http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/20/92538/murray-bill-seeks-to-help-veterans.htmlMurray bill seeks to help veterans find jobs
By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — With more than one in five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unemployed, Sen. Patty Murray introduced legislation Tuesday that would provide expanded training, job placement and small business assistance to them, calling the current situation unacceptable.
"It really makes you ask how this can be, how these heroes ... struggle so much when they come home," said Murray, D-Wash., adding that existing programs offered by the Veterans Affairs Department and the Defense Department were inadequate.
The legislation has bipartisan support. Among the co-sponsors are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin.
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Among other things, Murray's bill would:
* Expand the post-9/11 GI bill to allow veterans to use benefits not only for college, but for apprenticeship and worker training programs.
* Establish a Veterans Business Center Program within the Small Business Administration to help veterans forming their own businesses.
* Create pilot programs to help veterans build on the technical skills they learned in the military and market those skills in the civilian workforce.
* Create a Veterans Conservation Corps, modeled on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, which built projects throughout the country.
* Require a study that could lead to the expansion of the National Guard Employment Enhancement Project, which provides transition assistance to National Guard members.
"We can't continue to pat veterans on the back for their service and then push them into the job market alone," Murray said.
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