ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4428

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 18, 2025

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4428.

      As amended by the committee, this bill updates the definition of veteran in various statutes to include discharged LGBTQ veterans.  This bill also requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to develop a review process for discharged LGBTQ veterans concerning lost benefits.

      An estimated 100,000 LGBTQ veterans were discharged from the military under less than honorable conditions from the start of World War II until the 2011 repeal of the military’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.  Transgender veterans continued to be banned and discharged from service until the June 2016 Directive-Type Memorandum-16-005, issued by then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, which was subsequently reversed by the March 2019 Directive-Type Memorandum-19-004, issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist.  These veterans lost their right to both state and federal benefits by being discharged under less than honorable conditions.

      As amended, this bill adds a definition of “discharged LGBTQ veteran” to various statutory definitions of “veteran.”  “Discharged LGBTQ veteran” means a veteran who was discharged less than honorably from military or naval service due to their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or statements, consensual sexual conduct, or consensual acts relating to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or the disclosure of such statements, conduct, or acts that were prohibited by the Armed Forces of the United States at the time of discharge.  The added definition, along with the addition of a DVA review process for discharged LGBTQ veterans, will restore State benefits for those veterans.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      There committee amended the bill to make technical amendments to update a section to current law and to reflect the department name change to the Department of Veterans Affairs from the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that updating the statutory definition of veteran to include discharged LGBTQ veterans may result in indeterminate annual State and local government expenditure increases to pay increased retirement allowances to members of certain State-administered retirement systems, or permit a public employee to qualify for an increased retirement allowance through participation in a certain State-administered retirement system.

      The OLS concludes that the bill may also reduce State and local revenues by an indeterminate annual amount by lowering or eliminating the entry fee collected by a State park or the access fee collected by certain municipalities to access certain land and water resources, or by increasing the number of individuals who qualify for the annual $250 veterans property tax deduction, the 100 percent disabled veteran property tax exemption, or other State programs designed to provide property tax or rent relief to certain New Jersey residents.

      In addition, State expenditures may increase by an indeterminate amount if current department personnel or fiscal resources are insufficient to establish the review process and eligibility form required under the bill’s provisions.