Bills
| 3.23.22

Do Veterans and Reserve-Service Members Need Another job Placement Program? (H.R. 1227)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1227?

(Updated November 6, 2018)

This bill would create a pilot program in the Department of Defense (DOD) to enhance job placement and employment services for veterans of the Armed Forces, and members of the National Guard and Reserves.

The pilot program would be based on a job placement program model that focuses on working one-on-one with a veteran or member of the National Guard and Reserves. The services offered would focus on job placement, including:

  • Identifying unemployed and underemployed members and veterans;

  • Job matching services;

  • Resume editing;

  • Interview preparation;

  • Post-employment follow-up.

Pilot program development would be informed by existing state level employment programs. Funding for these programs are conditional, however, as this bill requires states to contribute an amount equal to at least 30 percent of the funding that the DOD forks over. All of the state-contributed funds must be from non-federal sources.

The DOD Secretary would be directed to develop a way to measure the success of the pilot program. Before March 1, 2019 the Secretary of Defense would have to submit a report describing the results of the pilot program to Congressional defense committees. This report would include:

  • A description and assessment of the pilot program’s effectiveness — including the number of veterans and members of the National Guard and Reserves that are hired and the cost-per-placement involved in those hires.

  • An assessment of the impact of the pilot program on employment levels of reservists, and its impact on the readiness of members of the Reserves.

  • A comparison of the pilot program to other programs conducted by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide unemployment and underemployment support to veterans and members of the National Guard and Reserves.

The authority to carry out this pilot program would expire on September 30, 2018, and the Secretary of Defense would be empowered to extend the program by no more than two additional fiscal years.

Argument in favor

Helping our service-members transition their skills to the workforce not only benefits veterans, but the U.S. workforce as a whole. Using federal and state resources will make the program more efficient and cost-effective.

Argument opposed

There are already programs that help service members find jobs Not to mention, this bill makes States foot part of the bill. States should be the ones who control and operate work programs for vets, not the Federal government.

Impact

Veterans and service-members, U.S. businesses and general employers, the U.S. workforce, states that participate in the pilot program, Congressional defense committees, the Department of Defense, and the Secretary of Defense.

Cost of H.R. 1227

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable. This legislation does however, limit the amount that can be spent on this pilot program in a given fiscal year at $20 million.

Additional Info

In-Depth: An essentially identical version of this legislation was introduced during the 113th Congress, but it did not advance out of committee to receive a vote.


Of Note: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2014 the unemployment rate for veterans served on active duty since September 2001 improved to 7.2 percent from around 9 percent the year before. The unemployment rate for all veterans was 5.3 percent, and there were 573,000 unemployed veterans looking for work.

This legislation is based off a veterans job placement program created by the state of California in 2012 called, Work for Warriors. It operates with with a $1.5 million annual budget, and it has helped more than 3,200 service-members find work at an average cost of $500 per person (there is no cost for eligible participants or businesses).


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Flickr user 143d ESC)