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Federal News Radio
Thank you for
your service, now please go away
By Mike Causey
June 20, 2016
For decades, Uncle Sam gave military veterans a break by giving them
extra points when they were applying/testing for certain federal jobs.
The so-called Veterans Preference law also gave vets extra job security
when their agencies were slimming down via a RIF (reduction in force).
VP is important because Uncle Sam is one of the largest employers of
veterans in the nation. Both the Defense and Veterans Affairs
departments have huge numbers of vets. Now VP is in danger of being
watered-down and phased away without anybody noticing.
The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act contains
language that would make veterans preference a one-time perk. Vets
could take advantage of it when they were hired, but after that they
would be treated like any other employee during a RIF or each time they
applied for another job.
Back when many if not most people either were vets, or had friends or
relatives who were or had been in service, VP was widely accepted. Now
with the all-volunteer military relatively few Americans even know
anybody in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or the Coast Guard.
We cheer them at ball games. And the expression
thank-you-for-your-service, while well-intentioned, has become almost
as automatic as have-a-nice day!
Congress, back in the day, was chock full of vets. From World War II,
Korea or as peacetime troops because of the draft. Presidents Truman
and Eisenhower were Army. Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter and
Bush (G.W.) were in the Navy. For a long period of time, most members
of Congress were military veterans. Now more members of the House and
Senate qualify for the Millionaires Club than the American Legion or
the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Military personnel get honored at special baseball games and concerts.
But while that is nice, it isn’t much help in getting or keeping a job.
What’s interesting is the apparent low level of interest in the
proposal to limit the use of VP to a one-off operation.
A federal lobbyist said his people had ”reached out” to a number of his
organization’s members, both vets and non-vets. Off the record, he said
a majority seemed to favor the Senate plan to make VP a one-time-only
option. Another said he found the absence of protest “downright
deafening.” He said people supporting (or at least not loudly opposing)
the change either “genuinely believe ‘lifetime’ VP is a relic of the
Cold War and should be phased out, or the fix is in.” As in they are
going to get something for doing nothing!
So, why the silence from groups that not so long ago would have been
fighting tooth-and-nail to protect the vets? Good question. If you are
a dues-paying member you might want to ask how a long-established
benefit for one of the nation’s largest minority groups is about to
fade away without even a robotic thanks-for-your-service to mark the
take-away.
Read this and other articles at Federal News Radio
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