Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation Tuesday that takes away limitations on who can receive aid from the state's Military Family Relief Trust Fund, which was created to assist National Guard or Reserve forces facing emergency financial issues.
Senate Bill 731, sponsored by state Sen. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, removed a stipulation that only service members or families of service members who had been on active duty for at least 30 days as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could benefit from the fund. The bill is now Act 402.
As the number of Arkansas National Guard deployments decreased in recent years, soldiers and airmen requesting the funds were not eligible to receive them, said Lt. Col. Jeff Wood during a ceremony at the state Capitol.
The interest-bearing account has a current balance of $163,669, according to documents provided by Autumn Sanson, chief investment officer for the state treasurer's office.
"There's a pretty good chunk of money in it, and we can't do much with it because it's got 9/11 strings tied to it," said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Joel Lynch. "We may have a soldier or airman really in need, and there's no way we can help them, but we have this pile of money sitting here."
When the fund was established in 2005, approximately 6,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard had been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries as part of the war on terror.
By 2011, more than 12,000 Arkansas National Guard troops had deployed to Iraq, and the last of them were returning home. Some Arkansas guardsmen subsequently deployed to Afghanistan and have since returned.
Only one Arkansas National Guard unit -- the 1038th Horizontal Construction Company -- is currently serving overseas. The company's 160 soldiers are in Kuwait, and they are scheduled to return to the United States in April, Lynch said.
The legislation signed Tuesday was unanimously passed by the House and Senate. Lawmakers added an emergency clause, ordering that the change become effective the date the bill was approved by the governor.
There are service members and their families needing financial assistance that "is not currently available from any other source," the clause states. "If assistance is not made available, irreparable harm will result."
Officials with the Arkansas National Guard who manage the fund first thought to change the rules last year, after an EF4 tornado ripped through Vilonia and Mayflower. The tornado destroyed the homes of at least three military families, said Command Sgt. Maj. Steven Veazey, the senior enlisted Guard member.
On Tuesday, Veazey talked about Sgt. Jennifer Champion, a soldier who "lost everything." According to a release from the National Guard Association of the United States, Champion, a combat medic, emerged from a neighbor's storm shelter after the tornado passed and gave medical help to those who were injured.
"The way the bill was written, she didn't qualify for the fund, so I couldn't help her," Veazey said. "So now with these changes, if a natural disaster happens or some emergency, we'll be able to help our soldiers and airmen with some immediate funds."
The fund was built with donations. An option to contribute money toward it is included on the Arkansas individual income tax forms. About $10,000 has been collected so far this year.
According to the fund's operating guide, grants could be awarded to service members or their families to pay for temporary housing or rent, utility bills, vehicle repair or "any special circumstance" seen as appropriate by the fund's board of directors.
"If someone is sick or loses a job and is about to be homeless -- that's the type of thing we've ran into a few times," Lynch said. "Especially when we're talking about a young family that doesn't have much money or someone who has very little savings and not much family."
Metro on 03/25/2015