Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

With the ending of the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DOD) dramatically downsized its personnel strength. In 1990 Congress, in an attempt to assist separating service members in making a successful transition back into the civilian workforce, enacted Public Law (P.L.) 101-510 which authorized the creation of the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). This law was intended to assist service members, especially those who possessed certain critical military specialties that could not be easily transferred to a civilian work environment, with educational and career choices.

DOD’s TAP and Disabled Transition Assistance Program (DTAP) are designed, in conjunction with Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to help prepare not only separating service members, but also their families for a seamless transition to civilian life. Last year, more than 386,200 service members were discharged from active duty status and over 500,534 service members demobilized from active duty service. As mentioned, P.L. 101-510 (Chapter 58, Section 1142) mandates pre-separation counseling for transitioning service members. These programs consist of specific components: pre-separation counseling; employment assistance; relocation assistance; education, training, health and life insurance counseling; finance counseling; Reserve affiliation; and disabled transition assistance seminars. DTAP is designed to educate and facilitate disabled veterans to overcome potential barriers to meaningful employment. Currently, VA, DOL, and DOD operate 215 transition offices around the world.

While the TAP program assists transitioning service members leaving the military under their own accord, the DTAP program focuses on the specialized needs of the service members who are separating for medical reasons. The DTAP workshop is a half-day seminar sponsored jointly by DOL, DOD and VA. The workshop provides specialized information on VA’s many disability benefits including:

• Medical Care
• CHAMPVA
• Disability Compensation
• Vocational Rehabilitation
• Disabled Veterans Insurance

In this current era of a significantly smaller all-volunteer military, the reliance on the National Guard and Reserve to fight the present Global War on Terror is unprecedented. The Reserve forces have become an essential part of all current DOD operations. Reservists in Iraq and Afghanistan reflect a significant portion of the total deployed force in any given month, and DOD reports that continued reliance on the 1.8 million Reserve and National Guard troops will continue well into the foreseeable future. Attracting and retaining well qualified individuals to execute the fundamental functions of a strong and viable national defense is paramount. Without providing proper incentives for service members to enlist and reenlist, the military will continue to be hard pressed to effectively accomplish their Global War on Terror mission.

Medical Care/ Disability Compensation:

In the last several years, VA has improved its outreach efforts, especially its efforts to reach and inform active duty service members preparing to leave the military. The American Legion remains concerned, however, that a majority of transitioning service members, of the Reserves and National Guard, especially those returning from Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF) are not being adequately advised of the benefits and services available to them from VA and other Federal and state agencies.

Currently, Reserve and Guard members learn of their veterans’ benefits by a variety of avenues, such as demobilizations and state reintegration briefings, post deployment health reassessments, and individual unit sponsored briefings. Unfortunately, VA efforts regarding TAP are hampered by the fact that only one of the services, the Marine Corps, requires its separating members to attend these briefings. This flag in the system did not escape the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) and resulted in the recommendation that Congress mandate TAP briefings and attendance throughout DOD. The American Legion strongly agrees with that recommendation. In order for all separating service members to be properly advised of all VA benefits to which they may entitled, it is crucial that Congress adequately fund and mandate both TAP availability and attendance in all of the military services.

VA also affords separating service members the opportunity to start the disability claims process, at least 6 months prior to separation from active duty, through its Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program. Unfortunately, this program is not available to all separating service members with service-related medical conditions as the program is only available at 140 installations, which totally bypasses separating members of the Reserves and National Guard.

Reservists Return to Find No Jobs

National Guard and Reserve troops are returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only to encounter difficulties with their Federal and civilian employers at home. Many of these returning service members have lost jobs, promotions, benefits and, in a few cases, they have even encountered job demotions.

According to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, employers must protect the old jobs of deployed service members, or provide them with equivalent positions. Benefits, raises, and promotions must be protected, as if the service member had never left. In many cases this law has not been able to protect many returning service members across the country from the negative effects of long deployments. Service members would greatly benefit by having access to the resources and knowledge that TAP can provide, but the program should have stronger employment, mental health, and small business components.

The Effects of Reserve Call-ups on Civilian Employers and Veteran Owned Businesses

The impact of deployment on self-employed Reservists is tragic with a reported 40 percent of all veteran owned businesses suffering financial losses and, in some cases, bankruptcies. Many veteran owned small businesses are unable to operate and suffer some form of financial loss when key employees are activated. The Congressional Budget Office in a report titled The Effects of Reserve Call-Ups on Civilian Employers stated that it “… expects that as many as 30,000 small businesses and 55,000 self-employed individuals may be more severely affected if their Reservist employee or owner is activated.”

Currently, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loans. This program offers loans to businesses that meet certain eligibility criteria to help offset the economic consequences of the loss of their Reservist personnel. To qualify, a company must be able to show that the activated Reservist is critical to the success of the company. The American Legion recommends that the SBA should be part of any Reservist and National Guard TAP briefing, and act in an advisory capacity to those veterans who are small business owners, to assist them with resources and information to help lessen the impact of activation on their bottom line.

Education and the GI Bill

Historically, The American Legion has encouraged the development of essential benefits to help attract and retain service members into the Armed Services, as well as to assist them in making the best possible transition back to the civilian community. On June 22, 1944, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, which later became known as the GI Bill of Rights. This historic piece of legislation, authored by the leadership of The American Legion, enabled veterans to purchase their first homes, attend college, and start private businesses. The emergence of the American middle class, the suburbs, civil rights, and finally a worldwide economic boom can be attributed to this important legislation.

The majority of individuals who join the National Guard or Reserves enter the Armed Forces straight out of high school, and many are full and part time students. With the number of activations since September 11, these same Reservists are discovering that their graduation will take longer than once anticipated. Currently, the Montgomery GI Bill pays the average Reservist $317 a month compared to his active duty counterpart who is paid $1,101 a month.

With the rising cost of tuition, many Reservists must resort to commercial loans and other loans or grants to supplement the Montgomery GI Bill. When a service member is forced to withdraw from school due to military obligation, the commercial loan must still be paid regardless of whether the student finishes the course, adding to the accumulated debt of that service member.

The American Legion recommends that TAP briefings include an education representative to provide National Guard and Reservist members this kind of information so they can avoid undue financial hardship.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

On December 19, 2003, the President signed into law a complete update of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA) of 1940. This helps ease the economic and legal burdens on military personnel called to active duty status in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Relief under SCRA extends to actions terminating leases, evictions, foreclosures and repossessions, default judgments, lower interest rates on credit cards and loans and protects against lapses or termination of insurance policies.

With the military’s increased reliance on National Guard and Reserve units, creditors residing in remote areas of the country outside of the traditional military towns are not aware of this Act, including members of the Reserve component. Therefore, service members are experiencing serious financial difficulties while on active duty – their cars are repossessed, homes foreclosed and credit histories ruined because this piece of legislation is unknown.

The American Legion has produced a brochure on active duty legal rights, copies of which will be distributed across the country to servicemembers, their families, and local community businesses which will their knowledge of the program; thereby alleviating some of the frustration, misinformation, and misunderstandings that could be avoided if TAP was a mandatory program. To their credit, Navy TAP representatives discuss personal financial planning during workshops and seminars. However, the Reserve components need to have this issue also addressed pre and post deployment.

Make TAP/DTAP a Mandatory Program

DOL estimates that 60 percent to 65 percent of all separating active duty service members attend the employment TAP seminars and 30 percent of all separating National Guard and Reservists attend a portion of TAP. The American Legion believes this low attendance number is a disservice to all transitioning service members. Many service members and most National Guard and Reservists are unaware of the assistance and resources offered by TAP. Without this program, service members who have served their country bravely return to the civilian workforce less equipped than their counterparts who took advantage of the information provided by TAP. According to written testimony from John M. McWilliam, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Veterans’ Employment and Training, Department of Labor, May 12, 2005, “We have been working with the National Guard and Reserve on providing TAP services to these returning service members in many states on an informal and as needed basis. In this regard, three Reserve Component TAP demonstration programs are underway in Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota.”

DOD and DOL report that in Oregon 40 percent of those part time service members who attended the TAP session were looking for employment.

Access to TAP

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, Enhanced Services Could Improve Transition Assistance for Reserves and National Guard, May 2005, reports TAP is not made available to the National Guard and Reserves. “TAP managers with DOD and the military services explained that the chief problem is lack of time during demobilization, which is often completed in 5 days.” The American Legion recommends that TAP be instituted in the following ways:

• Incorporate TAP into the unit’s training schedule months before activation;
• Have a TAP briefing during a unit’s organization day that includes spouses;
• Activate a unit for a weekend either before or after a deployment;
• Most units spend three to eight weeks at an installation site preparing to move into theater -- TAP briefings should be available; and
• Spend extra day or two at a demobilization site to include TAP.

The GAO report also states that many service members are not interested in the employment segment because they believe they have jobs waiting for them once they return home. That might have been true with the first rotations into theater; however, that is not the case now for many veterans, especially with back to back deployments. A number of complaints have surfaced from service members around the country that some businesses are reluctant to hire veterans still in the military and businesses have allegedly started putting pressure on veterans who have deployed once not to deploy a second time. As stated earlier, The American Legion recommends that TAP become a mandatory program for both pre and post deployment.

Transitional Assistance Program for National Guard and Reserves:

Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland

The TAP program located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, has been called a unique program and still highly regarded as model for all the Army. It is currently the only program that offers transition assistance to Guard and Reserves with an 8-hour presentation of services and benefits. Briefings are given covering Finance, Education, USERRA, VA compensation and disability claims, Employment Assistance, Mental Health Counseling Services, and Tri-Care. The program also has a number of unique partnerships with many Federal, State and local agencies. Some of those partnerships include: the Maryland Division of Workforce Development, Perry Point VA Hospital, Department of Labor, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Ft. Monmouth, N.J., Transition Office. The program has a pro-active philosophy. Some examples include:

• Service members needing employment are given immediate assistance. In some cases this has led to immediate hires, and those service members returned home with a job while avoiding unemployment. If the veteran lives outside the state a point of contact is given for that individual to ensure there is a veteran representative waiting with job service resources.
• The Perry Point VA Hospital offers immediate shelter to service members who may be homeless, which lessens the numbers of homeless veterans on the nation’s streets. VA reports that more than 175,000 veterans are currently homeless and another 250,000 are homeless over a period of time. VA has also reported that the number of homeless veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan is increasing, especially among women with children. The American Legion believes the first line of defense in preventing additional homeless cases is to have a strong and pro-active transitional assistance program.
• Service members who need assistance with filling out compensation and disability claims are offered immediate assistance by visiting VA representatives. The program has received positive feedback by service members and commanders.

Legion Out Reach Programs

Heroes to Hometowns 

In an effort to increase transparency and cooperation between the DOD and the American people, The American Legion entered into an understanding with the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) Office of Military Community and Family Policy (MCFP) under the authority of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, Leslye A. Arsht to assist in outreach and assistance efforts to transitioning severely injured service members. The American Legion agreed to provide outreach support to the military community's severely injured as they transitioned home through a program known as Heroes to Hometowns. This program embodies The American Legion's long standing history of caring for those "who borne the battle" and their families.

Heroes to Hometowns is designed to welcome home service members who can no longer serve in the military. The American public’s strong support for its troops is especially evident in their willingness to help service members who are severely injured in the war, and their ever-supportive families, as they transition from the hospital environment and return to civilian life.

Heroes to Hometowns is a program that focuses on reintegration back into the community, with networks established at the national and state levels to better identify the extraordinary needs of retuning families before they return home and to with the local community to coordinate government and non-government resources as necessary for as long as needed.

There are three charter members in each State’s Heroes to Hometowns Executive Committee, each uniquely able to contribute to overall support with the ability to tap into their national, state, and local support systems to provide essential links to government, corporate, and non-profit resources at all levels and to garner the all important hometown support.

State Heroes to Hometowns Committees are the link between the Military Treatment Facilities and the community. The charter members consist of the State Office of Veterans Affairs, the State Transition Assistance Office and the State’s veteran community represented by The American Legion. Heroes to Hometowns is a collaborative effort and The American Legion leads communities in preparing for returning service members in areas such as:

• Financial Assistance;
• Finding suitable homes and adapting as needed;
• Home and Vehicle repairs;
• Transportation for veterans to medical appointments;
• Employment and educational assistance;
• Child care support;
• Arrange Welcome home celebrations; and
• Sports and recreation opportunities.

When transitioning veterans request assistance via a web-form or brochure available through The American Legion, the veterans’ contact information is shared the State Executive Committee. The veteran must agree to share this non-sensitive information such as their name, address and telephone number of the caller and the type of assistance requested. This information is shared with the three charter members to coordinate support.

The American Legion State offices refer the veteran’s request to the local post, which voluntarily connects with the veteran to provide community resources. The Heroes to Hometowns Program focuses on those needs not provided by Federal and state agencies.

To assist in the coordination of community resources, The American Legion supports OSD's Military Homefront's Online Support Network for military personnel and community organizations to connect and collaborate. This online network is dedicated to citizens and organizations that support America's service men and women. Through the support network, veterans can easily identify and quickly connect with national, state and community support programs. In 2007, the Heroes to Hometowns program expanded its vision to include all transitioning service members, to include the underserved National Guard and Reserve components. Currently, the National Guard and Reserve do not have mandated Transition Assistance Programs (TAP) when demobilizing. This hard to reach population primarily lives in rural America, disconnected from the traditional services provided by DOD or the VA. The American Legion, with its 2.7 million members and 14,000 posts, reaches into these rural communities conveying a consistent message of strong support for America’s military personnel; the veterans who return home; care for the veteran's family; and a patriotic pride in America. With the Heroes to Hometowns program, The American Legion reaches out to provide support long-after the deployment is over. 

Assessing Services Rendered

The American Legion recommends that Congress require Federal agencies that deliver TAP/DTAP services to develop a management-monitoring program to better assess how well services are being delivered to transitioning service members. Currently, the effectiveness of services provided by TAP agencies is unknown because adequate performance goals and benchmarking measures have never been instituted. Consequently, there is a lack of any verifiable outcome data. Performance measures should be instituted to hold all Federal agencies involved in TAP/DTAP accountable for services rendered.

Summary

America asks its young people to serve in the armed forces to guard and defend this great nation and its way of life. Their selfless service provides millions of Americans with the opportunity to pursue their vocational endeavors. The successful transition of that service member back into the civilian workforce must be a shared responsibility, especially if that service member has suffered service-connected disabilities. There is much talk about “seamless transition” between DOD and VA, but it goes beyond that. It should be a “seamless transition” between all Federal agencies involved in a transition assistance program. That means:

• Ensuring service members know their active duty legal rights and that those Federal agencies involved should monitor and assist in the compliance with those rights;
• Prompt adjudication of disability claims;
• Prompt adjudication of educational claims;
• Timely access to Tri-Care and VA quality health care;
• Housing of the homeless;
• Employment assistance;
• Small business assistance; and
• Any other Federal assistance, as needed

The American Legion reaffirms its strong support of TAP/DTAP, but also encourages DOD to require that all separating, active-duty service members, including those from the Reserves and the National Guard, be given an opportunity to participate in TAP/DTAP training not more than 180 days prior to their separation or retirement from the armed forces, and follow-up counseling not later than 180 days after separation from active duty. The American Legion supports efforts to mandate that all service members be given the opportunity to participate in TAP/DTAP.