The overall process used to implement USERRA is as follows. Outreach and resolution of informal complaints. DOD and DOL share responsibility for outreach—the education of servicemembers and employers about their respective responsibilities under USERRA. Much of DOD’s outreach is accomplished through ESGR, which performs most of its work through over 4,000 volunteers. DOL conducts outreach through its Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) investigators, who are located nationwide. These investigators conduct briefings to educate employers and servicemembers about USERRA requirements and responsibilities and handle service-related employment and reemployment questions that are directed to their offices. Servicemembers who have USERRA-related issues with their employers can file informal complaints with DOD’s ESGR. In our February 2007 report, we noted that nearly 10,000 informal complaints had been filed with ESGR in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. A subgroup of ESGR’s specially trained volunteers serve as impartial ombudsmen who informally mediate USERRA issues that arise between servicemembers and their employers. Formal complaints and prosecution. When ESGR ombudsmen cannot resolve complaints informally, they notify servicemembers about their options. Servicemembers can file a formal complaint with DOL or file complaints directly in court (if it involves nonfederal employers) or the Merit Systems Protection Board (if it involves federal executive branch employers). Under a federal sector demonstration project established by the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004, DOL investigates complaints against federal executive branch agencies for individuals whose social security numbers end in even numbers, and OSC is authorized to directly receive and investigate complaints and seek corrective action for individuals whose social security numbers end in odd numbers. When a servicemember files a formal complaint with DOL, one of VETS’s 115 investigators examines and attempts to resolve it. If VETS’s investigators are unable to resolve servicemember complaints, DOL is to inform servicemembers that they may request to have their complaints referred to DOJ (for complaints against private sector employers or state and local governments) or to OSC (for complaints against federal executive branch agencies). Before complaints are sent to DOJ or OSC, they are reviewed by a VETS regional office for accuracy and sufficiency and by a DOL regional Office of the Solicitor, which assesses the legal basis for complaints and makes an independent recommendation. If DOJ or OSC determines that the complaint has merit, it will attempt to resolve the complaint without litigation and, if unsuccessful, represent the complainant in court (for those referred to DOJ) or before the Merit Systems Protection Board (for those referred to OSC). Figure 1 shows servicemembers’ options for obtaining federal assistance with their USERRA complaints. Agency databases and reporting requirement. Each of the four federal agencies responsible for assisting servicemembers under USERRA maintains an automated database with complaint information. Both DOD and DOL have electronic complaint files that are stored in automated systems with query capabilities. The Secretary of Labor in consultation with the U.S. Attorney General and the Special Counsel prepares and transmits a USERRA annual report to Congress on, among other matters, the number of USERRA claims reviewed by DOL, and during the current demonstration project by OSC, along with the number of claims referred to DOJ or OSC. The annual report is also to address the nature and status of each claim, state whether there are any apparent patterns of violation of the USERRA provisions, and include any recommendations for administrative or legislative action that the Secretary of Labor, the U.S. Attorney General, or the Special Counsel consider necessary to effectively implement USERRA. Although USERRA defines individual agency roles and responsibilities, it does not make any single individual or office accountable for maintaining visibility over the entire complaint resolution process. In our October 2005 report, we noted that the ability of federal agencies to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the complaint process was hampered by a lack of visibility resulting, in part, from the segmentation of responsibility for addressing complaints among multiple agencies. Moreover, from the time informal complaints are filed with DOD’s ESGR through final resolution of formal complaints at DOL, DOJ, or OSC, no one entity has visibility over the entire process. We found that the agency officials who are responsible for the complaints at various stages of the process generally have limited or no visibility over the other parts of the process. As a result, federal agencies have developed agency-specific output rather than cross-cutting goals directed toward resolving servicemembers’ complaints. For example, agency goals address the complaint processing times of each stage of the process, rather than the entire time that elapses while servicemembers wait to have their complaints addressed. Meanwhile, the servicemember knows how much time is passing since the initial complaint was filed. In October 2005, we reported that more than 430 of the 10,061 formal complaints filed with DOL between October 1, 1996, and June 30, 2005, were closed and reopened and 52 complaints had been closed and reopened two or more times. Our analysis of those 52 complaints showed that the processing times averaged about 3 to 4 months but the total elapsed times that servicemembers waited to have their complaints fully addressed averaged about 20 to 21 months from the time they first filed their initial formal complaints with DOL until the time the complaints were fully addressed by DOL, DOJ, or OSC. We have previously suggested and continue to believe that Congress should consider designating a single individual or office to maintain visibility over the entire complaint resolution process from DOD through DOL, DOJ, and OSC. We believe this would encourage agencies to focus on overall results rather than agency-specific outputs and thereby improve federal responsiveness to servicemember complaints that are referred from one agency to another. In response to this matter, in our 2005 report, both DOL and OSC were supportive, and both agencies noted that they had the expertise to oversee the USERRA complaint resolution process. However, DOL stated that with the mandated demonstration project ongoing, it would be premature to make any suggestions or recommendations for congressional or legislative action until the project has been completed. DOD and DOJ did not provide comments on this matter. Integral to getting servicemembers the help they need is educating them and their employers on their respective responsibilities under USERRA. Since 2002, we have reported on DOD’s need to obtain complete and accurate information on the civilian employers to better target its outreach efforts. Accurate, complete, and current civilian employer information is important to DOD to improve its ability to target outreach to employers, to make informed decisions concerning which reservists should be called for active duty to minimize the impact that mobilizations might have on occupations such as law enforcement, and to determine how businesses may be affected by reserve activation. As we recommended in our 2002 report, DOD implemented regulations that required the reporting and collection of employer information for reserve personnel. Additionally, DOD established compliance goals for these servicemembers. We noted in our February 2007 report that the percentage of servicemembers reporting employer information to DOD had increased, but most reserve components had still not reached their compliance goals. In addition, we found that employment data were not necessarily current because some reservists were not aware of requirements to update their employer information and the services had not established a formal mechanism to remind reservists to update this personnel information as necessary to reflect changes in their current employment. To improve the reporting of National Guard and Reserve employment information, we recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs to establish specific time frames for reservists to report their employment data, set specific time frames for reserve components to achieve the established compliance reporting goals, and direct the service components to take action to ensure reporting compliance. In response to this recommendation, DOD indicated at the time of our report that its current policy on employer reporting established compliance goals. We noted in our report that DOD needed to establish a new deadline by which reservists must report their employer information to DOD and set specific time frames for reserve components to achieve the established compliance reporting goal. In addition, to encourage reservists to keep their employer data current, we recommended that DOD instruct all military departments to establish a formal review mechanism that would require all reservists to review and update at least annually their reported employment-related information. At the time of our February 2007 report, DOD was in the process of revising its policy on civilian employer reporting to require an annual review of reported employer information. DOD provides USERRA outreach and education to servicemembers using several mechanisms, including a toll-free information line and individual and group briefings. DOD monitors the extent to which it reaches this population and the occurrence of USERRA-related problems by including questions on these areas in its Status of the Forces survey, which is periodically conducted to identify issues that need to be addressed or monitored. We noted in our 2005 report that survey questions offer the potential to provide insight into compliance and employer support issues. However, questions on the surveys vary from year to year and have not always included those pertaining to USERRA compliance and employer support. To gauge the effectiveness of federal actions to support USERRA by identifying trends in compliance and employer support, we recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to include questions in DOD’s periodic Status of Forces Surveys to determine the extent to which servicemembers experience USERRA-related problems; if they experience these problems, from whom they seek assistance; if they do not seek assistance, why not; and the extent to which servicemembers’ employers provide support beyond that required by the law.