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Nixon Signs Several Bills Impacting Military Veterans

(via Flickr/KurtClark)

Reporting by Jacob McCleland of KRCU.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed several pieces of legislation Wednesday related to veterans.

One bill requires licensing boards to accept military training and education for licensing requirements.

At a press conference in Cape Girardeau, Nixon said many members of the military have skill sets that are very transferable to the workplace, like truck drivers and emergency medical technicians - or EMT's.

"Literally, you have folks on battlefields, trained as EMT's, going out there, dealing with issues, bringing folks in to field hospitals that come back here, that it's impossible for them to get their EMT license very quickly," Nixon said. "Or if they have a license before they were gone, it could lapse while they were gone."

Nixon also signed legislation that develops an electronic registration and voting system for military personnel and overseas voters, and he signed a bill to give resident student status to veterans at public colleges and universities.

Another piece of legislation helps the state treasurer identify owners of unclaimed military medals.

Also in Gape Girardeau today, Treasurer Clint Zweifel said the legislation lets his office share information with the public and veterans organizations to honor those medals.

"There are medals of men and women that have served in World War I and II and Desert Storm and Afghanistan, those that have served overseas, but also here at home," Zweifel said. "This legislation allows us to share key information to help return those medals."