H.R. 501 Veterans And Service Members Employment Rights and Housing Act of 2015

An important piece of legislation now in the House of Representatives will help ensure fair and equal treatment of Veterans and Military members

avoid potential discrimination in the housing market and in the workforce.

Everyone please contact your Representative ask them to become cosponsor to bill H.R. 501 Veterans and Service Members Employment Rights and

Housing Act of 2015.

Many active duty service members, and many veterans, face difficulty in obtaining Housing due to the fact that it is still a commonly held

opinion that said members or veterans might turn dangerous at some point.

The same outdated beliefs apply in the job market. Veterans return from active duty to find in some cases that the job they held before

military service no longer exists (or has been filled..etc). 

Some veterans, (or active duty personnel seeking additional employment) have struggled for years in hopeless search for a job. Employers find

it difficult to accept military training as equal to civilian job skills.

Other employers may in fact think that an active duty, or former military member would be disruptive to their current workforce, and

might become violent at any moment. 

H.R. 501 would make it illegal to discriminate against anyone for their military service, in the workplace or in housing 

There are currently several dozen bills in the House addressing discrimination with many cosponsors. It is important that this bill to address

citizens in the Veteran Community and all members of our Armed Forces be acted upon quickly. It is time to protect the men and women

who protected our nation.

Our friends and brothers and sisters in arms, members of AMVETS agree and believe that this important legislation should have

every Representative sign on as cosponsors and that this bill should be passed immediately.

---- Jerald Terwilliger Chairman American Cold War Veterans "We Remember" ---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Senate OK's compromise Veterans Package

Senate passes compromise veterans package - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/09/military-vets-benefits-092810/
news/2010/09/military-vets-benefits-092810/

By

Rick Maze

- Staff writer

Posted : Tuesday Sep 28, 2010 21:49:57 EDT

With just days before Congress takes a six-week break for the November elections, the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees have reached agreement on an omnibus bill making improvements in employment, job protection, housing, insurance and other benefits.

The Senate passed the bill, HR 3219, by voice vote late Tuesday. The House is expected to approve it in the next few days.

The compromise bill surfaces just as national polls are showing wide spread discontent among voters about the glacial pace of legislative act. Getting the bill done is proof that when their backs are to the wall, lawmakers can reach agreement on veterans issues, which are largely bipartisan.
Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., are largely responsible for the agreement but there are dozens of bills wrapped into a package. Final passage by the House is expected by weeks’ end, just before lawmakers leave town. Akaka is chairman of the Senate veterans’ committee while Filner heads the House veterans’ panel.

Akaka said there are some important provisions, such as an increase in Veterans’ Mortage Life Insurance that fills a need “obvious in today’s housing market.” Currently, maximum insurance in case of the death of a service-connected disabled veteran was $90,000, far short of paying the mortgage balance on most homes. The bill hikes the maximum to $200,000.

Additionally, it increases supplemental life insurance for totally disabled veterans to $30,000, a $10,000 jump.

“Many totally disabled veterans find it difficult to obtain commercial life insurance,” Akaka said. “This legislation would provide these veterans with a reasonable amount of life insurance coverage.”

Called the Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010, the package also expands federal work-study programs to try to help veterans find jobs and it also tried to crack down small businesses trying to take advantage of veteran-owned business set asides by making the Veterans Affairs Department responsible for keeping a database of companies where the VA can show it is owned and controlled by a veteran. This addresses a hot-button issue for many veterans’ service organizations, who have complained to Congress that business are getting contracts without having veterans involved.

Here are some of the key provisions of the compromise:
• The Office of Special Counsel would be used on a test basis to enforce employment and re-employment rights for veterans when the federal agency is the employer.

• Homeless veterans grants from the Labor Department would be expanded specifically to help women veterans and homeless veterans with children by including childcare services along with training, counseling and placement services.• A pilot program would provide grants in three states to try to help veterans find jobs in energy-related fields. The states are not named.

• In an expansion of the ability of service members to cancel leases and contracts when deployed or reassigned to new duty stations, the bill would prohibit early termination fees for residential leases and also allows service members to terminate cellular telephone contracts, including family plans, at any time when they have military orders to relocate for 90 days or longer or move to an area not served by the cell phone company.

• Veterans’ burial benefits would increase to $700, effective Oct. 1, 2010, when a veteran dies in a VA facility or is eligible for burial in a national cemetery.

• Parents of deceased service members could be buried alongside their child in a national cemetery if the service member was not married and did not have a child and when the service member was killed by hostile fire or in a training accident.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996