NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Washington, DC – Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, Democratic Leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee has joined with Congressman Ron Klink [D-PA] to introduce legislation to simplify hiring of post-Vietnam era veterans for jobs in the federal workforce. The Klink-Evans legislation will reinstate the special federal hiring authority for post-Vietnam era veterans under the Veterans’ Readjustment Appointment (VRA). Previous authority for hiring post-Vietnam era veterans expired on December 31, 1999, for those post-Vietnam era veterans who were last released from active duty more than ten years ago.

Veterans of the Armed Forces have been given varying degrees of preference in appointments to federal jobs since the time of the Civil War. The VRA authority has traditionally been a special means by which agencies have, at their discretion, been empowered to appoint eligible veterans without competition to positions at any grade level through General Schedule (GS) 11 or its equivalent.

The authority to non-competitively appoint post-Vietnam era veterans under the VRA authority expired on December 31, 1999, for those post-Vietnam era veterans who were last released from active duty more than ten years ago. "Putting a sunset clause on honoring our younger veterans never made sense," Evans said. "Recognizing the many hardships and sacrifices the men and women in uniform have endured while serving this country, I was proud to introduce H.R. 4933, the Klink-Evans Act, which would reauthorize the VRA authority for our post-Vietnam era veterans.