Senator Bryan Simonaire submitted his military legislative package on January 9. He called the package “the most comprehensive overhaul of Maryland military law in modern history.”
The package consists of eight bills:
Simonaire has been researching and working on this legislative package for almost a year and recently gained the bipartisan support of Delegates Nick Allen, Charlotte Crutchfield, Nic Kipke, Edith Patterson and Mike Rogers, who all agreed to sponsor the various bills in the House of Delegates.
The senator has also worked directly with the uniformed services, military advocates, federal and state agencies, military legal experts, and Department of Legislative Services legal counsel to craft a consensus and workable solution.
Simonaire said that while there are numerous other benefits, this legislative package does the following:
The advantages, Simonaire said, are namely that the bill:
“Inconsistent military laws have run rampant for decades,” Simonaire said. “However, the great motivator to this overwhelming legislative effort was knowing the benefit it would provide to our service members.”
To get an idea of the magnitude of this package, every legislator received a memo this past November from the Department of Veterans and Military Families highlighting 34 sections in Maryland laws with inconsistencies in military terminology.
In contrast, this comprehensive legislative package updates more than 230 inconsistent sections with over 500 revisions touching nearly every article.
“This legislative solution is coherent, sensible and a game-changer for many of our veterans, service members and reservists,” Simonaire said.
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