Veterans Groups and Re-Employment

Two of the biggest organizations for veterans are now divided all because of a House bill. The House bill would help with the expansion of re-employment rights for all of the veterans but while one organization supports the bill, the other does not. The Veterans of Foreign Wars opposes the bill because they believe that the bill would make it more challenging for those who are members of the National Guard to find employment, especially within bigger companies. In the meantime, the American Legion is in support of bill. The House bill is sponsored by Representative John Garamendi and would basically prevent companies from being able to make claims of undue hardship as the reason behind the companies not hiring veterans. Garamendi believes that under the undue hardship, too many companies are allowed to get away with not hiring veterans, which is simply unfair to those who have served the country. At this point, employers can easily choose not to re-hire a veteran who has recently returned back to civilian life if they choose. But with the bill that he has proposed, only the smaller businesses would be able to claim undue hardship.

One member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Ryan Gallucci, says that he does understand the primary goal of the bill, which is to prevent larger companies from being able to deny veterans of the employment that they need. However, he says that he has some serious concerns as well, believing that such protection could actually cause more damage to veterans instead of helping them as it generally supposed to. He says that the Veterans of Foreign Wars is opposing the bill because they have come to the agreement that the bill could make veteran employees, specifically those who served or the National Guard, not so attractive to those bigger companies. He believes that the bill could make it more difficult for veterans to find employment, especially since companies will see veterans as some sort of legal liability over everything else.

On the other hand, The American Legion is supporting the bill and believes that under the bill, a larger number of veterans would have an easier time finding the employment they were looking for. They believe that under this bill, those who are returning to civilian life will return home knowing that they also have the job that they once had before they left off to combat, which is important. Several of the agencies agree to the bill and support it to the fullest, even if some minor adjustments need to be made, which will likely to occur. The bill that Garamendi has proposed is just one of many bills that have been created to help veterans with re-employment.