IDEDICATED MOST of my work this past week on veteran’s issues. I had the honor of introducing to the House Northfield’s Brenda Cruickshank who is a VFW Judge Advocate and State Legislative liaison. She was at the State House with many of our veteran organizations helping us understand challenges our veterans face and resources the organizations provide.

I also had the opportunity to introduce to House members National Guard family support personnel. Their responsibilities included: Family Readiness Center Coordinator, Veterans & Family Outreach Program Team Leader, Veterans & Family Outreach Program Specialist, Military Family Life Consultant, Military One Source Joint Family Support Assistance Program Consultant. The Vermont National Guard has been a national leader in caring for its people. These service providers can be reached at: (888) 607-8773.

The full House further addressed veteran’s needs on Thursday when we passed the Military Parental Rights Act. I was the lead sponsor of the bill. The bill is so important to our servicemen and women that we suspended House rules and put it in all stages of passage and sent it to the Senate. I am pleased to report that the Senate will take it up this week. It is unusual to take up the other body’s bill before crossover, which is around Town Meeting. We do this however when getting something into law ASAP is a priority. We did this last year with the sex offender bill.

My committee was glad to pass the military parental rights bill on Thursday when so many veterans were present at the House. Adjutant General Michael Dubie was also present for its passage.

I reported the bill to the House. The following are my comments.

“Mr. Speaker: H.533 protects the parental rights and the best interests children of our servicemen and women by putting in an expedited court mechanism where a family court can issue temporary orders for the time of deployment regarding parent child contact or parental rights and responsibilities.

H.533 states that these cases should be a priority for our court recognizing that guard members are often mobilized with little notice. Deployment causes a disruptive effect on all families, especially those where parents are separated through divorce or other means.

The judiciary committee wants to send a loud and clear message that we support our guard families, are grateful for their service and want to do what we can to minimize their stress by maintaining the important child parent contact and rights they have enjoyed. They should not be penalized for serving their country.

Deployment in and of itself is a huge disruption to a serviceman or woman’s life, career, family and community as a whole. This bill attempts to mitigate or prevent disruptions that could be caused by changes in parent child contact because of a deployment.

We heard testimony from LT Col Abbott, Judge Advocate of the Vermont National Guard that we need our service men and women to focus on the job overseas and to come back.

We also heard testimony that many service mean and women do not go to court for fear they will lose contact with his or her child. Testimony showed that men and women are discouraged from joining the service for fear of losing their children. In other states, servicemen and women have lost their children when the nondeployed parent obtained a court order during the deployment.

The bill therefore states that deployment in and of itself should not be a sole factor for the court to change parent child contact orders.

It gives court guidance and allows for speedy resolution of family law matters at the time of deployment when there often isn’t much time and time is of the essence. It allows for the use of electronic means to make participation in the hearing possible from training camp or overseas.

The face of the National Guard is has changed. We are asking them to serve more and longer. Our laws need to reflect, respect and support these changes.”

In upcoming weeks we will continue our work on DUI, foreclosures, judicial restructuring, and protection of service animals.

Please stay in touch: maxjg@wcvt.com; 496-7667; or 828-2228 (State House).