Braley Provides Answer to Obama's Call for Veterans' Job Corps

Press Release

Today, while visiting Honeywell's Golden Valley facility in Golden Valley, Minnesota, President Barack Obama will speak of the need to create a Veterans' Job Corps program to put unemployed veterans back to work.

Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) is pleased that President Barack Obama continues to push for creation of a Veterans' Job Corps. On May 8, Rep. Braley introduced legislation to create a national Veterans' Job Corps, a program that would seek to put unemployed veterans back to work using skills they developed in the military -- to improve national parks, serve as police officers and firefighters, and work in communities.

This is not the first time President Obama has called for the creation of a Veterans' Job Corps. In his January State of the Union address, the President first called on Congress to create the Veterans' Job Corps. In early May in Albany, New York, Obama included the Veterans' Job Corps on a Congressional "To Do List" to create jobs.

"We have made progress in reducing the number of unemployed veterans, thanks in part to several initiatives focused on putting veterans back to work, but there is still work to do. The bottom line is the number of unemployed veterans remains far too high," Braley said.

"Men and women who've put their lives on the line for our country deserve every opportunity when they return home. Why not provide them the chance to keep contributing to the nation they love, whether as firefighters, cops, or park rangers? They've already rebuilt Iraq and Afghanistan. Now is the time to give them the chance to help rebuild America."

The Veterans' Job Corps Act would allow the executive branch to create the Vets Job Corps program as a cooperative project between federal agencies. Members of the job corps could be employed to improve public lands and national parks, prevent forest fires, work in public safety jobs like police and fire departments, and control floods. Participation in the corps would be open to unemployed veterans and unemployed widows of veterans.

As the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Braley has worked to reduce unemployment among veterans and create jobs for returning service members. Last October, Braley co-hosted a series of bipartisan field hearings on veterans' unemployment with Indiana Republican Marlin Stutzman. In November, President Obama signed into law a pair of tax credits Braley championed to give businesses incentives to hire unemployed veterans. In February, Stutzman and Braley held another veterans' unemployment hearing in Washington.

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