Veterans groups have long complained that the health needs of their brothers and sisters who served in the armed forces have been overlooked in New Jersey. Their complaints intensified when the pandemic hit in March 2020, killing more than 200 residents at the state veterans homes.
On Monday, three state lawmakers introduced legislation creating a new cabinet-level state Department of Veterans Affairs to oversee the veterans' nursing homes as well as the other health and social services that many veterans may not even know exist.
The move will break up the existing Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and create a new Department of Military Affairs, which oversees the National Guard, and a separate Department of Veterans Affairs.
“There will be individuals that are focused on veterans and their dependents as a priority, and not necessarily focused on National Guard members going to or coming back from a deployment,” said Jay Boxwell Jr., convention director for the VFW in New Jersey, who joined the lawmakers at a press conference in Trenton. “Veterans will not have to take a back seat to National Guard.”
The proposal emerged in the wake of Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration reaching two out-of-court settlements to pay $68.8 million to those who lost loved ones in the Paramus and Menlo Park facilities in the early days of the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Justice also issued a scathing report in 2023 accusing the state of “systematically violating the rights of residents” by failing to use basic strategies to control the spread of COVID, well into 2022.
“One worker described the situation (during the height of the pandemic) in Paramus as ‘pure hell,’” the Department of Justice report said. “Another described Menlo Park as ‘a battlefield.’”
New Jersey officials also entered into a consent decree last fall that called for a federal monitor to indefinitely oversee the Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes.
“What happened in our veterans homes during the COVID-19 pandemic was tragic,” said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D- Middlesex, who with Sen. Joseph Cryan, D- Union and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, D- Essex, introduced the bill to create the new department.
“I am hopeful, given the proactive steps we are on the right path ensuring that our veterans receive the very best possible care,” Vitale said.
The budget for the current Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is $129.5 million.
The immediate costs to break the department into two is expected to be as much as $6.7 million, as well as $8 million in recurring costs going forward, according to an analysis of the new departments by McKinsey & Company.
The lawmakers and Gov. Murphy’s senior staff have been working with McKinsey to draft a blueprint for the new department for about a year, assisted and advised by veterans groups' leaders, Cryan said.
About 36 states already deliver veterans services through a separate department, Cryan said. New Jersey did the same until 1988 when the military and veterans offices were combined.
“This has been a long time coming,” Cryan said.
Tucker, who chairs the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, agreed.
“We owe you so much for being in the service. You deserve more gratitude and deserve more action here (from us) in the state,” Tucker said.
The bill requires the commissioner of the new Department of Veterans Affairs must be a veteran, according to the proposal. The department will oversee the state veterans' homes and cemeteries, the liaison office and the field offices which serve the federal Veterans' Affairs Medical Centers, and promote state and federal programs.
Hibiscus Consulting has been selected as the federal monitor over the Paramus and Edison veterans homes, according to the consent decree.
Hearings will be scheduled soon on the bill creating the new department, said Vitale, adding that he hopes to get the legislation passed and sent to the governor for signature by late June.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.
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