Improving Veterans' Opportunity In Education and Business Act of 2008

IMPROVING VETERANS' OPPORTUNITY IN EDUCATION AND BUSINESS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - July 29, 2008)

Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 6221, as amended, the Veteran-Owned Small Business Protection and Clarification Act of 2008.

H.R. 6225, as amended, makes three important improvements for our veterans. First, it closes a loophole in title 38, United States Code, to require that contracts awarded on behalf of Department of Veterans Affairs by agents of the Department include provision to comply with the disabled veteran-owned small business provisions in public law 109-461.

Second, the bill would expand the types of VA work-study jobs on college campuses to provide more jobs for student veterans and widen interaction between veterans, the faculty, staff and, most importantly, other students.

Finally, H.R. 6221, as amended, would take provisions from H.R. 6272 introduced by Congressman Welch to create the Military Occupational Specialty Transition (MOST) program, a modernized version of the old Service Members Occupational Conversion and Training Act, or SMOCTA.

Focusing on veterans whose military specialty does not translate well into civilian life and who do not have other training opportunities available under title, this bill will benefit veterans whose job skills no longer match what is needed by today's economy.

For example, today's army or marine infantryman is experienced with some types of technology related to their specialty, but most of their training is in small unit tactics and weapons. They are not like the technicians who service and operate sophisticated systems on a daily basis. While an infantryman has developed soft skills such as leadership and initiative that are valuable in many work places, many hands-on skills are usually not part of the resume.

Or take a sailor whose main job is to move aircraft around on the flight deck of a carrier. He works in a very dangerous environment but other than working the light line at an airport, his skill is not very transferable.

Or take the airman who is a load master who is responsible for the safe loading of cargo on aircraft. Outside of working for an airline in the same capacity, the load master has few directly transferable military skills.

I appreciate our colleague from Vermont (Mr. Welch) for his initiative to renew funding for the old Service Members Occupational Conversion and Training Act, or SMOCTA. Again, in a bipartisan manner, the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee has brought us a bill that meets Mr. Welch's goal of providing a training program for veterans who finish military service with few or no skills that are transferable to regular life.

Mr. Speaker, I extend my gratitude to Chairman Filner, Ranking Member Buyer, and subcommittee Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin for working together to bring this bill to us as a bipartisan effort to make veterans more competitive in the job market. I also want to thank our staffs for their hard work.

Mr. Speaker, I urge our colleagues to support H.R. 6221, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers also.

Again, I want to encourage my colleagues to vote for the bill, and I also want to thank Mr. Welch for his hard work in bringing forward, I think, this reauthorization. With the changes that are being made with his help is really going to help the servicemember that comes out who is disadvantaged because he hasn't received as much training in specialized fields as the other members.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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