House committee passes jobs bill for veterans - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

House committee passes jobs bill for veterans

A key House committee approved a $1.5 billion veterans’ employment bill Thursday that promises a new job retraining program for veterans aged 35 and older who have been out of work for at least 26 weeks as well as improvements in transition assistance, job placement and professional licensing initiatives for all veterans.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee passed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act, HR 2433, on a 17-5 vote, with opposition coming from some Democrats opposed to how the employment programs would be funded. The bill would reduce pensions for some low-income veterans in nursing homes and delays previously planned reductions in fees on veterans’ home loans.

Rep. Bob Filner of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said using home loan fees to pay for employment aid is “strange, hypocritical and even tragic.”

He also said the programs in the bill would not provide any immediate jobs. “Retraining is great, but if there are no jobs what good does it do?”

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the committee chairman and chief sponsor of what is being called the VOW Act, said he would consider any alternative funding that Filner can come up with, but he does not want to delay passage of the bill. “Jobless numbers that are out there today are not acceptable,” Miller said. “One million veterans out of work is not acceptable.”

Miller aides noted that Filner has supported dipping into home loan fees in the past, most recently as an offset to cover GI Bill costs.

In addition to the employment bill, the veterans’ committee passed:

• HR 2302, which would require quarterly reports from the Veterans Affairs Department detailing costs for conferences sponsored by the VA.

• HR 2349, which would create a test program under which VA claims processors would be tested on their skills and provided remedial training for deficiencies. Those who do not receive a satisfactory grade after two remedial training opportunities could face disciplinary action. This bill also includes a provision that would exempt insurance settlements from being counted as income when determining eligibility for means-based veterans’ pensions, and another provision that would allow VA to use electronic communication for veterans’ benefits claims instead of regular mail.

• HR 2074, which would require improvements in the reporting and tracking of sexual assault on VA property. It also would order VA to allow service dogs on all property and create a pilot program to determine whether veterans with service-connected mental health or stress disorders would benefit from working as service dog trainers.

• HR 1025, which would make a symbolic change in law defining National Guard and reserve members as veterans, a status that currently is limited by law to those who have extended active service.

• HR 1263, which would extend protections against foreclosure in the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act to surviving spouses of troops who die while in the military or after leaving the military of a service-connected cause. It also would require companies lending money to service members to have compliance offices.

• HR 2646, a $1.3 billion veterans’ health care facility construction bill that would fund earthquake-related projects at VA medical care facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles, and other major projects in Fayetteville, Ark.; Orlando, Fla.; Palo Alto, Calif.; St. Louis; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.