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SACRAMENTO, CA—Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) today received the 2024 Legislator of the Year Award from the Spirit of Veterans Day nonprofit organization. The award cited the group’s “heartfelt appreciation for your support for California’s 1.6 million veterans and Gold Star Families.”
Ramos said, “This award is a tremendous honor. We owe our veterans so much and their sacrifices are too often overlooked and undervalued. California must do better by those who serve, who sacrifice and the many who have paid the ultimate price for their country.”
Candace Hamilton, Founder and Chair of the 12th Annual Spirit of Veterans Day nonprofit, said the criteria for recognition is based upon making a significant difference in the state legislature in the support of veterans’ issues. Recipients must also honor those who have given their lives during active duty – the loved ones of California’s Gold Star Families. Gold Star Families are those who have lost an immediate family member as the result of active-duty military service.
Hamilton noted Ramos’s legislation to honor Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola. The young man was killed in a suicide bombing on August 26, 2021, at the Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport while assisting people during an evacuation. Ramos introduced successful legislation, ACR 139, in 2022 to name a San Bernardino freeway overpass in recognition of the fallen hero. He was also a joint author of AB 1452 that was signed last year. It would create a process to establish an Iraq Afghanistan Kuwait Veterans Memorial monument on State Capitol grounds.
Ramos has also introduced AB 46, a bill granting military retirees and dependents a state tax exemption on their pension revenue. That bill is in the State Senate.
