Congress passed the Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing (HIRE) Veterans Act on November 29th, 2016. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Congressional Future Caucus co-chair, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), and received cosponsorship by her fellow Future Caucus Co-Chair, Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX).
This bill would promote private sector recruiting, hiring, and retaining of men and women who served in the U.S. military by implementing a medallion program to recognize those employers who follow through with this process.
“Roughly 500 veterans return to civilian life every single day, joining the more than 2.9 million veterans that have returned home since 9/11. While we’ve taken some important steps to encourage employers to hire more veterans, more than 400,000 veterans across the country are still unemployed today”, said Rep. Gabbard.
The HIRE Veterans Act, which is now moving to the Senate after passed via voice vote in the House, aims to overcome this issue of veteran unemployment by enacting meaningful programs to inspire employers to not only hire veterans, but also retain their employment.