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Bill Senate Passed Help Unemployed Veterans

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With Veteran’s day just around the corner, the Senate unanimously decided to pass a bill which will help veterans seeking jobs while unemployed. The bill will also aid federal contractors that are facing a new tax burden in 2013. The Senate passed it with a landslide vote of 95-to-0. Thus far, this bill is the only part of President Obama’s job package that has made it beyond the Senate chamber. It moves on to the House, which will take up the bill and pass it next week.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers claim the bill will create bipartisan jobs, and are expected to reduce federal deficits by $2 million throughout the next ten years. “The bills won’t solve our jobs crisis. But this attempt at bipartisanship has been used to help get them over the finish line and represents our best shot at making progress on jobs in the economy,” Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, stated Thursday.

With this bill, employers will receive up to $5,600 in tax credits for hiring veterans for longer than six months. When hiring disabled veterans that have been long-unemployed, employers can receive up to $9,600 in tax credits.

Veterans have sacrificially served the country, and come back to civilian life facing great difficulties. Montana Democrat who sponsors the veterans’ measure, Senator Jon Tester encourage the government by saying, “Let’s work together to get this bill passed, because it’s the least we can do for those whom we owe so much.” About 240,000 veterans are unemployed, according to a report from the White House. The October unemployment rate for veterans that left the armed forces after 2001 was 12.1%. The measure will help aid these faithful veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs charge vets fees for the guarantee that mortgage levels remain steady. The Senate plans to pay for the tax credits by keeping special fees from this program. Instead of reducing fees to veterans as planned, the government will keep fees at current levels so they can dip into that revenue stream.

In addition to jobs, the bill will expand its jobs and education retraining program for unemployed veterans. This will also create a new project for the Labor Department. They will need to plan how to enable veterans to use the specialized training in the civilian workforce to gain licenses in various fields.

The White House supports this new measure. It says that the measure will “reduce unemployment and ensure that our veterans leave the military with the tools they need to succeed in the civilian workforce.” This is the least that the nation can do for those who have faithfully and sacrificially given of themselves for the safety of this country. The bill has moved to the House, and is expected to pass sometime this week.

Bill Senate Passed Help Unemployed Veterans by
Authored by: Harrison Barnes