BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 418
Author: Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/14/09
AYES: Denham, Correa, Wiggins, Negrete McLeod, Cedillo,
Wyland, Maldonado
SUBJECT : Department of Veterans Affairs: contracts:
veterans service
organizations
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill makes technical and clarifying changes
to existing law regarding the use of General Fund monies
for contracts with veterans service organizations for
services they provide to veterans.
ANALYSIS :
Existing Law and Background
County Veteran Services Officers (CVSOs) are a joint
venture of different levels of government to help veterans
claim their veterans' benefits.
California has an agreement with counties to pay 50 percent
of the cost. At the time the agreement was made, 50
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percent equaled $5 million. The state has never met its
commitment and has never given more than $2.6 million in
spite of the fact that 50 percent of the cost now equals
$23 million.
Because of the lack of support and help the state has given
veterans in attaining benefits, there have not been enough
CVSOs hired to help all the veterans in California file
their claims. Not surprisingly other groups have sought to
come forward to help veterans. Over time these groups have
also asked the state for money to fund their efforts. The
end result was that these groups were fighting over the
same pot of money.
Eventually an agreement was reached that when the CVSOs
received their full $5 million funding, then a joint effort
would be launched to help all groups receive funding to
help relieve the backlog of veterans' claims in California.
The agreement resulted in Section 699.5 of the Military and
Veterans Code, which references Section 972.1 of the code.
In 2008, SB 1778 (Senate Veterans Affairs Committee) was
offered as clean up language for Section 972.1 but ran into
problems because cleaning up Section 972.1 would have
altered the agreement in Section 699.5.
This bill revises legislative findings and declarations in
existing law with regard to the use of General Fund monies
for services provided by veterans service organizations by
clarifying that the General Fund monies shall not be
allocated until the annual budget for county veteran
service officers reaches $5 million.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/16/09)
American Legion, Department of California
TSM:cm 4/17/09 Senate Floor Analyses
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SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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