newsminer.com

For the last year and a half, Rep. David Guttenberg and his staff have been pushing a relatively simple proposal -- give military veterans an easy way to get information about veterans’ benefits.

For the last day and a half, they’ve been pushing it hard.

Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed to hear the bill yesterday. Guttenberg talked about how veterans were missing out on federal benefits just because they didn’t know about them, and he explained how the bill would add a voluntary check-off box for veterans on the permanent fund dividend application. The committee held the bill without a vote, and Stedman said he didn’t know if they’d consider it again.

Guttenberg’s staffer Jeff Stepp kept pushing this morning as lawmakers rushed to finish the session, despite the fact that the bill would still have to move out of committee, get added to the Senate’s floor agenda, and pass the Senate.

Stepp went to lunch still pushing.

When he came back, it was done. The Finance Committee had met and moved the bill, and the Senate had passed it unanimously.

The bill now moves to the governor.