Senate Democrats Wednesday championed a bill to put veterans back to work, as the veteran unemployment rate reached 12.1 percent in October.
“These men and women, who have served our country, literally put their lives on the line, endured many, many long periods of separation from their families in order to protect our country - but the problem right now is that these veterans have a higher unemployment rate than our civilian population,” Kagan said.
Because North Carolina has the third largest military footprint in the country, this is an especially pressing issue for Kagan’s constituents.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) echoed Kagan’s sentiments and touted veterans skills and qualification that could benefit employers.
“These are individuals that possess enormous capability - great skills, the ability to complete very difficult assignments under the most excruciating pressure,” Casey said during a conference call with reporters. “Also that they have a discipline and a work ethic and a focus that you can rarely find in a broad cross-section of workers.”
Over the next two days, the Senate will look at the component of President Obama’s “American Jobs Act” aimed at spurring veterans’ employment growth.
Such a bill will provide a tax credit of up to $5,600 for hiring veterans and up to $9,600 for hiring wounded warriors. The bill will also implement a transition assistance program that will facilitate workshops for veterans meant to emphasize their skills that can be taken into civilian life.
Attached to this bill is another bill that Kagan is supportive of that will repeal the requirement that federal, state and local governments withhold three percent of federal contracts to ensure no outstanding tax links will be associated with that contract.
“If you withhold three percent out of a small business contract with the federal government, that will definitely have a significant impact on the cash flow to the small businesses,” Kagan explained.
While Veteran’s Day is only two days away, Kagan expressed hope that this bill will be passed by a bipartisan vote in time for the holiday.
“As we pause to honor our veterans and reflect on their sacrifices - we will do that on Friday- but getting them back to work truly needs to be a priority 365 days a year,” Kagan concluded. “There isn’t one veteran who should be standing in an unemployment line and I am going to fight for their jobs and their families just like they fought fought for our family and our freedom.”