Congressman unveils $3B jobs bill for vets - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Congressman unveils $3B jobs bill for vets

A $3 billion veterans’ employment bill was unveiled Thursday that is aimed at helping both new veterans and older veterans find jobs in a tough economy.

Called the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act, or VOW Act, the bill mixes a combination of tweaking current programs and adding new ones in an effort that Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the bill’s sponsor and the veterans’ committee chairman since January, said he hopes will help 400,000 veterans find jobs over the next two years.

Miller’s committee plans a July 15 hearing to discuss his bill, HR 2433, and a similar measure first introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairwoman, with plans to try to pass a comprehensive jobs bill by Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

Murray’s bill, the Hiring Heroes Act, passed her committee on June 29 by voice vote. A House version of the bill, HR 1941, is sponsored by Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.

The biggest difference between the Murray and Miller bills is that Murray’s emphasis is on helping separating service members and veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan find post-service jobs. Miller also wants to tackle employment problems for younger veterans, but he also is concerned about veterans of other generations who are out of work and no longer eligible for military and veterans’ transition assistance.

For current service members, both bills have similar provisions that would it mandatory for everyone getting out of the military to take part in transition assistance program classes and workshops aimed at helping them find jobs. Both bills also would require surveys of people after they get out of the military to determine if the classes helped them find jobs. The Marine Corps is the only service that currently requires mandatory attendance for all separating personnel at transition classes.

Both bills also have similar grant programs to create local programs to provide special help for unemployed veterans. Miller’s bill would make grants available in the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates — currently Nevada, California, Rhode Island, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky — for programs aimed directly at helping veterans find jobs.

Miller’s bill would create a veterans’ job retraining program, available to honorably discharged veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 who do not have jobs and who are not eligible for veterans’ education benefits. Up to 45,000 veterans in 2012 and 55,000 in 2013 would be eligible for 12 months of retraining assistance in skills that need workers, as identified by the Labor Department.

While going through retraining, veterans would be eligible for flat-rate GI Bill benefits, similar to the Montgomery GI Bill that currently pays $1,426 a month to fulltime students.

The unemployment rate for veterans ages 20 to 24 is above 20 percent, while the unemployment rate for veterans who are 35 and older is about 8.3 percent, but Miller said that in terms of sheer numbers, there are many more older veterans who are out of work and they don’t have the same kind of government help available.

Miller said his goal is to cut the unemployment rate for veterans to less than 5 percent over two years, which could require helping 400,000 veterans find jobs.

About 232,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans are looking for work, but 250,000 Vietnam-era veterans, 278,000 Cold War veterans and 167,000 veterans of the Persian Gulf War era also are unemployed, according to Miller aides.

“While there are a significant number of unemployed veterans of the current conflicts, we must never forget those who have served before them,” Miller said. “This legislation targets Vietnam, Cold War, and Persian Gulf era veterans who are now unemployed and without access to resources to obtain the skills needed to compete in today’s job market. After standing at attention for long hours in the military, they should not have to stand in unemployment lines here at home.”

In addition to veterans’ retraining, Miller’s bill redefines veterans’ preference for Labor Department job training programs to give veterans a better chance of getting into other existing programs. Veterans make up about 8.3 percent of the labor pool but less than 7.8 percent of participants in non-veterans employment programs run by the Labor Department.

The cost of Miller’s bill is covered by extending current fees on veterans’ home loans that had been scheduled to decrease over the next several years. This is the same source of funding used to pay for Murray’s bill, although her bill’s price tag is smaller because it does not have the retraining program for 100,000 unemployed veterans.