House passes veterans employment bills - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

House passes veterans employment bills

The House of Representatives approved three veterans bills Tuesday, involving job protections for federal workers who are also in the reserves, demanding faster training for federal specialists in job placement, and using $200,000 in grants to encourage development of technologies to make home life easier for severely disabled veterans.

Rep. John Boozman, ranking Republican on the House veterans’ economic opportunity subcommittee, is the chief sponsor of HR 1170, the assisted technology grant bill.

“The goal of this bill is to encourage the development of technology to provide the maximum level of independence to severely disabled veterans in their daily living,” he said.

This would include things like voice-recognition systems to help increase independence so that disabled veterans could feed themselves, be more mobile and enjoy more recreational activities.

If technology funded by the grants works and becomes widely available, the government would retain at least 30 percent of the patent rights, although the Congressional Budget Office cautioned in a cost estimate that taxpayers should not expect this to be a big moneymaker.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., the veterans’ economic opportunity panel chairwoman, is the chief sponsor of HR 1088, the House-passed bill that orders training within one year of hiring for state employees assigned to duties as Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialists and Local Veterans’ Employment Specialists, known in veterans circles as DVOPS and LVERs.

Current Labor Department rules give new hires up to three years to attend the national Veterans Employment Training Services Institute, based in Denver, to learn about their responsibilities to help veterans, especially those with special needs, get jobs. This includes training, career counseling and job referrals. On average, it takes 2½ years for a new employee to attend the training, which means there are hired specialists who are not fully trained.

The bill requires new employees and any current employee hired since the start of 2006 who has not yet gone through the training to complete the course within one year. There is a short-term cost, because the training and travel costs for two five-day courses are estimated to be about $3,500 per person. The cost of the bill is put at about $3 million over the next four years, when training would be caught up.

The third bill passed by the House, HR 1170, also sponsored by Herseth Sandlin, gives the Office of Special Counsel responsibility for the investigation and prosecution of cases of employment and re-employment rights violations by federal agencies, power that currently rests with the Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment Training Service.

The shift would send the Special Counsel about 200 to 300 cases a year, and require an increase of about $3 million a year in its $17 million annual budget. The number of cases is so small it is not expected to have any significant change in the workload at the Labor Department, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.

The bills now go to the Senate for consideration.

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