New Jersey / State / 2024-2025 Legislature
P.L.2025, c.139 (S4376 1R) Split a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs from the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs and re-enacted the veterans' statutes in Title 38A
Established the Department of Veterans Affairs under a commissioner who must be an honorably discharged veteran (N.J.S.A. 38A:21-1 et seq.), moved the memorial homes, the Doyle cemetery, the blind and paraplegic allowances, veterans' tuition programs and veteran-status determinations for civil service and pensions to it, re-enacted the veterans' facility and tuition sections in chapters 22 and 23 of Title 38A, and repealed the chapter 3 sections they replaced. Effective 120 days after approval, January 9, 2026. The act defines a veteran for its own purposes as anyone with 90 days of service, with no discharge test. Flagged because downstream documents still cite the old structure: the memorial homes rule, N.J.A.C. 5A:5, names repealed sections 38A:3-6.4 to 38A:3-6.12 as its authority, and the Vietnam-era tuition sections were re-enacted with application windows that closed decades ago while the department's January 2026 guide still advertises one of them.
Progress
Path to law: Bill in a two-chamber legislature
- Introduced Done, Senate
- In committee Done, Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs, then Senate Budget and Appropriations
- Passed one chamber Done, Senate, 32-6
- Passed both chambers Done, Assembly, 72-0-8, substituted for A5520
- Signed by the governor Done,
- In effect Done,
Sponsors
- Joseph F. Vitale
- Joseph P. Cryan
- Cleopatra G. Tucker
- Robert J. Karabinchak
- Annette Quijano
- Gordon M. Johnson
- Raj Mukherji
- Vin Gopal
- Brian P. Stack
- Linda R. Greenstein
- Andrew Zwicker
- Patrick J. Diegnan, Jr.
- Joseph A. Lagana
- M. Teresa Ruiz
- Angela V. McKnight
- Renee C. Burgess
- Verlina Reynolds-Jackson
- Shama A. Haider
What it touches
- N.J.S.A. 38A:21-1
- N.J.S.A. 38A:21-3
- N.J.S.A. 38A:21-12
- N.J.S.A. 38A:22-4
- N.J.S.A. 38A:22-5
- N.J.S.A. 38A:23-3
Catalog entries (6)
- New Jersey Blind, Paraplegic and Hemiplegic Veterans Allowance
- New Jersey Department of Veterans Affairs, Service Officers and the Veteran Advocate
- New Jersey Free Tuition for Children of POWs and MIAs
- New Jersey Veterans Memorial Homes at Paramus, Menlo Park and Vineland
- New Jersey Vietnam-Era Tuition Programs (Closed to New Applicants)
- Who Counts as a Veteran in New Jersey
Official record
Read P.L.2025, c.139 (S4376 1R) on the jurisdiction's own record