‘They say the right things': Veterans react to 12-bill package passing
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Alabama Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth announced that a 12-bill package passed the Legislature during the 2025 session, with all bills focused on improvements for veterans who call Alabama home.
The bills address a wide variety of needs, with Ainsworth's Office saying the bills 'will help ensure that our state remains the nation's friendliest and most welcoming for active service members, veterans, and their dependents.'
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At first glance, veterans said that while the bills look great in writing, they have to wait and see the plans come to fruition.
They're great as they're written,' Veteran Bobby Lee said. 'They have the right words. They say the right things. It's now up to the people that are going to execute it. Do you stick to the letter of the bill?'
The bills cover topics from expanding the Veteran Treatment Courts to making certain allowances for military spouses with out-of-state job licenses. Veterans said two efforts stuck out the most: working to improve mental health services and the new Veteran Resource Center.
'It's a very good start,' Lee said. 'Again, it's got to be the emphasis; it can't just be the flavor of the month. Not everybody that has a mental health issue is the person that's huddled up against a building and got their knees pulled up. There are folks out there every day who you don't know…Mental health is the big ball in the sky, so to speak, with health care right now for all veterans, there's a stigma attached to it…We've got to get people to overcome that.'
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'Mostly the mental health, and I know that's a big issue,' Veteran Joseph Gaur said. 'I hope it'll create more awareness and more classes to make more veterans aware of their mental health and to help them.'
The bills aim to do what Gaur is addressing through several methods. Arguably, the most notable effort is the opening of the Veteran Resource Center in Montgomery. Ainsworth's office said it is aimed to 'assist military members entering the private sector with employment services, benefits navigation, education opportunities and mental health services.'
'Alabama Veterans Resource Center is going to address an awful lot of overarching issues,' Still Serving Veterans CEO Rich Landolt said. 'Three stressors in anybody's life are death of a loved one, whenever you're moving and whenever you start a new job. And, that veteran is doing two of those three as soon as he starts transitioning out. So, the sooner you can get him into a job and, create that stability in the family, everybody is in a better place.'
Rich Landolt is the CEO of Still Serving Veterans and a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. He said the work they're planning to do at the new center is some of what his non-profit does daily, from career transition assistance to benefits navigation. Because of this, Landolt said Still Serving Veterans will be a key player in the Veteran Resource Center's development.
'We're a victim of our own success, and my VA team here has a three-month backlog,' Landolt said. 'As a member of the Workforce Board, the Governor's Workforce Board, and as a CEO of Still Serving Veterans, I can help guide the discussion down in Montgomery as well. And, that'll be helpful, because I've already told them we'd be happy to train up a couple of our counselors to live down there and help with helping that veteran find a job.'
Landolt's proposal to hire some of SSV's personnel at the new center is looking like it may become a reality.
'Vice Chairman of the Governor's Workforce Board is a man named Greg Shuman, and he reached out to us with this proposal to hire a couple of our people down there in Montgomery,' Landolt said. 'And we jumped right on it. So we've been able to influence the discussion before this came out.'
There are no official plans or an intended opening date for the Veteran Resource Center, as it is still in its early planning stages.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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