When this war is over, not when banners hang on carriers, when civilians do not wear military garb (when they have used wealth and privilege to buy themselves out of wearing it when called), when the hospitals are no longer filled to the brim, and when the desperation for a semblance of sense falls over us, we will face another troubling fact. What can we do for those who return, counting not scars and ghosts of a past that is sometimes ever present? What are the odds of not repeating our past mistakes? What opportunities will there be?
Veterans get a 5 point preference, a minimum (for a 30% disability rating or more, people get 10), and this applies to anyone who has ever been on active duty since 9/11, when applying for federal jobs. These few points provide a surprisingly large leg up, (to the occasional grousing from certain quarters, with good reason now and then) and can help those who have served get a shot at employment not available in the private sector. We’re a pretty put upon bunch us feds, and you don’t do it for status or money, but we try harder to take care of our people. We’re not the ones firing vets during ever repeating deployments, magically re-hiring for the same position a few months later like the private sector. It does happen of course, but like cheating on your taxes, it’s far less common in the stock of federal employees.
Still the laws of supply and demand are unyielding and we’ve started talking about what is already rolling in. With so many eligible for those 5 points1, it has almost rendered them pointless. The government cannot hire the ever larger numbers of veterans who return, and yet the private sector is sorely unprepared and on occasion unwilling to extend a hand. The potential for needed extended absences, for flexibilities to work schedules to accommodate the burdens of a war fought in the sandbox and in the mind, are ill suited to the “needs” of employers. We see already how poorly USERRA is enforced (Dept of Labor isn’t pulling its weight but OSC under Scott Bloch has been throwing cases out wholesale to fluff his numbers) and the loopholes aren’t large enough to push Rush Limbaugh2 through but still is inadequate.
The problem with strengthening USERRA is that private employers, looking out for the bottom line even as many profit from wars, will avoid hiring veterans if they can, and are far less likely to be successfully prosecuted for refusing to.
This will be a Gordian knot one for whomever the next President is, and one which won’t be as easily solved as Alexander the Great did. I don’t know that I have a solution, which is why I invite you to suggest some ideas. There is however something that strikes me as a sort of poetic justice, which while not a solution, would mitigate the damage. I would tie part of the VA’s budget3 to that of DoD, ensuring that as funding increases for wars, the VA sees an automatic increase in allocation, and by which it continues to receive a standard amount for several years following the increase, with a formula for tapering off after DoD’s falls. This also conveniently ensures that wars come closer to reflecting the true cost on our veterans and our nation. In addition, while strengthening USERRA, the DoD would provide a supplemental stipend to employers during extended deployments of their staff, in exchange for the employer being able to hire someone while the person is away. I am still left with some nagging doubts and a fair number of holes that I’d dearly like to discuss, to come to a better solution.
1 Advances in medicine and armor have also increased the number of survivable situations, which also raise the number of 10 point veterans. This presents its own challenges.
2 Like all neo-cons, Rush Limbaugh STILL is hung up on Bill Clinton “dodging the draft”, but has more broken windows than a greenhouse next to a gun range.
3 Historically the VA’s budget has always been paltry, it wasn’t even a cabinet level department until 1989, at least compared to what the nation happily volunteers for DoD to fight the wars. The VA is often an unhappy also ran in the budget battles.
