SENATE BILL REPORT

                  ESJM 8001

               As Passed Senate, March 11, 1997

Brief Description:  Petitioning for a plaque honoring veterans dying from war‑related injuries received in the southeast Asia theater of operations.

Sponsors:  Senators Hargrove, McCaslin, Snyder, Patterson and Oke.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Government Operations:  1/31/97 [DP].

Passed Senate, 3/11/97, 48-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators McCaslin, Chair; Hale, Vice Chair; Anderson, Haugen and Horn.

Staff:   Eugene Green (786-7405)

Background:  In 1984, legislation was enacted authorizing the design and placement of a memorial on the capitol campus honoring Washington State residents who died or are Amissing in action@ in the southeast Asia theater of operations.  This memorial, commonly known as the Vietnam memorial, was dedicated in May 1987.

Joel Dean Smith, who sustained massive war-related injuries, is representative of many thousands of Washington State residents who have died or will die from war-related injuries received in the southeast Asia theater of operations.

Summary of Bill:  The memorialists respectfully pray that the Governor of the state of Washington, in consultation with the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Director of the Department of General Administration, and the state=s Vietnam veterans organizations, have placed upon the southeast Asia memorial a plaque honoring those veterans who died from war-related injuries received in the southeast Asia theater of operations.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Testimony For:  The recognition is long overdue and appropriate.  The Department of Veterans Affairs would like to have the plaque ready for the tenth anniversary rededication of the memorial in May of this year.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  George L. Edmundson, Vietnam Veteran of America State President; Beau Bergeron, Director, Dept. Of Veterans Affairs; Roger Welles, Veterans Legislative Coalition.