Ohio House Veterans and Military Development Committee - 3-18-2026

Chair Richardson.

Vice Chair Matthews.

Ranking Member Lawson Rowe.

Representative Craig.

Here.

Present.

Representative Holmes.

Representative Lampton.

Representative Moore.

Representative Thomas and Representative Willis.

Madam Chair, I move to amend House Bill 632 with Amendment 1771.

This amendment revises the language of the bill to align with the federal eligibility guidelines for a folded military burial flag symbol on a driver's license or state identification card. card. The amendment creates a designation of next of kin to allow a surviving spouse that has not remarried father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister of the deceased veteran to obtain the symbol on the license or ID card. It also renames the gold star family symbol to the folded flag symbol and requires a register to one, determine the size and placement of the next of designation when inscribed on a driver's license or ID card. Two, require by rule any appropriate documentation of an applicant's next of kin status.

Good morning, Madam Chair. I move to amend Senate Bill 179 with substitute Bill L1360546-6.

Thank you. Madam Chair, just to provide a brief summary and overview for our colleagues on the summary of changes. Number one, it removes the obligation of courts and probation departments to use VRSS to identify an individual who is a veteran, leaving the county sheriffs and incarcerating institutions to use VRSS for that purpose. under the definition of incarcerating institution. I'll further underscore lines 31 through 48. This also adds an incarcerating institution to include a facility that confines an individual identified as a veteran and awaiting disposition of a pending criminal charge that is punishable by incarceration for a felony, misdemeanor, or traffic charge, which are lines 43 through 48. Additionally, this adds that duplicative searches are not needed if another incarcerating institution has complied with the requirements of the bill, which would be lines 66 through 69. Additionally, Madam Chair and colleagues, this streamlines the requirements of an incarcerating institution in assessing VRSS, which would be lines 49 through 60. And finally, this adds that Veteran Service Commissions may provide financial assistance to incarcerating institutions for the purchase of a computer, equipment, or training needed to operate VRSS as required if resources are not available from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, which would be lines 124 through 135. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much. and I very much appreciate the bill before me because a year ago this month I lost my brother to Agent Orange, so I'm very appreciative. So Chair Richardson, Vice Chair Matthews, Ranking Member Lawson Rowe, and members of the committee, I want to give you just a little quick background on how we got here with the VRSS bill. When I was working on mental health courts, I gave a speech in Washington, sat next to a gentleman from the VA who said they want to start veterans courts, So I knew there was a Veterans Appeals Court, and when I asked him what he meant, I said, well, that's a mental health or a drug court, but with a veteran. So I was assigned to speak at a conference to the bigwigs in Washington to sell them on the idea. Then I was put on a committee at the VA that put together the Veterans Justice Outreach Specialist Program, which assigns a social worker to every hospital to connect with veterans coming into the system. They had a very good program connecting veterans and leaving the prison but not coming into the system. It was one of their most successful programs, and they also helped push veterans' courts. But we asked the committee, please do not limit it to veterans' courts because not everybody will have them, and we want every veteran to be able to reach out to the VJO. So they did. So then we discovered that one of the problems is that almost a third of the veterans who are arrested would not tell you they're a vet for numerous reasons, many of which you probably understand. And so they put into the program the Veterans Reentry Search System. Very simple. All you do is send the social security numbers at night to the VA. They immediately ping the VJO for that county, who then can verify their status with their internal resources, go meet with them in jail, connect them with services, try to get them into veterans' courts if they qualify. Very, very successful program. The only problem is we couldn't get a lot of the counties to do it. Chief Justice Kennedy and I have been on the campaign trail for this for 10 years. I have spoken to sheriff's groups, law enforcement groups, et cetera, et cetera, and only about half of the counties do it. It's not an unfunded mandate because your VJL can come in and help you establish it. In Ross County, for example, the VJL came in and helped them put the whole program in. They had identified through a vigorous screen when people came in. The veterans, they had picked up six. When they put the VRSS system in, within 24 hours, they picked up 12 who had not told them they were veterans. This happens county after county. Franklin County runs theirs every single day. Every week, they pick up two, three, four that don't tell you you're a vet. That means every time you have a veteran that's not identified in your county, they are using your local resources, which are much more stretched and everything taking away from somebody else who could use those when they could be using very robust veteran services So a couple years ago we found out that two states had mandated it that the sheriffs in their counties had to do it, and so Judge Jackson, who's a retired Vietnam War hero, he's amazing, he had run a veterans court in Cleveland. He and I started working on a bill to do that. I have to give him credit because he did the young man's work in the drafting and everything, and we got it passed through the Senate almost unanimously and then we tweaked it a little bit, as you heard from the amendments, to hopefully make it better. And we don't have any, quote, teeth in it. We took out the judges because as the sheriffs do it, the judges don't have to. And several judges were doing it on their own because our sheriff wasn't. But we don't have any teeth in it, but we don't think that's an issue because sheriffs are bound to uphold the law, and if it's now the law, hopefully they will put it in and it doesn't cost. And then just as a precaution in case somebody is bulking at it because they might have to buy some equipment because it's all cloud-based. They don't need to. We put in that VSO provision to fund it. I've talked to all the VJOs, and none of them have had to seek any extra equipment. They can just put it in with what they have. So that's why we're asking you to pass this so we can really reach those veterans that don't want to say they're one but can really use those resources and hopefully get the help that they need. I'm happy to entertain any questions.

So what happens when the VJO gets the ping, they have their own internal system that can go in and identify what are all the resources available. And then, like I said, go in and meet with the veteran, even if they don't have a veteran's court. What they have available, which often does not exist, especially in counties that are small and have poor resources, they're housing vouchers, especially for vets. There's mental health treatment for vets. There's PTSD. There's drug treatment for vets. There's employment. Ohio means jobs. There's a special veteran, VA-funded but Ohio-run program that helps vets with extra needs find jobs. And something you almost never get in a regular jail setting is a physical exam. And sometimes there's a lot of physical issues that these veterans have. So there's a robust array of services they can send them to the different, the closest VA clinics, the closest VA hospitals to get these services. And a lot of those don't exist at the local level. So it really is a way to help our veterans even above and beyond what a local county may offer.

No, they can start the services in jail.

Yeah, the jails have been very cooperative in one, because if they can start some of these services in jail, or at least get them all connected, and a lot of them are short-term stays, and they can get them connected, the Department of Corrections already has the VRSS. So if anyone comes into their system that hasn't been picked up at the local level, they run the service security numbers, and they identify them and get them into special veteran programs in the prison system. So this is mainly aimed at jails.

Thank you Madam Chair and thank you the Honorable Justice Stratton for being the advocate that you have been for a long time now. Ten years ago I think is the first time that I heard our former Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor talk about just how hard we were diving in on this issue. And watching now what has come to fruition in the current age with a, you're absolutely right, A Chief Justice Kennedy who is absolutely a firebrand when it comes to getting these things done for veterans. I guess the best way to, one, thank you, is to then ask, what else can we be doing to help message this to our veteran community, which is a problem that we have across the board on all different services. But it seems like an opportunity for us to also include in whatever messaging we are giving to veterans to, if something happens, and we know things happen, for them to understand that they have veteran services available to them immediately upon incarceration within any method that they can get that information to someone and to not sit on the fact that they are a veteran because of the fact that it can actually promote a better outcome for them. What can we do better?

for Her Honor? Seeing no other questions, thank you so much for coming in today and for really genuinely advocating for veterans.

Thank you. I now invite Myshayla Burris with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center to provide proponent testimony. Welcome. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for your very comprehensive and thorough testimony. Are there any questions for the witness? Yes, Representative Hall. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair, to Ms. Ayla.

Well, through the chair to the representative, we don't yet have a way to differentiate that population. It's unknown to us how many veterans are in Ohio's prisons.

Follow-up, proceed. You talked about the top two offenses as well.

Through the chair to the representative, sadly, again, we can't differentiate between veterans and the general prison population. And so we use our numbers based on the general prison population.

Are there any other questions for the witness? Representative Willis?

Through the chair to the representative, no, we do not. For us as an organization that advocates for the general wealth and welfare of those that are incarcerated, we see this bill as a benefit. We see the identification as a benefit. We have seen diversion programs that are focused specifically on the veteran experience as being hugely beneficial both to the overall prison population and to those veterans specifically. I mentioned in my testimony, we know both from a mental health perspective but also from a physical health perspective, there really is a unique experience for veterans and the likelihood that they may recidivate or commit a crime. we want to make sure that we're meeting that need specifically and tailoring our rehabilitation and restoration efforts to their unique experience. Follow?

Through the chair to the representative. I know it's not a question, but we're certainly always going to be here and available to advocate if there's anything that would ever impact somebody's human rights while incarcerated. So if, God forbid, anything should come up, please let us know. We'd be happy to help. And just as a comment, it may be even beneficial to learn a little bit more about VRSS and who has access to it, to your point, Representative. So I thank you very much for coming in.

I just got Rhett Willis, his line of questioning to sort of support a thought of my own. So I visited, so through the chair, I visited veterans' courts in my district, and what's really obvious from the moment you walk in is there's a certain, a lot of soldiers struggle with the lack of structure when they leave the service, right? And that certainly can be a contributing factor to why at times things sort of, well, they want to follow the law, right? But you pull a bunch of veterans into a drug court, I'm sorry, a veteran court, and you see them kind of snap back to a certain degree, you know, because they're around other folks who know the customs and courtesies, right? And there's a certain kind of synergy and energy that's just there. And so to Brett Bullis' point, you know, and maybe I'm going off the reservation completely with this question. But but but have we ever I mean, has this ever in other states, have we ever contemplated pulling our veterans that are in prison sort of out of the various parts and putting them in their own specific unit within within a prison? because I do worry about the safety concerns that Brett Willis is talking about as well. I just wonder if we shouldn't be talking about the viability of pulling all the veterans out and having them being their own specific veteran units, even within a prison population. So I guess that's my long-winded question. I'm just curious if you have any comments on that.

Thank you, Chair.

Does this mean I get to sit down?

The prison system does a really good job creating veterans' pods. They have a specific women's veterans' pod. I went to Belmont County with Colonel Moe to open up a special veterans' pod there. and when you have Colonel Moe who was in Hanoi Hilton talk to these young men about incarceration there's nothing more moving than that I know different jails have tried to do that, Franklin County has tried to do that so there's efforts to house them with like veterans because their culture and everything and so Jeanette Chambers-Smith is very big on doing that and identifying that so thank you for allowing me to answer that question

there is this concept in the faith community that there no greater love than you would give your life for your friends putting yourself in harm way So I acknowledge them here But I also acknowledge you too everybody here Each one of you has that title representative, acknowledging that you're not here for yourselves, but you're representing others. So I appreciate everybody's service. I have a little overlap from here. I'll go to Lebanon Correctional Institution in southern Ohio. We've been teaching Bible college there for the past 20 years. Amen.

I lead the Second Baptist Church of Springfield, a cornerstone of faith founded in 1859. That's two years before the Civil War, by the way. I am writing to offer proponent testimony for House Bill 452, not only as a clergyman, but as a witness to the living legacy of the late Deacon Lyman Alexander. And he was a deacon at our church. Deacon Alexander was a living embodiment of the 761st Tank Battalion model, Come Out Fighting, while history recognizes the Black Panthers of the 761st as the first all-black armored unit to see combat. enduring 183 days of continuous frontline action, we in Springfield knew Lyman as the man who brought that same valiant spirit to our streets for over 80 years. Lyman was a man of immense intellect and character, a graduate of both Wilberforce University, that's my alma mater as well, and the Ohio State University. He used his education to serve as the chief probation officer for the Clark County Common Police Court. He was also a lifelong member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, incorporated the first intercollegiate Greek letter fraternity for black men. Like his fraternity brothers before him, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall, Deacon Alexander understood the leadership and scholarship were tools for the uplifting of humanity. His commitment to duty never wavered, even as his health declined. in 2005, despite his advanced years and significant health challenges, Deacon Alexander was a vital part of my ordination service. His presence that day was a bridge between generations. A man who had fought for global freedom was now laying hands on the next generation of spiritual leadership. I recall visiting him in the nursing home shortly before he passed later that year. In a rare moment of reflection, he shared a harrowing memory of being pinned down with his unit in a location with only one way in and one way out. He described the tension of knowing enemy soldiers were monitoring the lone exit where every second was filled with danger. And it is one thing to read of such bravery in a textbook. It is another to hear it from a man who spent his retirement as a scoutmaster mentoring young men in the very values that kept him alive in that tank. To designate October 1st as 761st Tank Battalion Day is to ensure that the courage of men like Lyman Alexander is never forgotten. He didn't just save a continent. He came home and helped build a better Ohio. By honoring the 761st, you honor a faithful and devoted servant who proved that a hero's work is never truly finished. I urge the committee to favorably report HB 452 respectfully submitted. Amen.

Representative Willis. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to address the honorable pastor who is bringing the heat from the bill today in my home district and a constituent. This is one of those things that you are so well spoken on the reasons why. And what you do every day, being a beacon of light where you are, can't say enough about how that has affected our community in particular. And elevating someone like the deacon in this way and letting his story be a part of the reason why I think is beyond measure at this point. And I just wanted to share with you that the whole idea that and understand this is history that is very little known but certainly not forgotten. And so as we were as you were talking about the Black Panthers and the model of the unit and those things I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that the Springfield Air National Guard unit did and still does in some way, shape, or form, flew around for a long time with a moniker on the tail of every one of those F-16s and before that A-7s and before that F-100s that was a large black cat's head profile view. And so the Black Panther was flown around that area for tens of years for a long, long time. And it was a remembrance to this in addition to the fact that that area carries a huge history along with the unit because of the things that the deacon did to make sure that everyone remembered what had been done prior. And we don't want to forget that. So I wanted to congratulate you not only for speaking so well on it but for all the things you do and realize that this remembrance is important to not only our district but to the whole state.

Ranking member Lawson Rowe. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Pastor, for your testimony. Thank you for sharing a personal story. It is so uncanny. We all want to make sure we honor our American heroes. But to have an American hero that I happen to know as a little girl and not know that he was the giant he is, he was just a giant in his own respects as a scoutmaster. It is just refreshing and humbling to know that we have heroes that live amongst us that don't boast and brag of their service to our country. And so I appreciate you sharing Mr. Alexander's stories and knowing that there's many stories all over this country that are similar to Mr. Alexander's. And so having this moment to stop and pause and to uplift the American heroes in the military history of the 761st is quite meaningful to not only me and my colleague from Springfield, but all of us here on this committee. So I just thank you again personally.