[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 170 (Tuesday, November 8, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7163-S7164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     VOW TO HIRE HEROES LEGISLATION

  Mr. REID. Madam President, yesterday my friend the Republican leader 
ticked off a list of bills on which he believes Democrats and 
Republicans can agree. I couldn't help but notice that the VOW to Hire 
Heroes legislation that would give tax cuts to companies to hire out-
of-work and disabled veterans wasn't on that list he ticked off.

[[Page S7164]]

  The bill I just referred to, the VOW to Hire Heroes legislation, 
ought to be free of even a whiff of controversy. House Republicans 
already voted for the major components of that bill--a plan to give 
older veterans access to job training so they can keep up with the 
rapidly changing workplace and to help young veterans transition from 
Active-Duty service to the civilian workplace.
  The bill wouldn't add a dime to the deficit, so there should be no 
objection there. It is paid for with a noncontroversial extension of an 
existing fee on VA-backed mortgages. It is a version of the same bill 
for which House Republicans already voted. Republicans have voted for 
tax credits for companies that hire out-of-work and disabled veterans 
in the past, so that can't be the holdup. We will pass this important 
legislation as an amendment to a bill sent over from the House to 
repeal a 3 percent withholding provision from government contractors. 
Republicans have been chomping at the bit to pass this measure, so the 
House vehicle for VOW to Hire Heroes is not the source of their radio 
silence, I am sure.
  There are no procedural or philosophical hurdles to passing this 
bill. But don't take my word for it, Madam President. Jeff Miller, the 
Republican chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said this 
about this bipartisan legislation yesterday:

       Today, we are putting aside politics and putting America's 
     veterans first. This is how the process should work. The VOW 
     Act, which passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan 
     support, provides the framework for this legislation and gets 
     to the root of many of the employment problems our veterans 
     face.

  With nearly a quarter of a million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans 
unemployed, this legislation can't come a moment too soon. Yet Senate 
Republicans remain curiously silent on this legislation.
  It is inconceivable that my Republican colleagues perceive this 
legislation to be unnecessary, but it also seemed unthinkable that 
Republicans would unanimously oppose legislation to create hundreds of 
thousands of jobs for teachers, firefighters, and construction workers.
  Here is what is at stake. The number of unemployed post-9/11 veterans 
has gone up by 30,000 in the last year alone. Nearly 250,000 men and 
women who volunteered to fight overseas for the flag and the privileges 
and freedoms it represents can't find a job here at home. That number 
will only grow as the two wars draw to a close. One in five young 
veterans--veterans under age 25--is unemployed. On any given night, at 
least 75,000 veterans, including 2,500 in Nevada, sleep on the streets. 
They are homeless. We should all be able to agree that even 1 night is 
too many for our Nation's heroes to pass without a roof over their 
head. Young veterans are more than twice as likely as their peers to be 
homeless and four times as likely to live in poverty. During tough 
economic times, when some young people join the military for a way to 
escape the cycle of poverty, this statistic is shocking and 
disheartening.
  I call on the minority leader and the rest of my Republican 
colleagues to break their silence. Where do they stand on the VOW to 
Hire Heroes Act? I ask my Republican colleagues, do you believe we 
should lend a hand to those who defend our freedom? Of course. Or do 
you think this Nation's responsibility to its veterans ends the day 
they take off that uniform?
  Andrew Carnegie once said that the older he got, the less mind he 
paid to what men say. ``I just watch what they do,'' he said. So I 
remind my Republican friends that the men and women of the U.S. Armed 
Forces--those who wear the uniform today and those who wore it once--
are watching what my Republican colleagues do.

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