That Veterans’ Job Corps Bill thing
Someone mentioned it this morning in the comments, and I thought I’d address the Veterans’ Job Corps Bill of 2012 that failed to make it through the Senate last week. Here’s the text, if you want to read it all, since I’m not interested in addressing the bill completely. It’s Senate Bill S.3457.
If you are a veteran who is unemployed and don’t really care about the work you do, I guess it’s not that bad, but it really doesn’t offer anything that isn’t already available. For example, the bill offers for veterans employment;
(1) in conservation, resource management, and historic preservation projects on public lands and maintenance and improvement projects for cemeteries under the jurisdiction of the National Cemetery Administration; and
(2) as firefighters and law enforcement officers.
It doesn’t create any jobs, though. It just offers assistance getting jobs that are already available. It does, however offer grants to agencies that employ veterans, but there are no specifics on those grants. They could last a month, a year, a decade, but there’s no real language that addresses those grants except that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs will manage that.
The bill gives priority to veterans hired as police officers or firefighters, but we all know that usually happens anyway, because veterans are the types of employees those agencies are attempting to recruit because of the demands of those jobs in regards to physical fitness and tolerance for the long hours.
It also makes the DVA Secretary responsible for reporting on the progress of the Job Corps, and we all know how that turns out – we’re always getting rosy reports from the DVA on how well they’re doing in spite of the available evidence otherwise.
The bill also tells the DVA to set up “One Stop” centers with internet access to help veterans find the available jobs. Like we don’t have that already in our homes or at the library or a thousand other places. Like the VA.
(e) Report- Not later than 455 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Heath, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives a report on the pilot program that includes the findings of the Secretary with respect to the feasibility and advisability of providing computing facilities as described in subsection (a) with assistance as described in subsection (d) at all one-stop centers.
So, the DVA has more than a year just to report if setting up those One Stop facilities is even feasible, so there’s no help for veterans in that regard for more than a year from the date the law is passed.
The bill also provides off-base transition training. We all know how effective the on-base transition training is when we’re leaving the service, I don’t know how anyone thinks that more government training is going to be much of a help, except in employing more DVA bureaucrats punching their time sheet.
The Veterans’ Job Corps Bill doesn’t really do anything useful. If anyone was thinking that it creates more jobs for veterans, it doesn’t. It creates more jobs for bureaucrats – now if you were hoping to get one of those jobs, you’ve got a reason to be disappointed that it didn’t pass.
But, honestly, I don’t see anything in the bill that isn’t already being done in another shape or form. I’ll admit that I work for the federal government, but all I needed was an opportunity to work, and when Bill Clinton did away with the Carter-era double-dipping prohibition, that was all I needed. Since I’m a disabled combat veteran, I had a hiring preference anyway. It didn’t hurt that it was almost guaranteed that I’d clear the security clearance hurdle, either.
Now, I know that the IAVA and Paul Rieckhoff are going to make a big deal out of the Senate’s failure to act on the VJC Bill, it’ll probably be the centerpiece of their scorecard this year, but they’re going to have to show me where the bill was more than a bureaucrat employment bill.
IAVA’s statement linked above said the bill created jobs for police and firefighters and it did nothing of the sort as you can read for yourself, unless you think that giving non-specific grants is creating jobs. Paul and the gang are hoping you don’t read the bill and just take their word for it.
The Veterans’ Job Corps Bill of 2012 was nothing more than a boondoggle to wave in front of veterans. The truth is that the federal government can’t do anything for veterans that we can’t do ourselves for a lot less money.
Category: Veterans Issues
Kind of sort of helping, but not really. When I got out of the regular army over 30 years ago—I figured after being a grunt for 2 years I could get a job as a mafia hit man, or a cop. The cops had better benefits so I went that way.
I read through this yesterday. First off, it was not defeated, it was just put back onto the calendar. Secondly, those transition training centers, they only provisioned for 3-5.
Oh, and don’t forget that they also want to take away your passport if you are behind on your taxes. They don’t need to build a Wall like Berlin did, they just yank your passport! Gotta love when a country wants to keep you within its borders.
Sounds like any other ‘job assistance’ programs for veterans. All fluff and not too much substance.
That is why I put so little faith in ANY program that purports to help veterans with jobs, private, governmental, whatever.
All just empty talk.
I’ve been trying to tell people the same thing. Hiring vets at GS2 or 3 cleaning up parks is going to do nothing for their long term employment. At a time when many departments are downsizing due to costs, a short term grant is not going to create jobs for police and firemen. Departments may wait for retirements and then use the grant money to hire people they would have hired anyway to keep up with attrition. In jobs that already have veterans preference. It was a billion dollar waste of tax dollars.
And I’m going to say what Estelle said to Joey: Take any job you can get and don’t make on the floor.
Look, it’s a sluggish economy, and it may get worse. The vets’ job bill is a stop-gap measure and nothing else. In a sluggish economy, sometimes the best way to get things going for yourself is to do what people did in the Great Depression: work for yourself. Figure out what you CAN do and what you love to do, and forget what you can’t do. And go from there. In Chicago, in all the neighborhoods, there are street vendors selling everything from their own CDs while their band plays, to sandias (watermelons) and elotes (corn on the cob) and tacos from a cart.
Start thinking about what you can do and let go of the rest.
If you could do whatever you wanted to do, and had the time to do it, what would you do?
I Think the best Veterans job assistance program is those of us who have been out for awhile and are business owners or hiring managers looking out for new veterans…we just need to help our own…
OT, I agree.
In case it helps someone, Coca-Cola is a great place to work, check them out here:
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/careers/
Both my husband and my son work there. They have great benefits, including paying you full-time for up to 4 months for active duty, which includes Guard weekend drills. They paid my son for the first 4 months of BMT and tech school at a rate a tad above his E3 pay. So he was getting double the money, can’t beat that.
They also have a good variety of jobs. My husband is a bulk driver who drives a semi to delivery to grocery stores and the like. My son, straight out of high school, started at $12+/hour and full benefits as a merchandiser, which is an entry-level position. He stocks the shelves in the grocery stores. Turn-over for merchandiser is fairly high so the chances of getting a foot in the door are good.
There are also corporate-type jobs in Atlanta, Dallas, and somewhere in the northwest.
Oh, and they are non-union, at least here in Denver.
I have to tell you, I caught the WaPo in something and nobody in my circles believes me.
Steve Vogel penned an article for the WaPo a couple of weeks ago. It was a very balanced piece, talking about the GOP shutting it down, but also about Senator Burr’s additions and ideas. It contained quotes from the Legion and the VFW, in addition to IAVA, that expressed their support for the Burr version, and expressed concerns about the funding for the bill coming at the expense of other veterans programs.
A few days letter, the original article no longer appeared on their site, even though you could see most of it in the Google News aggregator. Conspicuously missing? The quotes from Legion and VFW members expressing their nonchalance regarding the defeat of the bill. Conspicuously retained? The quotes from IAVA indicating veteran outrage.
When did a fringe group like the IAVA become the go-to for media talking points over our time honored veterans groups? I pay my dues to the Legion and the Jewish War Veterans to represent my interests, not a bunch of partisans in sheeps-clothing. Worse yet, it feeds into a budding sense that the media narrative is exactly what conservatives complain it is, skewed in favor of the Democrats.
When did it happen, BK? When the media got in bed with the liberal wing of the Democratic party and became propagandists vice journalists. I’d put that during the Nixon Administration, if not during the JFK or LBJ administrations.
I find it intersting that thye never ask for input from those of us helping veterans find employment. The Gold Card ititive was designed to provide the same services that have always been provided but called it Case Management and increased the reporting requirements on workforce centers. This looks to be the same thing.
How about funding for OJT for veterans? How about lessening federal/.state licensing so that vets can use their training in the civilian world? How about funding for tools and equipment? These things would help. Not more paperwork.
“a short term grant is not going to create jobs for police and firemen.” Well, Loach, it might, for as long as the grant runs. I heard our deputy chief make the comment, “well, they’ll have jobs for two years, but if someone doesn’t come up with the money after that, they’re out of here”. He was speaking about another one of the fed’s grant programs.
You’re correct, most fire and police departments will use it to replace retirements, one to one. And, that’s if you can get by the hiring process, where the people who make the hiring decisions want to see a Bachelor of Science after the applicant’s name. Those people are a product of the college system, so they want to perpetuate the system. They have no clue what anyone from the military may have done, so the experience of veterans means nothing to them.
@6. You are 100% on that. I have had a hand in hiring a number of people over the years and always, always, always, if there was a vet and a non-vet who were close enough to be offered a job, the vet won. Why? I know that the vet can take instruction, get to the office on time, not abuse leave (except during hunting season, of course) and that the vet was serving the nation while the other applicant was off doing something with a yam.