WATCH
the hearing
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testimony from witnesses
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray,
Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, held a hearing to examine current efforts to address unemployment among
our nation’s veterans. The hearing featured testimony from veterans, labor
leaders, and administration officials on the challenges the federal government
faces meeting this mounting problem.
The hearing included the testimony
of Eric Smith, a Navy medic who completed two tours in Iraq and who
has struggled to find work, often performing day labor and volunteering himself
for medical tests. The hearing also included testimony
from Garett Reppenhagen, an Iraq veteran who works to find veterans good
jobs in the green energy sector.
During
the hearing, Murray confronted administration officials on bureaucratic delay
and inaction related to improvements to veterans employment programs.
Specifically, in questioning Ray Jefferson, the Assistant Secretary for the
Veterans’ Employment and Training Service at the Department of Labor, Murray
highlighted a long promised but so far unrealized plan to overhaul the
Transition Assistance Program that service members go through before leaving
the military as an unacceptable delay (watch at 97:00 min. mark).
Senator Murray’s opening statement at today’s hearing
follows:
Welcome
to today’s hearing.
Today
we examine an issue that is very troubling to me and frankly should be more
troubling to our nation as a whole. The high rate of unemployment for recently
separated veterans is an issue that at first glance defies common sense.
Our
nation’s veterans are disciplined, team players who have proven they can
perform under pressure. They have acquired skills on the battlefield as
mechanics, medics, and leaders that should translate into successful careers in
the working world. They are eager to achieve and to give back once again.
But despite all that,
according to Department of Labor statistics from just last month, over 27
percent of veterans age 20-24 were unemployed. That is over one in five of our
nation’s heroes who cannot find a job to support their family, do not have an
income that provides stability, and do not have work that provides them with
the self-esteem and pride that is so critical to their transition
home.
How could this be? How
could these young men and women who have performed so admirably, who know how
to lead, and know how to execute be struggling so mightily?
One thing we have to
recognize is that for many of our young veterans the civilian working world in
a new experience. For many young veterans the first job they apply for when
they return home is often the first civilian job they have ever applied for.
These veterans need help translating the skills they have developed in the
military into skills that civilian employers can understand. They need
direction on what employers are looking for, and they need to know what job
resources are available to them as veterans.
I
believe we can and should do more to not only prepare these veterans for
meaningful civilian employment but to also make the critical connection to land
a job.
For me, much of this
effort begins with Labor’s transition assistance program, commonly known as
TAP, which should be the cornerstone to meaningful employment for young
veterans. Yet, the TAP program is only mandatory for the Marine Corps, and as
it stands right now, is not as good as it can be. This program needs to
be customized, it needs to be updated, and it needs to be delivered in a way
that is relevant and most importantly, accepted by servicemembers. We can
longer afford for TAP to be seen as the last step in a service member’s
enlistment, it has to be seen as the first step in their successful career.
We also need to improve
efforts to translate skills from the battlefield, onto a resume, and into an
interview with a prospective employer. Too often what a servicemember has done
in the military does not really seem to count in the civilian workforce, and
even more often, it is just not recognized. We need to ensure that
veterans are talking about their skills in a language employers understand. And
we also need to recognize that many states are not accepting the skills
veterans honed in service, often times sending them into a certification
process riddled with red tape.
I also believe the
Federal government could be doing more to hire veterans and to ensure they are
getting the hiring preference already in law. A young disabled Iraq
veteran on my own staff had an issue with a government hiring official who did
not understand veterans’ preference. The government needs to be getting
this right.
For some time now I
have traveled throughout my home state and talked to veterans about these and
other employment challenges. What these veterans have told me has been eye
opening, and should be a call to action for all of us on this Committee.
I have had veterans
tell me that they no longer write the fact that they are a veteran on their
resume because they fear the stigma they believe employers attach to the
invisible wounds of war. I have heard from medics who return home from
treating battlefield wounds who cannot get certifications to be an EMT or to
drive an ambulance. I have talked to veteran after veteran who has said
they did not have to go through the TAP program or that it just wasn’t taken
seriously when they did. I have heard from employers who say veterans do not
use the vernacular of the business world to describe the benefits of their
experience.
These stories are as
heartbreaking as they are frustrating. But more than anything they are a
reminder that we have to act now.
Our economy is
beginning to turn around. We have seen very encouraging signs that employers
are hiring and that the unemployment among the general population is beginning
to subside.
We cannot leave our
nation’s veterans behind.
We cannot continue to
pat them on their back for their service and then push them out into the job
market alone. It is time to take real, comprehensive, steps to put our veterans
to work.
That is why I plan to
aggressively pursue legislation to help our veterans make a successful
transition from military service to the working world.
This hearing is a
critical step to continue to inform that legislation and I hope that all of you
today are open and honest about the challenges we face and what you believe
needs to be done.
I also look forward to
working with all of my colleagues on this Committee on this legislation and on
every effort to improve results for our nation’s transitioning servicemembers
and veterans.
I
thank our witnesses for being here today and I look forward to your
testimony.
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