This Memorial Day, as we pay tribute to all the brave heroes we have lost fighting for our country, we must also remember the debt we owe to those veterans who return home.
One of the greatest challenges our returning vets face is finding employment here at home. While too many Americans are struggling in this economy, it's particularly difficult for our young vets. Currently, more than 12 percent of our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are unemployed.
This is unacceptable. The skills our veterans possess are unique and their work ethic is unparralleled but translating that service to a resumé for civilian employers continues to be a challenge. That's why I was proud that Congress came together last year to pass the bipartisan VOW To Hire Heroes Act. This law will give our vets the tools and resources to help them market their incredible skills to employers so they can land a job, support their family and pursue their career goals.
But there's still more we need to do.
First, we must improve and streamline the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), which provides job training and education to our returning vets in addition to hands on assistance with resumé-writing and interview skills.
Under the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, we made TAP mandatory for all active servicemembers. It's an incredibly effective resource but to improve its effectiveness, we need to expand and streamline it by passing the TAP Modernization Act so we can give our vets and their families the chance at success they deserve.
In addition, we must improve the education opportunities that our veterans are getting through the GI Bill. While the GI bill is a well-deserved ticket to higher education for our vets, we need to make sure that when veterans are taking advantage of it, that schools are not taking advantage of them.
The Military and Veterans Educational Reform Act will strengthen the Post-9/11 GI Bill by ensuring that educational institutions receiving assistance through the VA and Defense Department meet commonsense requirements and provide critical information to potential students. It will also call on state agencies to conduct greater education and outreach activities to assist our veterans in making informed career decisions.
Finally, we must continue to ease the hiring process for veterans. Currently, veterans are held back by the bureaucratic red tape of the federal certification process that prevents them from immediately applying for many jobs they are qualified for.
To speed up the credentialing process, I am pushing for the Veteran Skills to Jobs Act. The bill would require agencies to proactively recognize relevant military training and skills when certifying veterans for federal occupational licenses.
While these bills are not a silver bullet, my hope is that collectively, they will ease the transition for our young veterans so that they can enter the workforce here at home more easily so we can bring down the alarming unemployment rate among our young vets. We must do everything we can to enable them to fulfill their full potential. It's the least we can do to begin to repay the debt we owe these brave young Americans who answered the ulitmate call to service for our country.
Follow Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SenGillibrand
But I am not for giving vets an edge in the hiring process by government edict. Think about it... if you make it "easier to hire a vet" by any kind of benefit to the potential hirer, then reflexively you are making it a little bit harder for a NON-vet to get a job. You are tipping the scales, regardless of the intent.
I have a better idea. Rather than do all these things to make vets lives easier after returning from combat, how about not sending them to combat in the first place?
Before you all get out you poisoned pens, hear me out. Is a guy who spent a couple years jockeying a desk in a peaceful locale REALLY deserving of the same honorific as a guy who crawled alone into the face of machine gun fire to save his platoon? REALLY?!?
Does a small town sheriff with a big mouth and attitude who's biggest nemesis is out of towners who drive too fast deserve the same honorific as the cop's and firefighters who sacrificed themselves to save civilian lives? ARE YOU SURE?!?
By using the term "hero" indiscriminately, you're cheapening it. Cheapening it to the point that it has no real value left to be bestowed on those who TRULY deserve it.
If people really want to do something for the soldiers, bring them home and stop supporting the un-necessary wars.
As is typical of the president, he makes bold proposals but doesn't fight particularly hard for them. Of course, the GOP/Tea Party would block the creation of a CCC-type program anyway. The GOP/Tea Party wants massive defense spending to protect them, but when it comes time to help the returning vets, they say we can't have a public works program for them because we're broke and can't afford it.
America, check your morality....it ain't doin' too good.
Senator, your proposal is a big fail. Give those men and their families land and the resources they need to be self sustaining. Take the cost of it from the military budget. Congress has the power - now get busy and make it happen.
How about if we stop making so many veterans as a way to help veterans? Stop feeding the MIC and politicaly throwing our beloved troops into meat-grinders for neocon or corporate reasons. .
Maybe no more useless neoconservative wars and endless occupations like Iraq II and Afghanistan? The Trillions it will cost tax payers to properly care for those aging veterans after 8 years of war almost dwarfs the $3.5 Trillion Bush 43 wasted in these two wars to supposedly fight terrorism.
Terrorism is best countered by good international police cooperation, good border security and occasionally the use of drones, a smart bomb or two, 100+ SEALs and a back up rapid response/rescue unit. Our military only need protect America from invasion. Everything else is as two time Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler spoke of. Corporate wars.
Also Senator, to balance the budget, America could be equally "safe" by spending $350 billion a year (half the current rate that is one in every three tax dollars). Close some if not all the bases in 150 countries worldwide,. Stop building (the twelfth?) aircraft carrier - the G.H.W. Bush.... and stop making next generation weapons when the ones we have already kick everyone's butts.
and it's so sad
When our troops left, they left KNOWING that they had their jobs back, when they returned.
BY LAW
You can say, well, yeah- but they were gone too long, but I think there's a lot more to it than that. This country used to have personal involvement in our wars, but this time, we had little vested as a people, in our military; they fought this war for us, but we didn't keep our part of the bargain.
and.. shockingly, we have no more honor to do such a thing as to keep our word to them
How about less wars and use the same money for better education for these men and women?
Wars provide profits for corporations that make material.
Ask any veteran if he or she wants to revisit a combat situation. In order to help their fellow men and women soldiers, in a heartbeat. But in order to fight more corporate or misguided political wars.... never again.
And for the next large conflict, draft or no war. Make everyone available as a means to see if the nation wants thier kids in that meat grinder. Including the politician's kids.
Bring jobs with good wages and benefits back to America.
And, once they get back, of course their unemployment rate will be high...they're the worst of our student population. They're not exactly what firms are looking for.
You need more than biceps and a tattoo to make it in this economy. Going to fight in a slightly illegal war doesn't add to your qualifications. It may in fact subtract.
I've worked (and hired) for 3 large multinationals, and in general, if we see a person with military duty on their resume, it's tossed in the trash.
If you are disqualifing people from employment because they have served in the military, or are members of the National Guard, you are not only cheating your employeer, you are violating the law. How about you give us you company's name and address, and your name sot that we can turn you in to your boss, who will fire you, and then to the police so you can end up in the court system.
You obviously know nothing about the men and woman of the US armed forces. Some of the smartest people I have ever worked with (and I work with PhDs mostly today) were in the Marines and the Navy.
Nope. Wouldn't want to hire any of that.
although some employers might like the idea of employees who don't question authority
It must be so scary for the party of send em off and breed some more but hey republicans you are not supposed to abandon people who have defended you and paid the price of their sanity.
Well done Senator Gillebrand.Yet again a lady sorts the problem out thats got to hurt the misogynistic party.
Do not attack those who serve, attack those in pwoer who start the unnecessary wars.
If they want better employment, perhaps they should have studied in high school.
Eric Shinseki , Obama's Sec of Vet Affairs, has put GI's in those damn stryker death traps with his close ties to the Corporation. Please read what Lonnie Shoultz wrote about those death traps.
Why are GENS with no combat experience telling US troops to walk, and then ride down roads/MSR's? I do not see Gens with CIB's? Oh, wow, they got a new combat badge for being in a combat zone.
If it is not a CIB or CMB, GEN-you are busted.
Most of you have seen this quote before but here it is again: “The America Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” — Alexis de Tocqueville
We pay the taxes and then they pretend it is their money and give some back - after they get their cut, of course. The programs seldom work and when they do, it is an accident.
Second the greed of people like you who would deny and assistance to the folks who have served the country just to keep more money for you to waste on yourself is criminal. Service to this nation is a sacrifice to be honored, and the people of this nation should be proud to provide for those who served. Your petty politics dishonors this nation and the people who serve it. Yous should be ashamed of yourself for your comments.