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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I appreciate the opportunity to address the Subcommittee on veterans employment and training issues as contained in H.R. 4765, the 21^st Century Veterans Employment and Training Act.

I would first like to discuss the activities that have been undertaken by the Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment Training Service (VETS) to enhance the provision of services to veterans and accomplish one of the key objectives of H.R. 4765, which is to update and modernize employment and training programs for veterans. I will then share with you the Department’s concerns regarding the bill.

Let me preface these remarks by bringing a message from the Secretary of Labor: as she has said before and stands by, veterans’ issues are America’s issues. The veterans’ population represents more than 14 million working Americans and according to the most recent statistics from Program Year 1998, 1.8 million or 12% of those veterans registered with the Employment Service for job-related assistance. This number does not include those that only access the electronic job services made available by the Department. The Secretary and VETS are committed to ensuring that the employment and training system of the 21^st Century serves these veterans effectively.

One of the essential elements to ensuring the effective provision of services is to implement a performance accountability system that measures and holds VETS accountable for the employment outcomes attained by the veterans we serve. We have invested significant effort in developing a strategic plan and performance measurements in accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and, with input from the General Accounting Office, are in the process of refining the plan. VETS has also worked closely with the Department’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and our State partners to refine the performance measures. Ultimately the actions taken by our agency are evaluated based on one standard - are they helping more veterans get and keep good jobs.

As part of this accountability system, VETS has also redefined the way we manage the grants awarded to the States to deliver employment services to veterans. VETS establishes goals for the States and reviews their performance in meeting those goals. In addition, we have decentralized agency management to the States and regions and away from the national office. VETS has provided greater authority to the State Directors of Veterans Employment and Training to tailor our programs to respond to particular State needs and to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). We will continue to refine our performance goals to ensure that our programs are meeting the national commitment to provide maximum employment opportunities to veterans.

VETS is also responding to the opportunities provided by new technological developments. The Secretary has put the Department of Labor in the forefront of the Federal government’s effort to prepare the 21^st Century worker for a 21^st Century career. The Department has taken a leadership role in meeting the needs of the high technology industry while that same technology changes how we live, work and learn. VETS has established a certification and licensing initiative, which includes a pilot program with the Computer Technology Industries Association and the Using (your) Military Experience and Training (UMET) website, especially tailored to transitioning military personnel and veterans who may need a credential for civilian employment. In carrying out the certification and licensing initiative, VETS has worked with Federal and State agencies, certifying agencies, and American business to ease the transition of separating military personnel into the civilian economy. VETS recently received the "Hammer Award" in recognition of this effort This is an example of how VETS is staying on the cutting edge of innovation to promote employment opportunities for our Nation’s veterans.

VETS has also incorporated new Internet based technologies to facilitate access to services. The VETS home page is easily accessible and offers a full range of self help options for many veterans. In 1997 we produced a compact disc (CD) to help direct service providers to the many sources of information on the web including our home page. Shortly, we will have ‘business card’ size CDs to guide individual users through the veterans services available on the Internet, from personality assessments and job aptitude tests to job search engines and guides to veterans benefits, and everything in-between. This CD is primarily intended for transitioning personnel, but other veterans will also benefit from the links provided on the CD. This is in conjunction with our home page on the web, which is found at www.dol.gov/dol/vets/.

We must also ensure that services are available for veterans with particular needs, including homeless veterans. Working with the Subcommittee, VETS has been able to reestablish the Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program. This year VETS was able to give 43 grants amounting to $8.2 million. Your efforts in support of this program have allowed us to help bring back dignity and self worth to thousands of previously homeless veterans. For Fiscal Year 2001, the President has proposed that $15 million be appropriated to carry out this important program.

It is also essential to ensure that the services provided through VETS are closely integrated with and complemented by the larger workforce investment system. The enactment of the WIA, the first major reform of the nation’s job training system in over 15 years, affords a critical opportunity to enhance the range and quality of services available to veterans as well as to the general population.

The WIA has been described in a New York Times article as "one of the best, but most under-reported, bipartisan achievements of the Clinton era." Enactment of this legislation was the culmination of a successful bipartisan effort on the part of the Administration and Congress to design a revitalized system that provides workers with the information, advice, job search assistance, education, training, and support they need to get and keep good jobs, and that provides employers with skilled workers. The One-Stop delivery system that is the cornerstone of the reforms has been designed with the participation of employers, labor organizations, education and community groups, and veterans service organizations, which have a large stake in its success. Reflecting the Secretary’s proactive approach to services for veterans, VETS has been a full partner in the implementation of the WIA. We have actively encouraged veterans organizations to be part of the planning and implementation process, including participating as members of the newly established local Workforce Investment Boards. We have also provided technical assistance to promote the effective participation of the programs VETS administers in the workforce investment system.

WIA includes a number of features that will benefit veterans and other participants. Eligible individuals may use the Individual Training Accounts (ITAs) to obtain training at qualified institutions. Individuals are empowered to make informed choices regarding training providers through a system of consumer reports available at all One-Stop centers. The One-Stop system will also make available labor market information and other core employment-related services, and provide access to the activities carried out by a range of Federally-funded workforce development programs (referred to as partners under the WIA). This WIA partnership, which includes veterans services as a required partner, will provide new avenues and linkages that will enable our State-funded staff to better serve veterans. I believe such integration is the wave of the future in Federally-funded programs.

As part of the effort to enhance access to employment-related services, the Department has created America’s Career Kit, a group of Internet tools that help American workers and employers navigate the labor market (America’s Job Bank, America’s Talent Bank), exercise informed choice in their workforce decisions and make training decisions linked to occupations that are experiencing skill shortages. Veterans and soon to be veterans can benefit from America’s Career Kit from anywhere in the world.

On July 10 Vice President Gore announced another important step in enhancing access to services: Access America for Workers through the release of the workers.gov web site. Workers.gov is the result of a multi-agency effort led by the Department. It provides veterans and other users with an extensive set of links to government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions and includes up-to-date information regarding workforce issues. This includes information on jobs, learning, family and health, transportation and housing, and financial management issues.

I believe these efforts to modernize and enhance employment and training services for veterans are essential to ensuring significant employment opportunities for veterans in the 21^st Century. We believe these are the appropriate approaches to improving our programs. While some of these approaches would be supported by H.R. 4765, we have significant concerns regarding many of the bill’s provisions.

First, H. R. 4765 would provide a priority of service for veterans or spouses of certain veterans in Federal employment and training programs. The Department of Labor has for some time advocated the principle of "fair share" for veterans in Federal programs. The Department has met this commitment in the past through the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), and intends to ensure it is met under the WIA, which requires assurances regarding services to veterans be included in each State plan and requires separate reporting on the outcomes attained by veterans receiving WIA services. The Department believes this is the appropriate approach and that veterans will have enhanced access to employment and training services through the One-Stop delivery system under the WIA. We therefore do not support enactment of this provision.

Second, the bill requires the Secretary to establish and implement a comprehensive performance accountability system by September 30, 2001 to measure the performance of States, political subdivision of States, regions, and individuals providing veterans, employment and training services. While we support incorporating the performance indicators of WIA as part of this system, we believe it is essential that VETS programs be assessed using Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records in measuring placements and retention in employment, as is used under WIA. We believe the current methodology results in understating the placements in employment attained by veterans served under our programs.

In this vein, VETS asked the State of Maryland to match UI wage records with Employment Service registration to determine when veterans actually became employed. When the job service office registrations were compared to the UI wage records, the data showed Program Year 1997 veteran registrants entering employment at the rate of 76.1 % in the six quarters following registration. The current methodology showed Program Year 1997 veteran registrants "entered employment" at the rate of 27.5%. The Maryland matched data for the first quarter following registration showed an "entered employment" rate of 54.1% or almost twice that rate. What makes these higher rates even more impressive is the fact that the data measures employment only in Maryland and only for non- governmental entities - they exclude employment located in surrounding States, and employment for the Federal, State and local governments. Similar comparisons of the methods for measuring placements in Texas, Missouri and Montana produced similar results.

Third, the bill repeals the statutory duties of the Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists and Local Veteran Employment Representatives (LVER). We acknowledge that these duties should be revisited, taking into account the electronic age in which DVOPs and LVERS now work and their additional activities, such as facilitating Transition Assistance Program workshops. However, we believe it is premature to repeal the current provisions. We would support the bill’s provision providing for a report by the Secretary containing recommendations relating to the duties to be carried out by DVOPs and LVERs, and believe such recommendation could provide a basis for subsequent amendments. However, it is important that changes be made in a deliberative manner after input is obtained from all relevant stakeholders.

Fourth, the bill would repeal the current formula for allotting staffing grants for DVOPs and LVERs among the States. We believe it is equitable and appropriate to base the distribution of funds on where the eligible veterans reside, as does the current formula, and oppose shifting the basis for that distribution. The current formula also provides for the number of authorized positions to be based on the number of veterans, and therefore establishes an important standard for ensuring an appropriate level of service. This is a standard that Congress recognizes and has tried mightily to fully fund. States have also been encouraged to fully staff to the apportioned level. Introducing greater uncertainty in the distribution of funds through changes to the formula could result in diminished employment services.

The Department of Labor has been working with State partners and business and labor stakeholders for over a year to develop a comprehensive bipartisan agreement to reform the unemployment insurance and employment service programs. Potential reforms include significant improvements in the structure and adequacy of administrative financing for the Unemployment Insurance, Employment Service, and Veterans employment service programs, which are all funded by Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) taxes on employers.

Fifth, the bill would divert significant resources, ranging from 5 to 10 percent of total funding, to support demonstration projects in 10 States. We believe the size and scope of these demonstrations is inappropriate. I have been a proponent of using targeted demonstration programs, or pilots, to test new approaches. However, I do not believe that these projects should be carried out at the expense of the critical services provided to veterans under the basic DVOP and LVER programs.

Sixth, the bill would establish a Presidential committee to raise employer awareness of the benefits of hiring veterans and facilitate the employment of veterans through participation in America’s Career Kit and other means. The Department agrees that employers should be made aware that veterans are responsible, dependable, hard-working, dedicated, skilled workers and that America’s Career Kit is an important tool for assisting veterans. We have made significant efforts toward accomplishing those objectives. However, we believe that in this era of tight budgets, the best use of funds is direct support of programs, rather than establishing a new, costly Commission.

VETS believes that the best way to promote the employment of veterans is on a retail level - and to include such efforts in our pilot programs as we are doing with ProVet. ProVet is an effort to determine the common hiring needs of a group of employers and matching those job openings with groups of separating military personnel with the needed job skills.

VETS actively seeks opportunities to speak to employer audiences -- I have met with Microsoft Corporation representatives, Lucent Technology human resource personnel, and with Cisco Systems officials about the benefits of hiring veterans. CompTIA, with whom VETS has a pilot program, represents more than 7,500 information technology companies. VETS is also working with the Army on a recruiting initiative, which will partner American companies with enlisting personnel, assuring the new soldiers of first class job training and a good, civilian job when they complete their enlistment.

The result is more companies are now coming to us.

Seventh, the bill would amend the veterans’ affirmative action provisions under Title 38. The Department has significant concerns regarding the impact of these changes. For example, we oppose the bill’s requirement that the Secretary shift the responsibility for the enforcement of these provisions from the Employment Standards Administration’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which currently is responsible for monitoring all nondiscrimination and affirmative action obligations of federal contractors, to VETS, which has not previously administered such provisions.

Finally, the bill would shift the status of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for VETS from a Presidential appointee to a career position. We believe this change could diminish the effectiveness of the Deputy Assistant Secretary as an advocate for veterans employment and training services and therefore would urge you not to change that long-standing status.

In conclusion, the world is changing and VETS is making changes to keep pace. During this period of adjustment, VETS is fulfilling its mission of providing the maximum number of employment and training opportunities to all veterans and other eligible persons.

Over the past year, we have often met with Committee staff to discuss and resolve licensing and certification issues, as well as other matters of interest to the Committee. We will continue to meet with this Committee while developing and implementing our Strategic Plan, in the hope of better serving our country’s veterans.

However, we do not believe that H. R. 4765 is the right way to go in bringing Title 38 into the 21^st Century.

Thank you for your attention.

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