Overhauling Maryland’s Military Law

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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:

  • Modernization of Military Laws Act
  • Health Equality for Service Members Act
  • Educational Equality for Service Members Act
  • Tax Relief and Pensions Equality for Service Members Act
  • Business and Insurance Equality for Service Members Act
  • Judicial and Public Safety Equality for Service Members Act
  • Transportation Equality for Service Members Act
  • Recreation Equality for Service Members Act

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:

  • Completely restructures Maryland’s military law into the 21st century with modernized and standardized terms that are also strategically centralized in one location.

  • Establishes consistent and equal benefits among all eight branches of the uniformed services and reserve units.

  • Expands the Department of Veterans and Military Families’ authority and duty to provide support to service members, in addition to veterans.

The advantages, Simonaire said, are namely that the bill:

  • Updates current laws to provide over 100 additional benefits that were being denied to various former and current service members simply because of inconsistent and outdated terminology.

  • Creates a centralized structure that facilitates easy, consistent and standard military laws for future revisions.

  • Provides the authority and duty to support the service members in Maryland.

“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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