[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17754-17755]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IMPLEMENTING THE HIRE ACT

  (Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, as more and more of our brave 
warriors return from Afghanistan, more and more of them are looking for 
work. It's our duty as a Nation to make sure that we're doing 
everything possible to get these troops reemployed. That's why I'd like 
to applaud both the Senate and the House for including in the National 
Defense Authorization Act the Helping Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans 
Return to Employment, the HIRE Act.
  What it does is establish a very commonsense process that encourages 
State credentialing authorities to consider certain military 
occupational training when granting licenses. It makes absolutely no 
sense to force a battlefield medic to spend time and Federal dollars 
taking redundant training to be an EMT. It makes no sense for a State 
agency that wouldn't count hundreds of hours driving heavy equipment in 
Afghanistan to get a CDL license. The Department of Defense spends $140 
billion a year training our military personnel, the best in the world. 
It would be ludicrous to not use that investment to get them jobs here 
at home.
  Eight States have already passed legislation to develop the process. 
I encourage Members of Congress, talk to their State and their Governor 
to get this done.

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