STATEMENT
OF
VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
SUBMITTED BY
RICK WEIDMAN
DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS= AFFAIRS
REGARDING
OVERSIGHT HEARING TO EVALUATE VETERANS EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICE PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2000
Mr. Chairman, Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) would like to thank you for holding this hearing. A strong and effective Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) is still very much needed by today’s veterans, especially disabled veterans, and young veterans separating from the service and merging into the civilian labor pool. Veterans’ employment and training issues remain of paramount concern to VVA.
The demands of technology and globalization have greatly altered the dynamics of the American workforce. Knowledge, information, and computer literacy are the essential components for career success today. Most young workers can count on a career where they will switch organizations and companies several times. It is essential for VETS to be acutely “in touch” with today’s labor market and the dynamics of today’s military, and to develop a cohesive and visionary long-range strategy to effectively deliver employment services to America’s future veterans.
The mission of VETS remains the same: to assist veterans in finding meaningful, gainful employment. Many of the delivery systems that VETS currently has in place are antiquated and often detrimental to a veteran’s job search. The challenges of the 21st Century workforce demand that VETS must significantly revamp and reform its structure and methods.
The current programs of VETS are extremely process oriented. This “culture of process” needs to be converted to a system that is performance and results oriented. Mr. Chairman, VVA offers the following suggestions for a performance and results based VETS:
Priority of Service – Once upon a time, priority of service simply meant that a veteran went to the head of the line in a state or county employment office. Today, the local employment office is no longer. “One Stop Shops” have emerged, offering a myriad of social services all under one roof. The internet has become the premier tool for anyone’s job search. “Priority of Service” has become a nebulous term that is hard to define, and even harder to enforce.
Eligible veterans must continue to receive priority of service for all federally funded employment and training programs. Enforcement measures that are congruent with today’s job service delivery mechanisms must be defined and carried out by VETS. Any strategic plan developed by VETS must concretely address the issue of priority of service.
DVOP and LVER Programs - The Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) and the Local Veteran Employment Representative (LVER) program are in sore need of reform. The DVOP and LVER programs have become a bogged down bureaucracy, tethered by process-related constraints and stunted by a lack of focus on true results. These programs must become refocused towards results by infusing the system with measures and standards of quality assurance and accountability. Since the DVOP and LVER programs operate at the state level through federal grants, a system of rewards and sanctions is necessary to ensure that all states effectively and appropriately use the federal grants delivered by VETS. A total accountability system needs to be implemented which will measure the performance of the States, political subdivisions of the States, and individuals providing veterans’ employment and training services. The amount of funding a state receives should ultimately depend on the state’s past performance. Those states that exceed performance goals ought to be duly rewarded by VETS through incentive grants, and those states that do not meet the minimum standards ought to see their services contracted out to a non-profit or for-profit agency that can better provide employment and training services for veterans.
The individual DVOPs and LVERs of VETS find themselves constrained by inadequate tools, an unrealistic job description, and an inflexible work environment. The current position descriptions for DVOPs/LVERs are wholly unrealistic. The complexity and massiveness of the current job description serves as a hindrance to job performance. These job descriptions need to be replaced with descriptions that accurately reflect the nature of a DVOP’s or a LVER’s work, and encourage flexibility in said work. Mr. Chairman, VVA believes that the DVOP and LVER positions should be reserved for veterans.
DVOPs and LVERs need to be assigned to where they are most in need. A “One Stop Center” or a job service office may not always be the most effective location for a DVOP or LVER. DVOPs and LVERs ought to have the flexibility to be out-stationed in places that are sure to have a high number of veterans such as Vet Centers, VA hospitals, and military bases.
Outreach and Congressional Relations– In recent years VETS, while maintaining a public posture of accessibility and open communication, has taken on somewhat of an adversarial nature towards those who have criticized (constructively) the agency. The past year saw VETS wage a remarkably hostile and under-handed campaign to block the enactment of H.R. 4765. This is a bill that contains many of the recommendations that were just previously discussed. H.R. 4765 is a truly substantial piece of legislation that would undoubtedly lead to a more effective VETS. Instead of embracing the bill, VETS viewed it as a threat to the status quo and a threat to the very existence of the agency.
Mr. Chairman, VVA harbors serious concerns in regards to the behavior of VETS, and queries as to the legality and ethical implications of a federal government agency that has been so actively and aggressively “lobbying” the Congress for the defeat of a piece of legislation. We find it disturbing that VETS has been engaged in meetings and conversations with a private lobbying firm. We find it disturbing that VETS used taxpayers’ money to sponsor a trip to South Carolina that resulted in a much “watered down” version of H.R. 4765 being foisted upon the VSO community to support. Mr. Chairman, VVA strongly urges this subcommittee to fully and thoroughly investigate the recent actions of VETS in regards to H.R. 4765.
The Veterans Advisory Board to VETS, which consists of veterans and representatives from VSOs, has made several recommendations to VETS in the past year and has tried to take an active role in shaping agency policy. Unfortunately, the Advisory Board has been viewed as a “token” assembly of veterans by VETS, and all attempts for earnest and productive communication by the board have been stymied by VETS. Mr. Chairman, VVA finds this insulting, and above all, unproductive on the part of VETS.
Thank you for providing me the opportunity to participate in these hearings. Mr. Chairman, this concludes the testimony of Vietnam Veterans of America.
RICK WEIDMAN
Rick Weidman serves as Director of Government Relations on the National Staff of Vietnam Veterans of America. He served as a medic with Company C, 23rd Med, America Division, located in I Corps of Vietnam in 1969.
Weidman was part of the staff of VVA from 1979 to 1987, serving variously as Membership Service Director, Agency Liaison, and Director of Government Relations. He left VVA to serve in the Administration of Governor Mario M. Cuomo (NY) as Director of Veterans Employment & Training for the New York State Department of Labor.
He has served as Consultant on Legislative Affairs to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, and served at various times on the VA Readjustment Advisory Committee, the Secretary of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Veterans Employment & Training, the President’s Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities on Disabled Veterans, Advisory Committee on veterans’ entrepreneurship on the Small Business Administration, and numerous other advocacy posts in veteran affairs.
Weidman was an instructor and administrator at Johnson State College (Vermont) in the 1970s, where he was also active in community and veteran affairs. He attended Colgate University B.A., (1967), and did graduate study at the University of Vermont.
He is married and has four children.
VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
Funding Statement
September 27, 2000
The national organization Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is a non-profit veterans membership organization registered as a 501(c)(19) with the Internal Revenue Service. VVA is also appropriately registered with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives in compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.
VVA is not currently in receipt of any federal grant or contract, other than the routine allocation of office space and associated resources in VA Regional Offices for outreach and direct services through its Veterans Benefits Program (Service Representatives). This is also true of the previous two fiscal years.
For further information, please contact:
Director, Government Relations
Vietnam Veterans of America
(301) 585-4000, extension 127
E-mail us at govtrelations@vva.org