AGO 98012.

• Court: Nebraska

Nebraska Attorney General Opinions 1998. AGO 98012. DATE: February 13, 1998SUBJECT: Nebraska Veterans Homes; Admission CriteriaREQUESTED BY: Keith Fickenscher, Director Nebraska Department of Veterans' AffairsWRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General Lauren L. Hill, Assistant Attorney General You have requested an opinion from this office as to whether the statutory criteria for admission to the Nebraska Veterans' Home System may be expanded to include a certain class of peacetime veterans without opening admission to all peacetime veterans. Specifically, the legislative proposal being considered would expand eligibility for home admission to "permanently and totally disabled, non-ambulatory, wheelchair-bound veterans who are 100% service-connected, [and] who are not now eligible for [home] admission because their service dates are not `wartime'." We have not been provided with a specific draft of any legislation nor asked to address any particular concern with the legislative proposal; therefore our review of your inquiry will necessarily result in a general response. See Op. Att'y Gen. No. 94-012 (March 10, 1994); Op. Att'y Gen. No. 85-157 (December 20, 1985). Current Law Under current law, admission to one of Nebraska's veterans' homes is extended to any veteran who served in the armed forces of the United States during a period of war as defined in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 80-401.01, if, at the time of filing a home application, (a) the applicant has been a bona fide resident of the State of Nebraska for at least two years, (b) the applicant has become disabled due to service, old age, or otherwise to an extent that it would prevent such applicant from earning a livelihood, and (c) the applicant's income from all sources is such that the applicant would be dependent wholly or partially upon public charities for support, or the type of care needed is available only at a state institution .... Neb. Rev. Stat. § 80-316 (Supp. 1997). Therefore, assuming other statutory criteria are satisfied, those veterans suffering from either "service-connected" or "non-service-connected" disabilities may be admitted to one of the state veterans' homes so long as they served on active military duty -- whether in combat or not -- during the Spanish-American War; World War I; World War II; the Korean War; the Vietnam War; in either Lebanon...