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Weekly Statehouse Update: Special Session For Redistricting, Libertarian Ballot Rule
Lauren Chapman/IPB News
Lawmakers debated a bill to prevent future government restrictions used during the pandemic. A committee made it harder for Libertarians to make it on the ballot. And the Senate is close to eliminating all protections for wetlands.
Here’s what you might have missed this week at the Statehouse.
Rep. Bob Morris’s (R-Fort Wayne) legislation would ban state and local governments from limiting a business’s hours of operation or occupancy; regulating what procedures hospitals can do; and requiring mask-wearing or social distancing in a church, unless those things are already in state or federal law.
Veterans Groups Object To State Wanting Admin Fee From Military Family Relief Fund
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Article origination IPBS-RJC
Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs Director Dennis Wimer discusses the Military Family Relief Fund in a Senate committee hearing.
Screenshot of iga.in.gov
Some veterans groups are upset with legislation that would allow the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs to take money from the state’s Military Family Relief Fund for administrative costs.
The Military Family Relief Fund gets most of its money from specialty license plates. And the state Department of Veterans Affairs wants to take up to 15 percent of that funding to pay for administrative costs in managing the fund. That would be more than $200,000 a year.
Governor Holcomb:
The Military / Veterans Coalition of Indiana (TMVCI), a coalition of over 100 organizations who support those serving in our military, those who have served and their families, request you intervene on behalf of Hoosier veterans and their families to prevent a wrong from happening in the current Indiana General Assembly.
The Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA) has filed an agency bill (SB 316 and HB 1264) that has provisions that we strongly oppose. Specifically, in section 4. IC 10-17-12-9, the addition of language that permits IDVA to recoup administrative expenses from the Military Family Relief Fund (MFRF) for staff, technology, and other administrative items up to “15%” of the fund’s annual average revenue. This fund is exclusively used to help honorably discharged Hoosier veterans who meet eligibility requirements established in Indiana Code that are in need. This equates to over $270K that would not be available to assist over 110 Hoosier ve