB307)

Enhances state government hiring and promotion preferences for military spouses and authorizes local government and private sector employers to give preferences to veterans and the spouses of veterans and active-duty service members in their hiring processes.

Accepting Military Training for EMS Licensure (HB182)
Requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to accept an applicant’s education, training and experience gained during U.S. military service as credit toward meeting state Emergency Medical Services (EMS) license requirements.

Alabama National Guard State Income Tax Exemption (HB341)
Exempts Alabama National Guard personnel from paying state income tax on the first $5,000 of income received for inactive duty training, beginning January 1, 2027. 

Veterans Temporary Teaching Certificate (SB149)
Authorizes the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) to issue temporary teaching certificates to eligible veterans who would otherwise need at least a bachelor’s degree to qualify.  This will address teacher shortages while affording veterans the opportunity to serve Alabama students in the classroom.

Removing Home Loan Barrier for Totally Disabled Veterans (HB77)
Allows a 100-percent-disabled veteran to receive a tentative property exemption certificate at the beginning of their mortgage application process, making it easier for them to qualify for a home loan and obtain a home of their own.

Exempting Totally Disabled Veterans from Annual Homestead Exemption Verification (HB155)
Removes the requirement for an annual verification of homestead exemptions for permanent and totally disabled veterans who have already qualified.

Enhancing Student Access to Military Career Pathways (SB158)

Requires Alabama high schools to offer their students greater access to military career pathways through annual voluntary Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) testing, administered by military recruiters.

Updating Alabama Military Awards (HB323)

Modernizes Alabama’s military awards protocol while ensuring that past service is appropriately recognized. It clarifies award criteria, reinforces the significance of honors such as the Governor’s Cross and Distinguished Service Medal, and expands recognition to reflect the full scope of service. It also allows for certain awards to be granted retroactively.

Governor Ivey believes Alabama’s military, veterans and their families are not only an invaluable asset to the state, but they also help build a stronger future for all.

A photo of Governor Ivey signing HB155 is attached.

Policy Riders

Feb 26, 2024 | Uncategorized

When Congress puts together legislation, especially appropriations (money) bills, they tend to attach policy riders to those bills. Bills without policy riders are considered to be “clean” bills—bare-bones language to accomplish one purpose—usually to fund the government at the current level.

So what is a policy rider? According to the U.S. Senate glossary, it is a non-germane amendment to a policy bill or an amendment to an appropriation bill that changes the permanent law governing a program funded by the bill. Think of it as a bill with “strings attached.” They usually have little to no correlation to the legislation being considered. As their name indicates, they essentially “hop on” and “ride” these other bills to passage the same way a person would ride a train into a new city.

Certain pieces of legislation are known as “must pass” bills. Keeping the lights on and the military paid are must pass bills. Making sure the government doesn’t shut down. The VA-Military Construction funding bill is considered one of the must-pass bills because of its effect on veterans. So are the National Defense Authorization Act and Defense Appropriations Act because of their effect on our military.

The trick with must-pass bills is Members of Congress can use them as an opportunity to attach policy changes, even if those policies would be difficult to pass on their own. The thinking is, if Members can manage to get their policy priority into the must-pass bill, other Members will have to support it because they want to avoid a shutdown.

These are called policy riders—because they “ride” on top of a must-pass bill. And, because the president lacks line-item veto authority (meaning he can’t selectively veto parts of a bill; he has to sign or veto the entire bill), he must sign the appropriations bill as-is, which means policy riders have a high likelihood of becoming law.

Policy riders can dictate how the government spends existing funds, or it can create new policy. Every Member of Congress has a priority piece of legislation that they want to get passed and made into law. With only about 3 percent of all legislation that is introduced each year ever passing both chambers and making it into law, the use of riders can be effective in meeting that priority. So Members use riders to achieve their priorities and possibly their electability the following November.

Your Association follows these “must-pass” pieces of legislation and works to ensure the policy riders are favorable to our constituency.

 

— EANGUS National Office