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Vietnam Veterans of America Resolutions 2007 JOBS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Issue: VVA has favored veterans’ preference since our founding convention in 1983. VVA believes that veterans’ preference is an earned individual right and benefit. Veteran’s preference is not as meaningful today as it was following World War II. Said simply, veterans’ preference is not uniformly enforced in the hiring, promotion, and retention of the public workforce at the federal, state, and local level. Background: The central problem with veterans’ preference at the federal level, and in most states and jurisdictions, is that there is no means for a veteran who believes that his or her earned right to veterans’ preference has been abridged to seek redress. There is no incentive for officials making hiring, promotion, and retention decisions to obey the law because there are no sanctions if they circumvent the law through various administrative means developed over the last fifty years. A not inconsiderable factor often is the perception of the presence of subtle and overt prejudice against veterans, particularly Vietnam veterans and disabled veterans. This resolution amends E-8-01 and E-9-01. Resolved, That: Vietnam Veterans of America takes the following positions: 1. VVA favors federal legislation that will provide for an effective and clear redress mechanism for veterans who believe that their earned rights to veterans’ preference have been violated. Such legislation must include the means for holding agencies and individual managers responsible for actions that abridge the rights of veterans. Such means of accountability must be published, widely distributed and implemented throughout all Federal agencies. 2. VVA favors similar legislation and executive action in each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all other United States territories and possessions, that would serve to establish veterans preference where it does not exist and strengthen the enforcement of any veterans’ preference statutes that currently exist. Financial Impact Statement: In accordance with motion 8 passed at VVA January 2002 National Board of Directors meeting which charges this committee with the reviewing of its relevant Resolutions and determining an expenditure estimate required to implement the Resolution, presented for consideration at the 2005 National Convention; this committee submits that implementation of the foregoing Resolution shall cost VVA National under $1,500.00. Cost of NOT implementing this Resolution is approximately 50,000 Jobs for Veterans. JOB TRAINING AND OTHER SERVICES Issue: The availability of employment, training, and vocational rehabilitation services to veterans in the last thirty years has been sporadic. VVA believes that the opportunity to obtain and sustain meaningful employment at a decent living wage is the central event in the readjustment process for all veterans. One illustration of this is that the most successful VA Vet Centers are those that have been able to secure a strong employment‑placement component in the mix of services available. The problem is that there is no consistent availability of training funds for veterans and for service providers who can help meet the special needs of veterans. Background: VVA has found that if veterans are not explicitly written into the many Federal laws that create funds for job training and placement and for services that assist individuals to overcome or ameliorate conditions that serve as barriers to getting and keeping a job, then veterans are expressly "read out" of the law at the state and service‑delivery level. The continuing movement toward block grants will only make this problem more difficult for veterans. The additional problem that has vexed many is that there is not enough accountability for performance, nor monetary incentives for good performance on the part of organizations, government entities, and individuals. Resolved, That: Vietnam Veterans of America takes the following positions: VVA holds that accountability, open competition, incentives for performance, and free market principles need to be written into all of the laws that govern employment, training, and related services. VVA holds that proportionate services to meet the special needs of veterans in all of these programs must be explicitly written into the governing statutes and regulations, with reasonable reporting, accountability mechanism, and public oversight by the Congress. This includes virtually all of the programs funded through the Department of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and selected human services programs at such agencies as the National Institutes of Health. Financial Impact Statement: In accordance with motion 8 passed at VVA January 2002 National Board of Directors meeting which charges this committee with the reviewing of its relevant Resolutions and determining an expenditure estimate required to implement the Resolution, presented for consideration at the 2005 National Convention; this committee submits that implementation of the foregoing Resolution shall cost VVA National under $1,500.00. Cost of NOT implementing this Resolution is over $100 million in potential wages and well being of Veterans. VETERANS IN BUSINESS Issue: Veterans have tried to secure assistance to enter successfully into their own business for decades. The Small Business Administration has made only modest gestures from time to time to assist veterans, always under intense pressure from the Congress and veterans’ community. As soon as that pressure relents even slightly, the agency efforts virtually cease again. Similarly, veterans in business often have dropped being a veteran from their resumes as it has impeded their careers. Despite this problem, the leaders of many of our most successful businesses, large and small, are veterans. Background: If veterans are not explicitly written into every provision of law that affects the services and opportunities available to business, veterans will be expressly “read out.” Similarly, much needs to be done by the veterans' community and the business community to enhance the image of veterans, particularly disabled veterans. Another problem is that full implementation of P.L. 106-50 Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 1999 has not been accomplished throughout all Federal agencies. This resolution amends E-15-01. Resolved, That: Vietnam Veterans of America takes the following positions: 1. VVA in the strongest language possible recommends that legislation that mandates the full implementation of P.L.106-50, The Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 1999, be accomplished throughout the Federal agencies. Those agencies, individual managers responsible for the implementation, by written policy and/or oversight be held accountable. Such means of accountability and ramification of breech must be published, widely distributed and implemented throughout all Federal agencies. 2. VVA calls on the organized business community and individual businesses to work closely with VVA and other veteran’s organizations to enhance the possibilities and opportunities for veterans to succeed in business. A special effort must be made to assist disabled veterans who have the skills and attributes that would suit them to such a career. 3. VVA calls on the Congress and the Executive Branch to take necessary steps to ensure that veteran‑owned businesses, particularly disabled‑owned businesses, have every reasonable opportunity to secure a share of Federal contracts that purchase goods and services for the Federal government. Similarly, VVA calls on the states to take similar steps modeled on the action taken by the state of California to provide opportunities for disabled veteran‑owned businesses. Financial Impact Statement: In accordance with motion 8 passed at VVA January 2002 National Board of Directors meeting which charges this committee with reviewing its relevant Resolutions and determining an expenditure estimate required to implement the Resolution, presented for consideration at the 2005 National Convention; this committee submits that implementation of the foregoing Resolution shall cost VVA National under $1,500.00. Cost of NOT implementing this Resolution is a loss of $5.2 billion in business income to Veterans.A COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (E‑18‑05)Issue: Continued unemployment and underemployment create an insecure and unstable quality of life for many Vietnam and recently returning veterans. Employment and mental health needs are frequently unmet by existing local and national policies. Background: Many Vietnam veterans are vulnerable to the numerous cutbacks, layoffs, early retirements, and industrial closings that occur daily throughout the nation. While most unemployment service agencies are responsive to veterans, frequently the special needs of aging Vietnam veterans are not met. Many of the returning Veterans from being in harms way are not having their un-seen disabilities addressed in order to maintain a living wage for themselves and/or their family. This
resolution amends E-18-95. Vietnam Veterans of America resolves to set forth guidelines for establishing a comprehensive employment resource development program to assist with employment and job search, thereby creating an improved quality of life. Be It Further Resolved that in order to live up to its motto of “Never Again Shall One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another”, Vietnam Veterans of America shall actively advocate for increases in federal funding for mental health services and programs at all Vet Centers and VHA facilities in order to assist veterans and their families (including members of the Reserve and National Guard) with mental health illnesses caused by their military service, thereby better ensuring an opportunity for the veteran’s successful reintegration into the workplace and community. Financial Impact Statement: In accordance with motion 8 passed at VVA January 2002 National Board of Directors meeting which charges this committee with the reviewing its relevant Resolutions and determining an expenditure estimate required to implement the Resolution, presented for consideration at the 2005 National Convention; this committee submits that implementation of the foregoing Resolution shall cost VVA National under $1,500.00. Cost of NOT implementing this Resolution is 200,000 jobs for Veterans and using an average income of $12,000.00 a year, which is poverty level except in HI & AK (according to 2003 Health & Human Services) for a family of one (1), the total wages earned would be $24,000,000,000.00 ($24 Billion). If you use 10% as the average tax base that would mean $2,400,000,000 ($2.4 Billion) in Federal Tax Dollars + state taxes paid.
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VVA Guides Featured Veteran-Owned Businesses: Guide to Writing a Federal Resume ETABO Committee
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