Obama details $5 billion veterans jobs proposal
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WASHINGTON -- Veterans who want to work as police officers and firefighters could get some help from the White House if Congress signs on to $5 billion in funding to spur the hiring of emergency responders.
President Barack Obama on Friday offered a glimpse of some of the spending priorities he intends to lay out in his Feb. 13 budget address.
The proposal makes good on a promise in last month's State of the Union address that the president would put veterans to work rebuilding the country and making it safer.
"They do incredible work. Nobody's more skilled, more precise, more diligent, more disciplined," Mr. Obama said Friday during an appearance at a fire station in Arlington County, Va. "Our veterans are some of the most highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled workers that we've got. These are Americans that every business should be competing to attract."
The jobless rate is 7.5 percent for all veterans and 9.1 percent for those who left active duty after the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to a jobs report released Friday. That's down from 13.3 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively, a year ago.
The president's budget proposal will include $4 billion for Community Oriented Policing and $1 billion in grants for firefighter training. Departments that hire post-9/11 veterans will get preference for the grants.
Another Obama initiative -- reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps -- would create a Veterans Job Corps that would put 20,000 veterans to work on projects to preserve and restore national parks and other federal, state and local lands.
Mr. Obama's initiatives build on a program he signed into law in November that provides tax credits to businesses that hire veterans who have been unemployed at least six months. That legislation was sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
That effort combined with the plan announced Friday, could go a long way in helping unemployed veterans, said James Wright, professor emeritus of Dartmouth College and author of the forthcoming book "Those Who Have Borne the Battle."
"Everyone recognizes that unemployment is a major issue, and it's particularly embarrassing that veteran unemployment rates are higher than the population as a whole," Mr. Wright said. He attributes that to stereotypes of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and to employers' reluctance to hire reservists who might be deployed when they're needed at work.
"President Obama is recognizing that these veterans can step up and assume responsibilities in public and private jobs," said Mr. Wright, who served in the Marines. "Employers would do well to look at the veteran population when they have job opportunities because they've demonstrated their abilities."
First Published February 4, 2012 12:00 am
