Madam Chairwoman and members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and our tens of thousands of members nationwide, I thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the expiring VA programs.

In the interest of time, I will limit my testimony to the Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment & Training Services VETS program.

IAVA is a proud supporter of the DOL VETS program.  I have personally had the opportunity to meet with staff members that work with this program and I continue to be thoroughly impressed with their dedication.  I have also spoken to many veterans who have benefitted from DOL programs such as Hire Vets First.  These programs are much-needed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment among recently discharged veterans is 11.9%.  The rate is even higher for veterans 18 to 24; 18% of these veterans are unemployed – that’s three times the national average.  For the 1.5 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans returning home, employment opportunities and protections are a crucial part of their transition to civilian life.  This is also the single most effective defense in combating homelessness among our nation’s veterans.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have drawn heavily on our reserve component forces.  These troops, often the breadwinners of their families, face serious economic burdens during and after deployment.  Many are business owners who face tremendous obstacles in ensuring their businesses are appropriately managed while they are gone.  One of my fellow Marines, when we deployed to Iraq, was forced to rely on the good-will of his community to ensure his family business did not go under while he was deployed.  He was a proud business owner, but had serious difficulties staffing his business while he was deployed.  Without funding for advertising, he was forced to turn to the media to let them know that he was still open for business. 

A Defense Department study in 2000 showed that 40% of reservists lose income when they are called to active duty.  Some 12,000 formal and informal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) complaints were filed by National Guardsmen and Reservists in FY2004 and FY2005, according to the GAO.

IAVA has called for better outreach and more streamlined referral system for USERRA complaints.  Currently, a service member wishing to file a complaint is forced to move through hurdles that cross three federal agencies and an onslaught of paperwork.  We also support tougher enforcement of USERRA protections, and believe that employers who consistently violate USERRA should be barred from eligibility for federal government contracts and should face civil and criminal prosecution.  In addition, the GAO has outlined a series of recommendations regarding USERRA claims referrals, which we hope the committee will seriously consider in any reauthorization of the OSC referral program.

Serving your country should not mean sacrificing your civilian livelihood.  Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the best possible employment protections.  We thank this committee for their work to support and protect our “citizen soldiers.”

Thank you for your time.