VOW To Hire Heroes Act of 2011
Comprehensive Legislation to End Veteran Unemployment
Veterans.House.Gov
November 2011
According to the Labor Department, there are 3.4 million job openings right now in the United States. Yet, many employers are finding that workers do not have the skills or training they need to qualify for them.
There are nearly 900,000 unemployed veterans in the Untied States - a staggering figure. The latest Department of Labor unemployment report shows that in October 2011, the average unemployment rate among all veterans was 7.7% and 12.1% for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Equally troubling, veterans between the ages of 35 and 64, the group with the highest financial obligations and the fewest available VA education and training options, continue to make up nearly two-thirds of all unemployed veterans. Overall, nearly one in twelve of our nation's heroes can't find a job to support their family, don't have an income that provides stability, and don't have work that provides them with the confidence and pride that is so critical to their transition home.
The "VOW to Hire Heroes Act" is bipartisan, bicameral, comprehensive legislation that would lower the rate of unemployment among our nation's veterans. This bill combines provisions of Chairman Miller's Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act - which passed the House on October 12, 2011 - (H.R. 2433; Report #112-242), and Chairman Murray's Hiring Heroes Act (S.951; Report #112-36), and veterans' tax credits into a comprehensive jobs package that will aggressively attack the unacceptably high rate of veterans' unemployment by:
| n | Expanding Education & Training: To begin moving
veterans out of the unemployment lines, the VOW to Hire Heroes
Act of 2011 provides nearly 100,000 unemployed veterans of past
eras and wars with up to 1-year of additional Montgomery GI Bill
benefits to qualify for jobs in high-demand sectors, from
trucking to technology. It also provides disabled veterans
who have exhausted their unemployment benefits up to 1-year of
additional VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment benefits. |
| n | Improving the Transition Assistance Program (TAP):
Too many service members don't participate in TAP and enter
civilian life without a basic understanding of how to compete in
a tight job market. Therefore, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act
will make TAP mandatory for most service members transitioning
to civilian status, upgrade career counseling options, and job
hunting skills, as well as ensuring the program is tailored to
individuals and the 21st Century job market. |
| n | Facilitating Seamless Transition: Getting a
civil service job can often take months which often forces a
veteran to seek unemployment benefits. To shorten the time
to start a federal job after discharge, this bill would allow
service members to begin the federal employment process by
acquiring veterans preference status prior
to separation. This would facilitate a more
seamless transition to civil service jobs at VA, or the many
other federal agencies that would benefit from hiring our
veterans. |
| n | Translating Military Skills and Training:
This bill will also require the Department of Labor to take a
hard look at how to translate military skills and training to
civilian sector jobs, and will work to make it easier to get the
licenses and certification our veterans need. |
| n | Veterans Tax Credits: The VOW to Hire Heroes Act provides tax credits for hiring veterans and disabled veterans who are out of work. |
Furthermore, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act is completely paid for and does not increase the deficit.