Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3286, a bill on which I am proud to have worked with my colleague and fellow veteran, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cook), whose service I honor very much.

Every single day, we have roughly 500 veterans who return to civilian life, joining the more than 2.9 million veterans who have returned home just since 9/11 alone. Now, some choose to take advantage of educational benefits they have earned, and others choose to jump right back into the workforce. Unfortunately, for many of our veterans, making that move is not as simple as submitting a resume and waiting for a call back.

Our veterans, unfortunately, often face sometimes an unfriendly job market or an unfriendly job culture that does not fully understand their needs and the unique challenges of transitioning from military servicemember life to civilian life.

Now, we have taken some important steps to encourage employers to hire more veterans, and we have seen the total percentage of unemployed veterans drop by 1.5 percent over the past year. While this is progress, the fact is, we still have over 400,000 veterans unemployed today. This tells us that more must be done, not only to get them employed but to make sure that they are employed in meaningful, good- paying jobs.

I recently hosted a panel of experts from both the public and private sector where we talked about how we can better empower our veterans in the tech sector specifically. The tech industry has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade and is the fastest growing sector in our economy. Yet, so far, veterans remain largely underrepresented, making up just 2 percent of this fast-growing industry.

Now, it is not because they are not qualified. It is not because they don't have what it takes to do the job. Through their service and training, our highly trained men and women develop the ability to lead, make decisions under pressure, act as a member of a team and accomplish the mission. The bottom line is they get the job done. These skills make them especially valuable to employers, whether it be in the tech industry or in any other business, nonprofit, or civic leadership position.

That is why I am proud to join my fellow veteran and friend, Congressman Paul Cook, today in support of this important legislation because it incentivizes employers to hire and retain veterans by creating a standard of recognition for those who go the extra mile to recruit and retain veterans, and provide services that support our veteran community.

I strongly urge our colleagues to pass this legislation and help serve and empower our veterans and businesses to thrive.

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