by Art Gutman Ph.D., Professor, Florida Institute of Technology
The Bill (H.R. 2243) passed the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs July 28 and was introduced by Representative Jerry McNerney (Dem, California) the following day. The Act would require contractors to post data on the hiring of veterans to its website. Current law requires reports by the Secretary of Labor on this data, but according to Congressman McNerney, this information is not easily accessible to the public. According to McNerney, “The Veterans Employment Promotion Act will ensure that information on the number of veterans employed by federal contractors is widely available and transparent to the public.” The bill is now in front of the full House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and as of yet, has no sponsors. According to McNerney, the Act is consistent with the recommendations in 2009 by the House Veterans' Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity to promote stronger enforcement and oversight of federal contractors' compliance with veterans' employment laws (93 DLR A-2, 5/18/09). The full text of the proposed Act, which is short, may be viewed at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h2243/text.
