Bill Text: NJ S938 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires DMVA assist discharged service members who have diagnosed service-connected mental health condition with petitions to change discharge designation.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee [S938 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S938-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator KRISTIN M. CORRADO
District 40 (Bergen, Essex and Passaic)
Senator JOSEPH P. CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Testa and O'Scanlon
SYNOPSIS
Requires DMVA assist discharged service members who have diagnosed service-connected mental health condition with petitions to change discharge designation.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act requiring the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to assist certain service members with petitions to change discharge designations, and amending P.L.2021, c.56.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2021, c.56 (C.38A:3-59) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. All former service members of the Armed Forces who were separated from the service with a general or other than honorable discharge due solely to their sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression, or who were separated from the service with an other than honorable discharge, bad conduct discharge, or a dishonorable discharge who have since been diagnosed with a service-connected mental health condition, may request that the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs assist them to have the designation of [his or her] the discharge changed and recorded as honorable.
b. The Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs shall:
(1) create, publish, and distribute material to all public agencies of the availability of the assistance; and
(2) create a consistent and uniform process to assist a former service member with the appropriate and necessary forms and conditions prescribed by federal law, so that he or she may petition the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or its successor agency, to change the designation of [his or her] the discharge to honorable.
At no time shall a fee be charged to a former service member for seeking assistance to have the designation of [his or her] the discharge changed to honorable.
c. A former service member who has the designation of [his or her] the discharge changed to honorable shall be afforded the same rights, privileges, and benefits authorized by State law to service members who were honorably discharged.
d. Information related to the change in the designation of a discharge, including, but not limited to, a request for assistance, shall be confidential and not accessible to the public as a government record pursuant to P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.).
e. The Adjutant General shall, in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), adopt any rules and regulations as the Adjutant General deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this act, P.L.2021, c.56.
f. As used in this section, "service-connected mental health
condition" means a condition defined to be consistent with generally recognized independent standards of current medical practice referenced in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that has been diagnosed by a licensed mental health professional, in which the mental health professional deems the condition to be connected, in whole or in part, with a service member's service in the Armed Forces of the United States.
(cf: P.L.2021, c.56, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs (DMVA) to assist former service members of the Armed Forces who were separated from the service with an other than honorable discharge, bad conduct discharge, or a dishonorable discharge who have since been diagnosed with a service-connected mental health condition. The DMVA would assist these former service members with the appropriate and necessary forms and conditions to petition the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to have the designation of the discharge changed and recorded as honorable.
Under current law, the DMVA creates, publishes, and distributes, material to all public agencies of the availability of assistance, and utilizes a uniform process to provide the assistance to former service members who were separated from the service with a general or other than honorable discharge due solely to their sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. This bill expands this assistance to include former service members diagnosed with a service-connected mental health conditions.
Former service members who have the designation of their discharge changed will be eligible for the same rights, privileges, and benefits currently offered to service members who were honorably discharged. No fee will be charged to a former service member for seeking assistance, and information related to the change in the designation of a discharge will be confidential and not accessible to the public as a government record.
This bill defines "service-connected mental health condition" as a condition defined to be consistent with generally recognized independent standards of current medical practice referenced in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that has been diagnosed by a licensed mental health professional, in which the mental health professional deems the condition to be connected, in whole or in part, with a service member's service in the Armed Forces of the United States.
