Thank you Madame Chair.

Today, we will hear testimony on eight bills covering diverse issues facing veterans and their families.  I am especially pleased that you have included my bill, H.R. 6221, a bill to close a possible loophole in VA’s disabled veteran business contracting and acquisition programs.  I am also very pleased that you are an original cosponsor of H.R. 6221 and I look forward to working with you on this wide range of bills.

I would offer one thought on the bill to reauthorize the long-expired Service Members’ Occupational Training Act or SMOCTA.  The goal of SMOCTA was to retrain veterans with few or no transferable military skills in skills better-suited to today’s job market.  This is a worthy goal and I support it and commend our colleague from Vermont for bringing this issue to us.

There are several ways to offer retraining and I would like to explore with you whether it would be more effective to reauthorize SMOCTA or take several SMOCTA concepts and use them to expand VA’s existing On-the-Job-Training (OJT) and apprenticeship programs for both recently discharged veterans and those who have passed their eligibility date for GI Bill benefits.

Given the current awareness of education and training for veterans, we may have an opportunity here to put more veterans into good jobs.  I know you share that goal and I look forward to working with you, Mr. Welch and our colleagues on the committee to make that happen.

I yield back.