The Congress established VETS in 1980 to carry out the national policy that veterans receive priority employment and training opportunities. Faced with growing long-term challenges of new service delivery systems, an evolving labor market, and changing technology, VETS’ vision is to find innovative ways to maximize the effectiveness of its efforts. Consequently, VETS prepared strategic and performance plans in response to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), which was intended to make agencies accountable for their performance. VETS’ strategic plan states that it will seek new and effective means to help veterans compete successfully for better paying career jobs—helping them get on a track that can provide improved income stability and growth potential. Although, in recent years, the Congress has not funded the number of authorized DVOP and LVER staff positions, VETS provides states with grants for DVOP and LVER staff according to the formula outlined in the law. These DVOP and LVER staff members, whose positions are federally funded, are part of states’ public employment services and provide direct employment services to eligible veterans. Under WIA, services provided by DVOP and LVER staff are required to be included in each state’s approved one-stop center system plan. WIA also requires the establishment of local workforce investment areas and boards to locally oversee the new one- stop center system. In the solicitation for DVOP and LVER grant applications, VETS notes that local workforce investment boards are ideally suited to developing services that best meet the needs of veterans and employers who live and work in that area. The DVOP and LVER grant agreements also include assurances by states that DVOP and LVER staff members serve eligible veterans exclusively. Under federal law, all employment service staff must give priority to serving veterans, and the assignment of DVOP and LVER staff to local offices does not relieve other employment and training program staff of this requirement. The law prescribes various duties to DVOP and LVER staff members that are intended to provide veterans with job search plans and referrals and job training opportunities. DVOP specialists are required to focus on locating veterans with disabilities and other barriers to employment and assisting them in finding jobs and job training opportunities. LVER staff members have the primary responsibility of ensuring that veterans receive priority service from the employment and training program staff. Both DVOP and LVER staff are required to assist veterans in finding jobs. This assistance can range from help with needs, such as writing a resume, to more comprehensive help, such as assessing veterans’ skills and arranging training opportunities for veterans. While the state-employed DVOP and LVER staff are the front-line providers for services to veterans, VETS carries out its responsibilities, as outlined in the law, through a nationwide network that includes regional and state representation. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Veterans’ Employment and Training administers VETS’ activities through regional administrators (RAVET) and directors (DVET) in each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. In larger states, an assistant director (ADVET) is appointed for every 250,000 veterans in the state. These federally-paid VETS staff ensure that states carry out their obligations to provide service to veterans, including the services provided under the DVOP and LVER grants. To ensure priority service to veterans, VETS expects states to provide employment and training services to veterans at a rate exceeding the service to nonveterans. For example, VETS requires that veterans receive services at a rate 15 percent higher than nonveterans. Thus, if a state’s placement rate for nonveterans was 10 percent, the placement rate for veterans should be 11.5, or 15 percent higher than the nonveteran placement rate. There are also higher expectations for serving Vietnam-era veterans and disabled veterans. As required by the law, VETS must report to the Congress on states’ performance in five service categories: (1) veterans placed in or obtaining employment, (2) Vietnam-era veterans and special disabled veterans placed in jobs on the Federal Contractor Job Listing, (3) veterans counseled, (4) veterans placed in training, and (5) veterans who received some reportable service. VETS has historically used these same performance categories to measure state performance for serving veterans at a higher rate than nonveterans. The data for these performance categories is collected by states for the programs administered by ETA. As required by the DVOP and LVER grant agreements, the states then extract the relevant data for their reports to VETS. The law also requires that states establish their own performance expectations, under VETS’ guidance, for their DVOP and LVER staff to ensure that these staff are effectively utilized. The Congressional Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance issued a report in 1999 that raised concerns about the performance and effectiveness of VETS’ programs. The Congress directed the Commission to review programs that provide benefits and services to veterans and service members making the transition to civilian life, which included the DVOP and LVER programs. The Commission recommended that the Congress restructure employment assistance to veterans in several ways. These suggested changes included: replacing the current DVOP and LVER programs with two new programs, establishing effective operational outcome measures for VETS, and revising the system of priority for services to ensure priority service for veterans who most need assistance in overcoming barriers to employment or who are making their transition to civilian life. The Commission also questioned the effectiveness of the administration and oversight of VETS’ programs, calling for an independent audit of agency performance. In our past reviews of VETS’ programs, we have recommended changes to VETS’ performance measures and plans. In our most recent report, we noted that VETS had proposed performance measures more in-line with those established under WIA and focused more on what VETS’ programs achieve and less on the number of services provided to veterans relative to nonveterans. However, we reported that VETS still lacked measures to gauge the effectiveness of services or whether more staff-intense services helped veterans obtain jobs. While the law still stipulates that VETS is to report to the Congress on the five service categories, according to its proposed performance measures, VETS will no longer require that states compare services provided to veterans with those provided to nonveterans. This change is a positive step, but VETS officials said that the implementation of these proposed measures did not occur in July 2001 as planned, and will not be effective until July 1, 2002. While veterans receive priority employment services at one-stop centers as required under the law, the effectiveness of the services, as indicated by the resulting employment, cannot be determined because VETS does not collect sufficient data to measure the outcomes veterans achieve from these services. State-gathered data and interviews with state officials showed that veterans are receiving priority services at one-stop centers as demonstrated by the higher rates of service for veterans compared to those of nonveterans. While one-stop centers can provide priority services to veterans in different ways, most do so primarily through the DVOP and LVER staff. Since veterans have these dedicated staff to serve them, they also received more intensive services, and received these services more readily, than nonveterans. However, the effectiveness of these services is unknown because VETS lacks adequate outcome data on job retention and wages. The only outcome data available—the percentage of veterans served who entered employment—are often inconsistent from state to state. On the basis of state data reported to VETS and interviews with state officials, veterans receive priority employment services at one-stop centers. To show that states are providing priority service to veterans, VETS requires states to report data on the number and types of services provided to veterans and nonveterans as well as the percentage of each group served that enters employment. Data reported to VETS shows that veterans generally receive employment services at a higher rate than nonveterans. Other examples of priority service include not releasing new job openings received from employers into the job database in order to identify and contact qualified veterans before the universal population has access to the information. Some state officials reported that they have other special services exclusively for veterans, such as designated computers or special information packets on available resources. State and local officials reported that veterans also receive more intensive services than nonveterans. For example, DVOP and LVER staff may provide veterans individualized services the first day they come in, while nonveterans are generally referred to self-service first. Veterans generally gain access to intensive services, similar to those offered under WIA, such as counseling and case management, more quickly than nonveterans because DVOP and LVER staff have smaller caseloads than other employment services staff and thus have the time to spend with individuals. Veterans have better access to intensive services than nonveterans because DVOP and LVER staff are funded independently of WIA and are not subject to restrictions applicable to WIA-funded programs. For example, veterans served by DVOP and LVER staff do not have to receive basic services before obtaining intensive services. While priority service can be provided in different ways depending on the one-stop center, most state officials and one-stop center managers we spoke with said that they primarily used DVOP and LVER staff to provide priority services to veterans since these staff are dedicated to assisting veterans exclusively. DVOP and LVER staff we spoke with said that they tried to talk to every veteran at least once because they were better able than other staff to identify barriers to employment and were able to provide veterans with information about other benefits available to them. However, in some of the one-stop centers we visited, only veterans determined to have employment barriers were referred to the DVOP and LVER staff, while others were referred to self-service or other one-stop center staff.