recognition between the parties with each party limited to thirty minutes and each man other member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from mr stern for five minutes good morning and thank you madam speaker when our soldiers come home from combat they often face an uphill battle for many service members the transition from active duty to veteran status and returning to full meaningful civilian life is daunting fraught with many challenging obstacles and bureaucratic barriers many times these brave servicemen and women require job training but for entirely new careers although statistics show that eventually veterans in general enjoying a favorable rate in the nation's job market many that sions obviously find it difficult to compete successfully in the labor market that's why for over a decade the federal government has provided job training benefits of veterans through the department of veterans affairs and the department of labor the mission statement for the department of labor veterans employment and training service that's program is to quote to provide veterans and transitioning service members with the resources and services to succeed in the twenty first century workplace by maximizing their employment opportunities protecting their employment rights and meeting labor market demands with qualified that chance today end quote additionally the department of labor offers service members leaving the military with a service connected disability the disability transition assistance ram detached not the tap includes a three day workshop plus additional hours of individual instruction to help determine job readiness and address the special needs needs of disabled veterans however this is the identical detest program offered to all transitioning disabled veterans across this country this three day program is valuable support but it only provides general employment information and at no time addresses the specific needs of the community in which the veteran lives fortunately this means that frequently there is a void of information on local labor market conditions that result  veterans using their benefits to train for jobs that do not exist in their community mr jeffrey ask you is director of the marion county veterans service center in my hometown of ocala florida he said many veterans have used their federal job training benefit for information technology i t career training however ocala has little demand for i t professionals and veterans are often advised to move to orlando where there are many more opportunities for them upon finally getting settled back into civilian life it is frustrating and unfortunate to say the least to be forced to up through one more time and move your family to an unknown city i'm concerned about this problem but i think and i believe there's an easy solution that's why introduced legislation to provide better information to veterans on their local job market needs h r thirty six forty six the veterans effective training job opportunities and benefits act of two thousand and seven or vet jobs act of two thousand and seven directs the secretary of veterans affairs and the secretary of labor to conduct a joint study on the greatest employment need in various job markets around the country and post these results on the v a website these results would then be updated annually to reflect the current and possibly changing needs in the local job market with this tool a veteran could plug in his or her zip code and see a list of the occupations that are most in demand and subsequently use their federal job training most effectively the department of labor already has the infrastructure in place for this kind of research so this is a practical low cost solution in fact the congressional congressional budget office as on officially scored this proposal as having insignificant costs and significant costs for any measurable benefits to our veterans i encourage my college to join me in this effort to help our veterans today help them with their quality employment help them to find out where the jobs that they wish to be trained for a located and recess until two p m today