BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �






                      SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
                              LOU CORREA, CHAIRMAN
                                             


          Bill No:        AB 2490
          Author:         Butler
          Version:        May 25, 2012
          Hearing Date:   June 26, 2012
          Fiscal:         Yes
          Consultant:     Donald E. Wilson




                                 SUBJECT OF BILL  
          
          Correctional Counselors for Veterans

                                   PROPOSED LAW  
           
           Require all adult prisons under California Department of 
          Corrections and Rehabilitation to appoint correctional 
          counselors to assist incarcerated veterans in applying for 
          veterans benefits.
                                         
                          EXISTING LAW AND BACKGROUND  
          
          1.  Honorably discharged veterans are eligible for certain 
          benefits from the Federal Government.

          2.  Veterans often lose benefits when incarcerated, but in 
          the right circumstances a the veteran's family is still 
          eligible to receive them.

          3.  In 2004, a volunteer program known as the "Correctional 
          Training Facility Veterans Service Office" (CTF-VSO) was 
          established.

          4.  Over 1000 claimants were served in 2011.

          5.  In 2009, the California Department of Corrections and 
          Rehabilitation identified 4,100 veterans in its facilities. 

                                         
                                    COMMENT  









          
          1.  This legislation would affect 33 prisons.  According to 
          the author's office $924,400.80 is awarded annually to 
          paroled veterans and their dependents.  Another 
          $5,074,269.80 goes to benefit eligible dependents.  The 
          author's office states, "that transition to civilian life 
          can be more manageable if veterans apply for benefits 
          before release rather than waiting for months and trying to 
          obtain them afterwards during the transition." 

          2.  Sponsors of veterans' legislation are becoming very 
          fond of passing "legislative findings" off on authors.  It 
          is becoming a problem and will eventually turn the Military 
          and Veterans Code into a political statement rather than a 
          legal code.  Legislative findings are only necessary to 
          clarify what could later be ambiguous.  This legislative 
          finding, like most, is unnecessary and needs to be struck.  
          The committee needs to control this problem before it gets 
          completely out of hand.

          RECOMMENDED AMENDMENT - Strike the legislative finding.


          3.  As with AB 282 of 2007 (Cook) and AB 1829 of 2010 
          (Cook) this bill seeks to move these issues out of the 
          jurisdiction of the Veterans Affairs Committee by putting 
          these laws into the Penal Code.

          This committee has been fighting for years to get back its 
          jurisdiction over military and veterans issues and has 
          failed to regain jurisdiction over armory bills in spite of 
          Senate Rule 12.22.  The committee should be wary of giving 
          up any more jurisdiction.

          This law likely belongs in the 970s section of the 
          California Military and Veterans Code (MVC) as an addendum 
          to county veteran service officers (CVSO) or somewhere in 
          the state benefits for veterans section since we are 
          discussing the state prison system.

          At a bare minimum, this bill should not be passed without 
          taking the same kind of amendments the committee demanded 
          in AB 1829 of 2010 regarding cross references to the new 
          law in the Penal Code.

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          NECESSARY AMENDMENT - Either move this law into the MVC or 
          as a compromise add cross references in MVC.


                                    SUPPORT  
          
          American Legion, Department of CA
          AMVETS, Department of CA
          AFSCME
          California Correctional Peace Officers Association
          Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
          Sanchez Advocacy
          Vietnam Veterans of America, CA State Council

                                      OPPOSE  
          
          None received


























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