Davis / 1 Senator Mortl

S.W.

Veteran Jobs Act of 2016

This legislation proposes to implement an affirmative action program within the Veterans
Administration for the preferential hiring of qualified veterans for VA positions. This
legislation also proposes to allocate a portion of VA discretionary funding towards job
creation at VA hospitals.
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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 Veterans Jobs Act of 2016.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) The Presidents 2017 Budget includes $182.3 billion for Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) programs in 2017. This includes $78.7 billion in discretionary resources and $103.6
billion in mandatory funding.
2) There are 1,898 VA facilities in the United States.
3) Among VA operations are 1,221 outpatient sites, 144 hospitals and 300 Vet Centers.
4) The Veterans Health Administration is Americas largest integrated health care system
with more than 1,700 sites of care, serving 8.76 million Veterans each year.
5) The VA ranks as one of the nation's leaders in health research. Thousands of studies are
conducted at VA medical centers, outpatient clinics, and nursing homes each year. This
research has significantly contributed to advancements in health care for Veterans and other
Americans.
6) The projected veteran population in 2017 is more than 21.5 million people.
7) Recent veterans were similar to the civilian group in terms of annual income from wages
and salary on average, $43,370 versus $42,972.
8) 4.7 million Veteran are actively seeking jobs in America.
9) The 2015 unemployment rate for veterans was 5.8%, almost a full percentage point
higher than the national unemployment rate.
10) The VA employs 341,000 people.
11) The VA is currently advertising for 3,000 positions, some seeking multiple people each.
Only about 50 job ads, seeking an estimated few hundred workers, are accepting
applications exclusively from veterans. And of those, all but a handful would have a returning
hero trade a rifle for a mop and $13 an hour.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Veteran Jobs Act of 2016 is established to establish additional job opportunities within
the VA for qualified veterans.
B) The VA shall set up an affirmative action program for the preferential hiring of qualified
veterans for VA positions. As part of the affirmative action program, the VA will actively post
job openings and seek veteran applications, actively seek to interview qualified veterans and
give preferential hiring consideration to qualified veterans over non-veterans. The VA shall
allocate $30 million annually from the Presidents discretionary funding to create new job
positions within the VA for qualified veterans. The VA has discretion over which jobs to be
created with these funds, but the jobs must be for the benefit of the VA system and create
job positions which the veteran population can reasonably fill. The $30 million in funding shall come
from the Presidents VA discretionary funding budget and will be used to create jobs within the VA. The VA shall be
the administering agency and is responsible to ensure the funding is used as intended by the Act. The Treasury
Department shall provide the funds to the VA pursuant to the Presidents annual budget. A portion of the funding will
also be used to pay the Office of the Inspector General to serve as the enforcement agency to oversee the VAs
compliance with the bill and conduct annual audits of the expenditures.

C)The Veterans Job Act of 2016 will be enacted as of December 1, 2016 and will expire December 1, 2021, unless
otherwise extended by Congress. The Office of Inspector General will oversee the VAs compliance with the
provisions of this Act and will conduct annual audits to ensure the funds are being spent as intended.