Steps We’ve Taken to Support Pennsylvania Veterans

Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-24)

Veterans Day is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed to the men and women of Pennsylvania who have answered the call to serve our nation in uniform for decades.

During the 2023-24 legislative session, my Senate Republican colleagues and I have worked to support members of the military and the more than 700,000 veterans who call our commonwealth home.

As a U.S. Army combat veteran, I'm especially proud of two measures I sponsored that will make a real difference for military families and veterans.

One provides educational support for children of National Guard and Reserves members. Military families face frequent reassignments, posing educational challenges for children transitioning between schools in different states. Act 82 of 2024 will give children of National Guard and Reserve members the same help provided to those of active-duty military families through the Military Interstate Children's Compact. The compact makes getting started in a new school, joining extracurricular activities, facilitating enrollment and meeting graduation requirements as easy as possible for military children.

Another measure I sponsored established the Task Force on Women Veterans' Health Care. There are more than 63,000 women veterans in Pennsylvania. By 2045, women will make up an estimated 18% of our nation's veterans. This new task force will study the unique health care and access issues facing women veterans and make recommendations ensuring they have access to health care designed for them.

One of the biggest challenges is making veterans aware of the wide array of assistance they earned. We passed legislation to use the PA VETConnect Program to help ensure all veterans know about available resources and how to access them.

So many of the stories associated with veterans are told through their military service records. These records have a vast amount of personal information on them, such as birthdates and Social Security numbers. We passed a law that increases protections of these documents to prevent fraud and theft.

Disabled veterans paid a severe price for their service. We enacted a law that exempts 100% of disabled veterans' benefit payments from income calculations for any commonwealth programs or benefits.

Many veterans suffering from service-related, trauma-based conditions end up on the wrong side of the law. So we enacted a measure that directs the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing to study whether incarcerated veterans suffering from these conditions are receiving adequate treatment.

Other new laws allow veterans and others to fish for free in therapeutic recreation events and programs, permit recipients of the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal to apply for a specialty license plate, and establish March 29 of each year as Vietnam War Veterans Day in Pennsylvania.

Senate Republicans made supporting veterans a topic priority in the 2023-24 legislative year and remain committed to serving their needs as they so bravely served our nation.