July 4, 2009                                                                                             AFL-CIO

 This is the first issue of a regular series of newsletters containing updates on jobs and health care issues important to veterans. 

Employee Free Choice Affirms Freedoms We Fought For  This Fourth of July, there will parades, picnics, family gatherings and speeches about what it means to be an American and a patriot. For the men and women who have served in the military, being a patriot means fighting at home to protect the freedoms they defended in conflicts abroad. And for millions of them, that means belonging to a union.  See what young returning vets have to say about Helmets to Hardhats and the Employee Free Choice Act on the AFL-CIO Blog July 4^th.

DOL Awards 17 Grants Totaling $7.5 Million To Train Some 3,000 Veterans for Green Jobs  The Labor Department has awarded 17 grants totaling more than $7.5 million to train approximately 3,000 military veterans for civilian careers, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis announced July 1.

The grants, which are being awarded under DOL's Veterans' Workforce Investment Program, will emphasize training for green jobs, Solis said. Fields of employment include energy efficiency and renewable energy, modern electric-power development, and clean vehicles.

The Veterans' Workforce Investment Program is administered by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Veterans' Employment and Training.

The president is “pushing for the weatherization of 1 million homes,” which will fuel a demand for green jobs, Solis said. Green jobs are likely to pay wages that are 10 percent to 20 percent higher than the average wage for comparable, nongreen jobs, she added.

The grants will fund skills assessments, individual job counseling, classroom or on-the-job training, skills upgrading or retraining, placement assistance, and follow-up services. The grants' performance period will run from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010.  You can see a full list of organizations receiving the grants and the areas they cover in the full press release.

Website Offers Assistance To Employers Looking To Hire Vets.   In continuing coverage, the last story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum's (6/27) "Veterans' Focus" column noted, "Employers wanting to hire a veteran can go to the Department of Labor's 'America's Heroes at Work'" website, "which contains resources to help employers recruit, hire, and retain qualified veteran employees affected by PTSD or TBI. For more information, go to www.americasheroesatwork.gov/index.html."

Eligibility Threshold Lowered For Priority 8 Vets.   In continuing coverage, the lead story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum's (6/27) "Veterans' Focus" column said Veterans Affairs healthcare was recently opened "to about 266,000 nondisabled veterans," the change effectively increasing "income eligibility thresholds for Priority 8" vets.

VA Officials Confident About Smooth Launch Of Post-9/11 GI Bill.   The Navy Times (6/26, Maze) reports, "Department of Veterans Affairs officials expressed confidence that the Aug. 1 launch of the Post-9/11 GI Bill will go smoothly, with the first benefits checks to be cut by the Treasury Department on Aug. 3. Testifying Thursday before" a House Veterans Affairs Committee panel, Keith Wilson, the VA's education service director, "said about 84,000 applications have been received, with 47,000 already processed and awaiting final certification of enrollment and calculation of tuition and fee payments." Wilson, "the VA official responsible for the program, is optimistic partly because a test of the accuracy in processing claims found 92 percent were done correctly, and most of the errors 'were fairly benign.'"   NextGov (6/26, Brewin) says that when Congress passed the Post-9/11 GI Bill, "veterans groups and critics worried" the VA "didn't have time to build a computer system to process the applications. But VA is processing claims faster than it receives them thanks to new information technology systems that partially automate the work, top department officials told" the House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee on Thursday. NextGov adds, "Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said he appreciates 'the fact VA is re-doubling its efforts to make sure the new GI bill payment process works' and added that veterans and Congress need to be reassured that the agency is prepared to pay Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans their correct education benefit in a timely manner."

VA Begins Long-Term Study Of Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   In continuing coverage, the third story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum's (6/27) "Veterans' Focus" column noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs "has initiated a long-term study of 60,000 veterans who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The 'National Health Study for a New Generation of US Veterans' will compare 30,000" vets "who served in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 who did not. The study will compare the deployed and non-deployed veterans in terms of chronic medical conditions, traumatic brain injury," post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) "and other psychological conditions, general health perceptions, and other lifestyle choices and actions that follow their military service."

Lawmaker Calls On Shinseki To Cut Down Unprocessed Claims Backlog.   In continuing coverage, a blog for New York's The Batavian (6/27, Owens), an online publication, reported, "The backlog of unprocessed disability claims" at the Department of Veterans Affairs "now exceeds one million and the pile grows daily. Veterans are waiting months to have benefits administered," but US Rep. Chris Lee(R-NY) "is taking up" their cause, writing in a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki that the backlog "needs to be addressed before the problem is just too large to solve."