Veteran Employment Assistance Act of 2010

Bill: 111-hr-5120
Sponsor: Rep. Smith, Adam [D-WA-9]
Introduced: 2010-04-22 in the House
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Afghanistan
Allied health services
Alternative and renewable resources
Asia
Building construction
Business investment and capital
Electric power generation and transmission
Employment and training programs
Energy efficiency and conservation
Government studies and investigations
Hazardous wastes and toxic substances
Health personnel
Iraq
Land use and conservation
Medical education
Middle East
Military facilities and property
Military operations and strategy
National Guard and reserves
Nuclear power
Nursing
Oil and gas
Public contracts and procurement
Small business
Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations
Unemployment
Veterans' education, employment, rehabilitation
Washington State
Wildlife conservation and habitat protection

Summary:
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: 
Veteran Employment Assistance Act of 2010 - Amends the Small Business Act to direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) to establish a program, headed by a Director, which designates veterans business centers to provide entrepreneurial training and counseling to veterans in areas in which the number of veterans, especially veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, exceed the national median.
 
Requires the Director to establish a program of grants to veterans business centers to: (1) provide federal procurement assistance to small businesses owned and controlled by veterans; and (2) develop outreach programs to create or further develop service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Authorizes the Director to hold biennial veterans entrepreneurial development summits.
 
Decreases from three years to one year the period for completion of training of new disabled veterans' outreach program specialists and local veterans' employment representatives.
 
Directs the Secretary of Labor to provide a training subsistence allowance for each month that an unemployed veteran is enrolled in a full-time employment and training program that is offered by an eligible training provider and teaches a skill connected to a career in an in-demand industry.
 
Provides for the use of veterans' post-9/11 educational assistance for the pursuit of apprenticeships and on-job training.
 
Requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish: (1) a program to award grants to states to establish veterans conservation corps to give veterans volunteer and employment opportunities under state conservation projects; and (2) a center of excellence of methods for educational institutions to afford academic credit to veterans for previous military experience and training.
 
Amends the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to direct the Secretary of Labor to establish: (1) information technology military pathways demonstration programs to enable veterans to build upon technical skills learned in the military when entering into the civilian information technology workforce; and (2) nursing, public health and allied health professional, and physician assistant military pathways demonstration programs to enable veterans to build upon military technical skills when entering into civilian positions in those fields.
 
Requires the Secretary of Labor to carry out a veterans energy-related employment program to encourage the employment of veterans in the energy industry.
 
Directs the Secretary of Defense (DOD) to carry out the Veterans to Work pilot program to provide veterans with employment in military construction projects.
 
Requires: (1) a report on improvements and enhancements of the Transition Assistance Program to better meet the needs of members of the Armed Forces and veterans; and (2) a study on a program of transition assistance modeled on the Employment Enhancement Program of the Washington National Guard.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2010-05-27
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness.
action_date: 2010-05-06
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Readiness.
action_date: 2010-05-06
text: Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee .
action_date: 2010-04-23
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity.
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to House Armed Services
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to House Energy and Commerce
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to House Small Business
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to House Education and Labor
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Education and Labor, Small Business, Energy and Commerce, and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Referred to House Veterans' Affairs
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2010-04-22
text: Introduced in House