(Boston 7/14/2022) Yesterday, Senator John Velis (D-Westfield) was appointed as the Senate Lead of the conference committee tasked with resolving differences between the two Veterans’ omnibus bills passed by the House and Senate. Both omnibus bills are based off the SPEED Act, a bill that Senator Velis filed to support military families in their transition to Massachusetts.
“I am honored to have been appointed by Senate President Spilka to lead this conference committee and look forward to working with my colleagues to get a finished bill to the Governor’s desk that will improve the lives of our Commonwealth’s service members and their families,” said Senator Velis, who is also Senate Chair of the Legislature’s Veterans Committee.
“The House and Senate bills are both based off the SPEED Act, which is really a recognition of the challenges that military families face. Among other pieces, both bills include important policies that will ensure that military spouses can continue their jobs and military children can continue their education without disruption. These supports for military families are something that the Department of Defense is specifically looking for when they consider whether a state’s military installations are staying relevant and should remain open.
I was proud to file the SPEED Act and am thrilled that it is the core of the House bill. There are many strong additional pieces in the final House bill as well, from increasing supports for Veterans affected by toxic burn-pit exposure, to allowing National Guardsmen to transfer education benefits to dependents, and beyond. I believe that there is plenty of room for us to build on and I look forward to getting to work on all these pieces, while ensuring that the main piece, the SPEED Act, gets to the Governor’s desk this session.”
The House passed its version, H.5000, on July 7th and the Senate passed its version, S.2559, on October 21st. Conference committees meet privately to resolve differences and produce a final report. That legislation is then sent back to each branch and subsequently to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
The other Senate conference committee members appointed are Senator John Cronin and Senator Ryan Fattman. The House conference committee members are Representative Paul McMurtry, Representative Sarah Peake, and Representative Donald Berthiaume.
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