WESTERN MASS. – On Feb. 12, the Massachusetts State Senate ratified its committee positions for the 2021-2022 legislative session and 2nd Hampden and Hampshire state Sen. John Velis was named the chair of the Veteran and Federal Affairs Joint Committee, as well as the vice chair of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse and Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities Joint Committees.

As the chair of the Veteran and Federal Affairs Committee, Velis said he will give Western Mass. residents a louder voice at the table to improve the Holyoke Soldier’s Home.

“What better time to have the state senator that represents the district for the Holyoke Soldier’s home be the chair of the Veterans and Federal Affairs? What it does is it guarantees all of us a seat at the table on all back and forth with the administration and making sure the ship of the Soldier’s Home continues to be righted,” he said.

With his new position, Velis said he wants to push the senate to meet the deadlines for the new Soldier’s Home in Holyoke.

“This gives me the professional standing to be a force advocating for what needs to happen. There are a lot of deadlines that need to be met beginning with the passing of a bond bill next month in both houses of the legislature if we’re going to meet the deadlines for a new Soldier’s Home,” he said.

Velis said that he wants Massachusetts to keep its place as the number state for advocacy for veterans despite not passing any legislation for veterans in the last session.

“This past legislative session was the first time in a long time that we did not pass a veterans’ omnibus bill because of COVID-19 and other things. I am taking over as the chairmen of the committee at the time that Massachusetts is the best state in terms of advocacy for veterans. My job is to ensure that Massachusetts remains number one,” he said.

As a veteran and currently serving in the Army Reserves, Velis said he has a unique perspective to help both groups.

“There are issues that are confronting veterans on a daily basis but there are also issues confronting current service members, so I guess it allows me to have a foot in both doors,” he said.

One of the ways Velis said he wants to help active military is by helping family when they relocate to Massachusetts from another state.

“For that service member, for the most part it is a very seamless transition, but what about their wife or husband? One of the main issues I want to take up is the licensure. I think an area where we could get better as a commonwealth is looking at the license they have from another state and see if we can recognize that license so they don’t have to wait six months of the two years they may be in Massachusetts,” he said.

With the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee, Velis said he wants to help those that suffered from those issues that were worsened by the pandemic.

“I’m convinced in two or three years when we look back at COVID-19 and the impact it has had on people, one of the biggest issues is the complete adverse, horrendous impact this has had on those struggling with mental health and substance use issues. COVID-19 could also be referred to Isolation-19 because it caused all of us to isolate in everything we do,” he said. “We know with absolute medical certainty, isolation only exacerbates those issues, so we need to lead from the front on those issues.”

He added that he wants to open more hospital beds for mental health care as the need continues to grow as a result of the pandemic.

“We’ve got a live and active conversation in Western Massachusetts about the closing of psychiatric beds. Any time that you are closing beds at a time that demand is increasing exponentially, that could lead to catastrophe. We need to be on this and getting beds up and running,” Velis said.

After the bill filing deadline passes, Velis said his first step of the session will be to reach out to experts on both veteran advocacy and mental health before developing actual legislature.

“Once we finish the bill filing deadline, my first order of business is to reach out to subject matter experts and invite them to a conversation and ask them what we are missing, and then just give the floor to them,” he said.

Along with being the chair for one committee and the vice chair for two others, Velis will also sit on five other joint committees for the 2021-2022 legislative session.
With hard days ahead of them, Velis said he and his colleagues are looking forward to getting to work.

“We have a lot of work to do, it’s probably going to be the busiest two years of our lives for those of us who have the honor to be elected officials, but let’s get to work, we’re all looking forward to it,” he said.