AUGUSTA — A slate of bills aimed at helping more Maine veterans get access to the services and benefits available to them are set for public hearings at the State House next week.

The bills, all the result of recommendations from a special legislative commission that worked over the summer to review the state’s Bureau of Veterans Services, address a range of issues, including homelessness, transportation and education.

Collectively, the bills carry about a $2.5 million price tag, but some of that expense would be one-time investments and would not have an ongoing cost.

One bill is aimed at making sure Maine veterans know the state has an agency that’s designed specifically to help them by improving the bureau’s ability to market itself and reach out to veterans in a variety of ways.

The commission was the result of a bill sponsored by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, who said Friday he’s pleased with the bills that have been developed by the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, but the effort to improve the lives of Maine veterans remains ongoing.

“I don’t think this is a fix-all,” Golden said. “To me, the commission could have met for one or two years and still be producing a lot of new information and potential ways to improve coordination and communication and help the bureau redefine their operations and what they do.”

Golden, a member of the committee and the commission, is a Marine Corps veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said updating the way the bureau connects and interacts with his generation of veterans is among the key goals of the pending legislation. 

Golden said some of the proposals will make a substantial difference in the lives of Maine veterans, especially those who are coping with service-related disabilities, looking for work or housing or trying to advance their educations.

Here’s a quick look at the bills that are moving to public hearings:

* LD 1599: This bill would require the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to request a waiver from the federal government that would allow veterans who are eligible for MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, to use MaineCare’s transportation services to get to Veterans Administration medical facilities, including local veterans’ clinics or the state’s VA hospital at Togus. Federal Medicaid rules prohibit this without a waiver. 

* LD 1610: This bill streamlines the administration of several services related to veterans, including repealing the definition of a wartime veteran in regard to eligibility criteria for a business loan program that exists under the Finance Authority of Maine. The legislation also eliminates an annual fee for veterans with vanity automobile license plates, replacing it with a one-time $25 fee. The measure also clarifies references to veterans and military families when it comes to veteran preferences for rental units that are administered by the Maine State Housing Authority, among other changes.

LD 1611: This bill establishes a new interagency council that will focus on homeless veterans. The measure attempts to put the issue of homeless veterans in the domain of the Bureau of Veterans Services and would create a new staff position to coordinate that effort. Under current law, homeless veterans are largely handled by a program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, and is aimed at helping all homeless people in Maine. Golden said the bill is an attempt to fully eradicate homelessness among Maine veterans.

LD 1612: This bill seeks to enhance and modernize the Bureau of Veterans Services’ capacity for outreach and marketing to reach more of the state’s estimated 140,000 veterans. The legislation also requires the bureau “to acquire and implement an electronic records management system to create efficiencies and improve customer service to veterans seeking assistance from the bureau.”

One other bill that has yet to be released would look to replicate a veterans’ resource center that was established by the University of Southern Maine throughout the University of Maine and Maine Community College systems. Golden said that bill would set up resource centers based on a minimum number of veterans attending a campus, but lawmakers were still looking to set that minimum number.

Golden said upgrades to the Bureau of Veterans Service have been long overdue and that while the bureau does an excellent job with resources, it has at hand changes in the way veterans communicate and in their expectations and needs should be reflected in the bureau’s mission as it moves forward.

sthistle@sunjournal.com