BILL NUMBER: S7765
SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the veterans' services law, in relation to establishing
a New York state veterans' and service member law book
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to help veterans, military families and
their advocates more easily find and understand the state laws directly
applicable to them by providing a compilation of relevant statutes in
one convenient place.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1; Amends Section 4 of the Veterans' Services Law by adding a
new subdivision 40 to require the Department of Veterans Services to
annually compile and publish an annotated compilation of all state stat-
utes governing the rights, privileges, benefits, and services afforded
to veterans, service members and their families and to make such compi-
lation available both electronically and in print.
Section 2: Effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Veterans' advocates have testified before the Committee many times,
stating that they have had a difficult time finding updated information
on the rights and benefits for veterans, service members and their fami-
lies and as a result spend many hours looking for information in several
different publications or websites. By having an updated compilation of
state statutes annotated with commentary and citations to case law,
general counsel opinions and agency regulations related to the interpre-
tation of each statute all in one place, it will make the job of helping
veterans, service members and their families a little bit more manage-
able.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New legislation.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.