[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 101 (Monday, July 9, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H4661-H4663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VETERAN SKILLS TO JOBS ACT
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4155) to treat relevant military training as sufficient to
satisfy training or certification requirements for Federal licenses, as
amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4155
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Veteran Skills to Jobs
Act''.
SEC. 2. CONSIDERATION OF RELEVANT MILITARY TRAINING FOR
ISSUANCE OF A FEDERAL LICENSE.
(a) In General.--The head of each Federal licensing
authority shall consider and may accept, in the case of any
individual applying for a license, any relevant training
received by such individual while serving as a member of the
armed forces, for the purpose of satisfying the requirements
for such license.
(b) Definitions.--For purposes of this Act--
(1) the term ``license'' means a license, certification, or
other grant of permission to engage in a particular activity;
(2) the term ``Federal licensing authority'' means a
department, agency, or other entity of the Government having
authority to issue a license;
(3) the term ``armed forces'' has the meaning given such
term by section 2101(2) of title 5, United States Code; and
(4) the term ``Government'' means the Government of the
United States.
SEC. 3. REGULATIONS.
The head of each Federal licensing authority shall--
(1) with respect to any license a licensing authority
grants or is empowered to grant as of the date of enactment
of this Act, prescribe any regulations necessary to carry out
this Act not later than 180 days after such date; and
(2) with respect to any license of a licensing authority
not constituted or not empowered to grant the license as of
the date of enactment of this Act, prescribe any regulations
necessary to carry out this Act not later than 180 days after
the date on which the agency is so constituted or empowered,
as the case may be.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah.
General Leave
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5
legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Utah?
There was no objection.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
We are here today to discuss H.R. 4155, the Veteran Skills to Jobs
Act, introduced by Mr. Denham of California. I really appreciate the
approach that this is taking with jobs and the economic environment as
such. This is a commonsense, good measure. I think it is widely
supported on both sides of the aisle, and I would urge my colleagues to
pass it.
Essentially, H.R. 4155 ensures that applicants for Federal licenses
receive credit for relevant training completed while serving as a
member of the Armed Forces. While most licenses are issued by the
States, the Federal Government does grant a number of licenses, most
notably in the aerospace, communications, and maritime sectors.
After 40 months with the unemployment rate above 8 percent, we must
do more to help create jobs; and with the unemployment rate for post-9/
11 veterans at 12.7 percent, we must better support our veterans as
they transition to the civilian workforce.
In April, the Defense Business Board issued a report recommending
Federal agencies review military training as a qualification for their
respective program requirements. H.R. 4155 is in line with this
recommendation.
The bill provides some certainty to veterans during their transition
from the military by ensuring their training is taken into account when
applying for Federal licenses. The bill does not infringe on the
jurisdiction of the licensing agency. Instead, it leaves the agency
free to determine whether military training is sufficient to meet
license requirements.
H.R. 4155 will reduce the licensing burden for qualified veterans,
enabling them to more quickly re-enter the workforce and ease their
transition to civilian life.
Again, I appreciate the work of Mr. Denham, Mr. Walz, and others in a
bipartisan way to introduce this bill, and I would urge my colleagues
to support it.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of
H.R. 4155 and yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to thank the sponsors of H.R. 4155, especially Mr. Denham and
Mr. Walz, for their dedicated service to our Nation while in uniform
and for their commitment to supporting our veterans here in Congress.
I deeply value and appreciate the sacrifices made by the men and
women in our Armed Forces, and I'm proud to represent thousands of them
who reside in the 11th District of Virginia, a district that takes
military service very seriously and holds it in high esteem.
I believe that we here in Congress have a sacred duty, Mr. Speaker,
to provide for their well-being. For that reason, I strongly support
efforts to expedite the transition of our Nation's warriors to civilian
life. We need to do all we can to help these dedicated veterans find
gainful employment. It's a shameful fact that the men and women who
volunteer to safeguard our country are having so much trouble finding
steady, good-paying jobs. A double-digit unemployment rate for post-9/
11 veterans--almost double the national average--is simply
unacceptable.
Transitioning to civilian life is difficult under any circumstance;
however, this hardship is compounded when veterans cannot easily
translate their military skills into careers in the Federal or private
sector workforce through no fault of their own.
In addition, there's the task of educating employers to better
understand that so much of military training is readily transferrable
to civilian job requirements in the private sector.
We need to do better for our veterans, and I believe H.R. 4155 is a
strong step in that direction. It would require each agency with
Federal licensing authority to treat relevant military training as
sufficient to satisfy training or certification requirements for
Federal licenses. This will help our returning servicemembers get
credit for their military training towards a license which they can use
to get Federal or private sector jobs and reintegrate into civilian
life.
The Federal Government, private sector employers, and our economy
will benefit by being able to take full advantage of their talent,
unique skills, and experience as veterans.
Mr. Speaker, the Senate has already passed an identical version of
this noncontroversial, but important, bill by unanimous consent. I urge
all Members to support this bill that will enable our Nation's veterans
to get back to work.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield as much time as he
may consume to the distinguished gentleman from California, the sponsor
of the bill, Mr. Denham.
Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support legislation I
authored, H.R. 4155, the Veteran Skills to Jobs Act.
America is blessed with the strongest, most capable and professional
military in the world. Unfortunately for many of our veterans,
transitioning from service means a battle with joblessness. And as my
friend from Utah explained, the unemployment rate is 12.7 percent; but
for our young veterans, it's 29.1 percent for those that are under the
age of 25.
[[Page H4662]]
The Federal Government has invested in our servicemen with some of
the most unique, expensive, and valued training in the world. These
brave young men and women have put their lives on the line and deserve
to be able to use this training when they come back home.
With 200,000 servicemen and -women transitioning to the civilian
workforce each year, we must ensure that they're able to find jobs when
they come home. I have personally dealt with this issue when I left
Active Duty as a crew chief. Though I had training on the most
sophisticated aircraft in the world, to work on less-sophisticated
aircraft on the civilian side it would have taken me 3 years of
training after I left Active Duty.
In my conversations with Mr. Walz from Minnesota, some of the
challenges that his veterans have seen in Minnesota involve having to
go through the same State licensing procedure.
It's time to say enough is enough. If you've had the best training in
the world, you ought to be able to get the best jobs in the world; and
this body ought to make sure that certification, that licensure is a
seamless process. If you leave Active Duty today, you ought to have
work tomorrow in the private sector utilizing that very same training.
This legislation not only mirrors similar efforts on the State level
but follows the recommendation of the Defense Business Board and the
Department of Defense that issued a report calling for exactly this
same type of reform. The Veteran Skills to Jobs Act would help fix this
problem, and I'm glad to see that both Chambers of Congress are working
together in a bipartisan fashion to accomplish this very same goal.
Helping our returning veterans find jobs is not the concern of one
party or one body of Congress. The Senate adopted this matter
unanimously last week before we left for break, and it's time that this
body do the same.
{time} 1610
Again, I want to thank Mr. Walz of Minnesota for his hard work on
this effort, for the bipartisan effort. He and I have been in close
communication this entire 112th Congress in making sure that this comes
to reality, as well as Senator Nelson from Florida offering the
companion bill in the Senate. It's time to make sure that we have a
bipartisan and quick solution to this issue.
I also want to thank the American Legion, of which I'm a member. They
have worked tirelessly in both bodies, as well as from a grass-roots
perspective across the Nation working with many other service
organizations, to actually make this a reality. Now it's time that this
body does its job and pass this important measure.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my good
friend and colleague from Minnesota (Mr. Walz), the cosponsor of this
legislation.
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his
support of this bill and other veterans issues.
First of all, I'd like to thank the gentleman from California. Mr.
Denham's service in uniform to this Nation is to be commended, and his
service to our veterans has been unwavering.
He's right, we've worked on this a long time. I had the opportunity
on numerous occasions to travel downrange to visit our veterans, the
last one with my good friend from California (Mr. Denham), and the care
and concern that he showed listening to his veterans of what they need,
listening to them talk about this. One of the things on the minds of
our veterans, as they're fighting downrange defending our freedoms and
doing what's asked of them is how are they going to be able to take
care of their family when their service obligation ends.
So Mr. Denham came back, and working and reaching across the aisle,
and working over in the Senate, crafted a piece of legislation that's
not only morally the right thing to do, taking care of our veterans--
you hear a lot about the 99 percent and the 1 percent. There's truth in
that: 99 percent of us enjoy the benefits of security and national
defense while 1 percent provide it. So the moral obligation of
providing this is pretty much unquestioned, but the thing that I think
Mr. Denham looked into on this is making sure the economic impact was
felt also.
And on this, I think this is very important to keep in mind: We spend
$140 billion a year training our military. That's an investment into
those folks. When they finish their career, whether it be a stint of 4
years or whether it's a 20- or 30-year career, they come out with
incredible skill training, with incredible professionalism, and they
are a very mature workforce. Why would we not want to get our best and
brightest back working in the economy? These are entrepreneurs. These
are the folks that can get things done. This piece of legislation was
crafted in such a way to do exactly that.
Implementation of concurrent credentialing has no undue burden on the
military nor on its readiness. In fact, opportunities for credentialing
will be a selling point for our military. You can come out and move
directly into a job as an aviation mechanic or whatever it may be.
I'd like to mention just quickly here, in my State of Minnesota, an
average Active Duty servicemember with an aviation mechanic or avionics
occupation will have attended over 18 months of training and had a
minimum of 4 years of practical experience. A certified aviation
maintenance technician school costs $20,000 a year. So we've invested.
We have a trained mechanic, but we're going to have them come back,
have them be unemployed, have them try and use their GI Bill--which is
Federal dollars--to get the very same credentialing that they had when
they left at a time when we need to put them into the job. So in
Minnesota, Thief River Falls is the only place you can get this. We're
asking folks to line up and get positions that they don't have enough
spots for. It makes no sense.
So I'd like to thank the gentleman for a commonsense piece of
legislation, for a piece of legislation that addresses both our moral
and economic need. And I'd also like to say, Mr. Speaker, as the
Members in this House see, we can work together to solve problems. We
can understand--and on this issue--the sacrifice that our
servicemembers made so that we could have the honor and the privilege
of self-government and stand here and debate the country's business. We
owe it to them to conduct ourselves in a manner that's reflective of
their sacrifice and service.
And I would like to congratulate the gentleman from California for
bringing that type of comradery, that type of can-do spirit, and that
type of willingness to compromise to get things done for the good of
the soldiers.
With that, I urge my colleagues, support this legislation. Let's get
it passed.
Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, with that, let me just urge my
colleagues, in the spirit of bipartisanship, to come together and
support our veterans and to make opportunity more available. It is, as
I said, a sacred duty, it seems to me, that those men and women who are
willing to put on that uniform and serve their country ought to be
treated with respect and dignity and a job when they come home, and
this bill will go a long way to doing that.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, this is a good, commonsense, bipartisan
bill. I appreciate both these gentlemen who spoke here earlier for
their work on this, Mr. Denham and Mr. Walz.
The Veteran Skills to Jobs Act, H.R. 4155, it makes sense, it's good
government, it's what our troops deserve; and I encourage all of my
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this and send a strong
message to the military and to the private sector to let them know that
we support them, that the work they do, the skills that they learn are
a value, and that they are needed within the workforce as a whole, and
that the skills and the training they get--the best in the world--mean
something. And we can bypass this licensing issue and get them back to
work sooner rather than later.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Utah (Mr.
[[Page H4663]]
Chaffetz) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R.
4155, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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