Legislation Passed During 2013
Honors Missouri Military Veterans

JEFFERSON CITY – As citizens throughout the state gear up to celebrate the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, legislation passed by the Missouri Senate and delivered to the governor during the 2013 regular session honors veterans and provides services for those who have fought and continue to sacrifice in order to ensure freedoms shared and enjoyed by all in the Show-Me State.

Senate Bill 106, sponsored by Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, allows certain military training courses to convert into academic credit, gives certain members of the Armed Forces the opportunity to keep their professional health-related licenses or certificates while on active duty, and lets military members apply their service toward qualifications to receive a professional license or certificate.  The legislation also establishes the child custody and visitation rights of deploying military parents.  In addition, it gives the authority to state buildings and state parks to display of the Honor and Remember flag, which recognizes and honors fallen members of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Senator Brown also sponsored legislation this session that ensures the remains of Missouri veterans are property handled and honored.  Senate Bill 186 allows funeral establishments and coroners that have unclaimed cremated remains of Armed Service members to release them, upon proper verification, to a veterans’ service organization for burial at a state or national veterans’ cemetery.  Current law is unclear as to how these remains can be claimed.  This legislation properly defines the procedure for release of these remains so veterans’ services can take care of interment.

A bill relating to military honors allows the Missouri State Treasurer to make specific information, other than Social Security numbers, available to the public regarding military medals  in the office’s possession that have been deemed abandoned property in order to help identify original medal recipients or their heirs or beneficiaries.  House Bill 702, also handled by Sen. Brown in the Senate, also allows the Missouri State Treasurer to designate veterans’ organizations or similar groups as custodians of military medals until the owners or the heirs/beneficiaries are located.  These organizations would also be able to assist the treasurer’s office in identifying the original owners of the military medals.   

Another bill relating to military in the state — Senate Bill 117, sponsored by Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit — gives those who receive an honorable or general discharge from the military Missouri resident status in order to pay in-state tuition at one of the Show-Me State’s public higher education institutions.  Senate Bill 118, also sponsored by Sen. Kraus, authorizes the creation of treatment courts for veterans.  The legislation allows these courts to handle cases involving substance abuse or mental illness of current or former military personnel.  Veterans’ treatment courts could accept participants who meet certain criteria from other jurisdictions when there is not one of these specific treatment courts located where they are charged.  These courts would also refer various substance abuse and mental health treatments to participants.

In addition, Sen. Kraus sponsored legislation this session that changes how uniformed military and overseas voters request, receive and send voter registration applications for absentee ballots.  Senate Bill 116 would allow servicemen and women to go online and request an absentee ballot to cast their vote.  The Missouri Secretary of State would be required to establish an electronic transmission system that would allow a covered voter — a uniformed service voter who is registered to vote in Missouri, has a voting residence in the state, and who satisfies Missouri’s voter eligibility requirements, as well as overseas voters who are otherwise eligible to vote in Missouri — to apply and receive voter registration material and military-overseas ballots. 

To read more about bills related to military and veterans in Missouri, as well as other legislation passed by the General Assembly and delivered to the governor, visit www.senate.mo.gov.