The Alabama Senate today is debating a bill that would put the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs under control of the governor and reduce the authority of a state board that now oversees the ADVA.

SB67, by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, would make the commissioner who runs the ADVA an appointee of the governor and member of the governor’s cabinet.

Under current law, the 12-member State Board of Veterans Affairs appoints the commissioner.

SB67 would change the board to nine members and reduce it to an advisory role.

Ivey supports the bill, which comes a few months after she overruled the State Board of Veterans Affairs and fired Commissioner Kent Davis.

Ivey and supporters of the bill say the purpose is improve ADVA services to veterans.

Davis, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, said it would be a mistake to change the structure of the board and agency, which has been in place since 1945.

The ADVA has veterans service offices in 60 counties to help veterans and their families obtain the benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and benefits provided to veterans by the state.

The ADVA operates five state veterans homes across the state and a state veterans cemetery in Baldwin County.

Jones said the bill would improve the ADVA by bringing it more fully in the fold of state government.

Jones said he was open to amendments to the bill by senators during the debate today.

Sen. Greg Albritton, a Navy veteran, said he supported the bill and said he believed the ADVA under the current format has become “too insular.”

Albritton said he many veterans are unaware of the ADVA and said he thought the changes in the bill, such as bringing the agency into the governor’s cabinet, could bring it out of what he called “obscurity.”

The Senate voted 28-0 to adopt an amendment by Albritton to require that two of the nine board members be members of the Alabama National Guard. One would be an officer and one an enlisted man.