The president has proposed a number of jobs plans for the country but more specifically for post 9/11 veterans returning home. Believing that our veterans should be most sought out and hired, Obama continues to propose jobs plans that continue to get shut down in Congress. Obama’s most recent Veterans Jobs Corps initiative includes $5 billion that will hopefully put thousands of men and women who risked their lives serving our country back to work.
According to the blueprint of the plan discussed by CNN, $166 million in grant money will be awarded to communities that hire and show a preference to hiring veterans for new law enforcement positions. Additionally, $320 million in grant money will also be awarded to fire departments that pledge to hire and train veterans. This new plan clearly needs to work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement agencies and also involves the partnership of the Veterans Administration and the Interior Department.
Apparently, money for the grants listed above has already been set aside for this particular plan. However, Obama is proposing an extra $4 billion be added to his budget in order to expand these programs. Obama has already proposed plans such as this with added money but they were rejected last fall by Congress. A plan of his that did pass was his tax credits initiatives for businesses that hired veterans.
Aside from awarding law enforcement and fire departments for hiring veterans, Obama will also include in his budget a $1 billion proposal to add and create close to 20,000 positions for veterans involving the federal and state public lands. According to CNN, the proposal is for the conservation efforts of these lands. The positions created for veterans would include tourism and visitor-related programs as well as positions that focus on the upkeep and maintenance of such lands.
The last tier of his plan includes expanding training programs for entrepreneurial veterans that intend to start their own business. This portion of his plan includes online seminars by the Small Business Administration that could last as long as eight weeks and annually serve about 10,000 veterans.
While Obama’s plan seems very ambitious and is sure to aid veterans if passed, Congress has not taken to many of his plans as of late. As mentioned earlier, only a couple of Obama’s plans have passed through Congress, one being tax credits for businesses that decide to hire veterans. In his speech this past Friday at an Arlington, Virginia firehouse Obama said, “this has been a top priority of mine. These are Americans that every business should be competing to attract. These are the Americans that we want to keep serving here at home as we rebuild this country. So we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that when our troops come home they come home to new jobs and new opportunities and new ways to serve their country.”
Whether or not Congress agrees with him has yet to be seen.
Add comment