SC governor gets help finding 1st veterans issues director

(ABC Columbia/FILE) Governor Henry McMaster gets help to find a veterans issues director.

(ABC Columbia/FILE) Governor Henry McMaster gets help to find a veterans issues director.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has created a committee of 12 people to help find the first leader of a new state cabinet agency to oversee veterans’ issues.

Governor McMaster appointed former state Adjutant General Robert Livingston to lead the group.

It includes two lawmakers who are veterans as well as the commander of the state department of the Disabled American Veterans and the state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Also on the panel are veterans working in the private sector.

Legislators passed a bill in May making Department of Veterans’ Affairs a cabinet agency.

Previously, the state’s Division of Veterans Affairs was in a different department.

Governor McMaster says in a statement the group’s first meeting will be in the coming weeks.