75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2009 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
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 LC 744
 
                     Senate Joint Memorial 1
 
Printed pursuant to Senate Interim Rule 213.28 by order of the
  President of the Senate in conformance with presession filing
  rules, indicating neither advocacy nor opposition on the part
  of the President (at the request of Governor Theodore R.
  Kulongoski for Department of Veterans' Affairs)
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Urges Congress to allow Oregon veterans to obtain state home
loans at any time after veteran separates from service.
 
                         JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the
  House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
  Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas the mission of Oregon's Department of Veterans' Affairs
is to provide veterans, their survivors and their dependents with
the highest level of service and the maximum amounts of benefits;
and
  Whereas Oregon has a successful state home loan program that
provides low interest loans to qualified veterans; and
  Whereas the Congress of the United States recently increased
the cap on qualified veterans mortgage bonds to $100 million; and
  Whereas the Oregon home loan program provides significant
benefits to Oregon veterans due to low interest rates and the
stability of the institution providing the home loans; and
  Whereas veterans, under current federal law, lose their
eligibility to access the Oregon home loan program 25 years after
a veteran separates from service; and
  Whereas the 25-year rule unfairly punishes veterans when
compared to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs home
loan program that does not have a 25-year restriction; and
  Whereas Oregon's home loan program should be allowed to offer
low interest home loans to qualified veterans at any time during
the lifetime of a veteran without regard to length of time of
separation from service; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  (1) That the Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly urges the
Congress of the United States to enact legislation allowing
Oregon veterans to obtain Oregon home loans at any time after a
veteran has separated from service.
  (2) A copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of
the United States, to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon
Congressional Delegation.
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