Fund For Veterans' Education Announces New Round of Scholarships for Veterans Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan

FVE will award up to $3.5 million in 2008-09 in undergraduate scholarships for veterans returning From Iraq and Afghanistan. Applications are available beginning April 1st for the fall 2008 term. The next application deadline is June 15, 2008. The awards, which may be renewed for the following academic year, are intended to cover financial need not met with need based grants and military education benefits. For more information and application, visit http://www.veteransfund.org

VetBiz.gov

FedBizOpps.gov is the single government point-of-entry (GPE) for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000.

If you are interested in a position with any of the component agencies, simply submit an application using the instructions provided in the vacancy announcement. Interested applicants can also access USAJOBS by calling 478-757-3000 or TDD 478-744-2299.

The mission of the Economics Division is to take actions that affect the economic well-being of veterans, including issues relating to veteran's employment, home loans, vocational rehabilitation, homelessness, and the Small Business Administration.

The Small Business Act of 1964 requires the Small Business Administration to give special help to Vietnam veterans. The veterans receive priority service on business loans. Veterans interested in starting a small business, or expanding an existing business, can obtain advice and guidance from the Small Business Administration's Office of Veterans' Affairs.
For more information, contact the Veterans' Affairs Officer at the nearest SBA Regional Office, or write to the Director of the Office of Veterans' Affairs, Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW, Washington, DC 20416.

For Veterans' Day, U.S. Department of Labor encourages employers to participate in 25-day, nationwide 'blitz' of job fairs. These events are latest effort of HireVetsFirst campaign to connect employers and veterans.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In observance of Veterans' Day, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced plans for a 25-day blitz of 107 veterans' job fairs to be held in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico between October 23 and November 16.

"The qualities America's service members are known for - discipline, a strong work ethic, leadership and technical skills - are in high demand by employers," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "These job fairs are an important part of our effort to help America's service men and women transition back to civilian life when their tours of duty end and a tremendous opportunity for employers looking for great workers."

"The United States military is the finest, most technologically advanced in the world," said Charles S. Ciccolella, assistant secretary of labor for the department's Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS). "Our nation invests billions of dollars annually to train America's armed forces, instilling and developing valuable hard skills in our service members. Equally important are the skills service members learn, such as loyalty, discipline, selflessness, leadership, and the ability to follow instructions and perform under pressure. These are all inherent to the military culture. The HireVetsFirst campaign is about increasing employer awareness of the skills veterans bring to their businesses, and to encourage employers to hire veterans, not just out of a sense of patriotism, but because it makes good sense for employers who want to grow their businesses."

Job Fairs

The American Legion has formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RecruitMilitary and Military.com that will allow The American Legion to have a presence in all of their job fairs around the country. The main purpose of these job fairs is to provide veterans more outlets for employment. The MOU that we have implemented allows The American Legion to present information for FREE.

The Economic Commission is requesting that your departments:

1. Prepare staffing for the upcoming events in your respective departments at least 2 months in advance

a. Prepare to give out many Legion information materials and the services that are available to veterans

2. Once you have organized which Post will participate let our national division in Washington, DC know

We will send you additional pamphlets and handouts to assist you if you require them

3. Send out fliers, e-mails, faxes, fliers, and notifications of the upcoming job fairs at least 1 month in advance

4. Notify everyone within your department all the way down to each individual

Spread the word even if you are employed, YOU CAN HELP OTHERS!

5. Outreach to your local National Guard and Reserve units and notify them of the upcoming job fair

Try to do outreach to them every drill

6. Outreach to returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan

7. E-mail the flyers out to your posts and they print them out there

8. Place flyers in a newsletter or e-newsletter

9. Contact the One stop career centers

10. Contact the Director of Veterans Employment and Training (DVET) and see if they can distribute flyers to the veterans in the state and the DVOPs/LVERs

11. Contact the State Department of Veterans Affairs

12. Contact the Mayor’s office

13. Contact the local VA

2008 Job Fair Responsibilities and Duties for Departments

Are You a Service-Disabled Veteran?

The total Veteran population in the United States is estimated at 24 million. Of the approximately 80 million small businesses in this country, four million (about five percent) are Veteran-owned - more than one would expect, given the number of Veterans in the total population. The success rate of Veteran business startups is high in comparison to other business startups, partially due to the experience the Veterans have gained in the Armed Services. Upon completing a tour of enlistment or retirement, many Veterans choose to start their own businesses rather than take another job.

While there are a number of services to help Veterans with business education and loans, and many organizations to help them find jobs, until 1999, there were no services specifically focused on helping Service-Disabled Veterans enter and compete in the commercial marketplace. During and after the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, Congress heard from many Reservists whose businesses were harmed, severely crippled, or even lost by their absence. An investigation showed a number of inequities to Veterans and Service-Disabled Veterans that needed remedy. Testimony indicated technical, financial, procurement assistance was needed by Veteran, and Service-Disabled Veteran owned small businesses.

Based on these findings, Congress enacted Public Law 106-50, the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999. Initially designed to cushion the impact on small businesses when owners or essential employees are ordered to active duty, the bill was expanded to assist to Veterans who are entrepreneurs, and to Service-Disabled Veteran entrepreneurs. Loans, loan payment deferrals during time of call-up, technical and managerial assistance were mandated.

The current economy shows us that now, more than ever before; there is a critical need to nurture strong relationships between Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOB) and the FAA. Such activity can stimulate economic growth. There are between 100,000 and 300,000 service disabled-owned small businesses in this country. We have made a strategic commitment to ensure that the doors of economic opportunity are open to you. Are you interested?

Your Name in our Database

The FAA has a small business program that we are very proud of and we want to make it even better. By establishing a usable database, we will be better able to share the many contracting opportunities that the FAA has during the year. We have identified 63,000 firms who are registered in either the Small Business Association's Pro-Net database or in the Department of Defense's Centralized Contractor Registry (CCR) database. CCR includes large and small businesses.

The Great Lakes Region of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which serves the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, is compiling a database of service disabled-owned businesses, from which we can solicit businesses when contracting opportunities become available. It is our intention to use this database to solicit vendors for various acquisition opportunities.

The term "service-disabled" means, that such disability incurred, in the line of duty while serving in the United States active military, naval, or air service. If you have a certification from the Veterans Administration (VA) designating you as a service-disabled Veteran, and you own 51 percent of, and control the daily operations of, your own business; or you work for a company owned and controlled by a service-disabled Veteran, then we want to have your company in our database. This database will help us share the many contracting opportunities generated each year by the FAA's Great Lakes Region.

Tell Us About Your Business!

Our database is ready for use. To register in our database, go to www.sbo.faa.gov/sbo/, and under the heading Source.Net / New Vendors, please provide the pertinent information.

You can find the NAICS codes by clicking here.

As a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business, you can benefit from this program by making sure the FAA has information we need to contact you in our vendor/supplier database. Let's Talk! The bottom line is that there are many, many people whose duty it is to help any business considering entering into a contractual relationship with the Federal Government.

Our job is to simplify the process so you will have the information you need to decide whether a business relationship with the Federal Government is right for you. It's not for everyone, but for those individuals with the risk tolerance and the tenacity to stick to it, it can be very rewarding.

Remarks By The Honorable Kay Coles James Director, U.S. Office Of Personnel Management

American Legion 84th Annual National Convention
Tuesday, August 27, 2002, 12:05 PM, Charlotte, Convention Center, Charlotte, NC
Thank you, Commander Richard J. Santos, National Commander of the American Legion, for that very kind introduction.

It is an extraordinary honor for me to have the opportunity to address this convention of the American Legion at this critical time in our nation's history. Once again our country is on a war footing. Once again, America's Armed Forces are placing their lives at risk on distant seas and shores to defend our way of life. The courageous men and women engaged in today's fearsome struggle against terrorism are volunteers. They march, sail, and fly willingly into harm's way. As a veteran, you understand the depth of character and commitment required to lay your life on the line for our ideals and our liberty. You too answered the call; you too lived the sacrifices, as did your families and loved ones.

The James family recently has had first-hand experience in this regard. You see, my daughter Bizzie had the good sense to marry an outstanding young man whom we all dearly love. Brandon is a Reservist and he was called to active duty. So naturally, we have some special appreciation for the courage and sacrifice that go hand in hand with military duty. And so I want to begin this afternoon by thanking each and every one of you for the principled service you provided while in uniform, and indeed throughout your lives.

Honoring Our Veterans

The debt that we owe to you, the defenders of freedom, can never fully be repaid. But I want you to know that our President is taking an aggressive role in seeing to it that veterans are treated with the respect, fairness, and dignity befitting their service and sacrifice to the nation. Shortly after coming into office, I began meeting with the various veteran's service organizations. We have opened an ongoing, meaningful dialogue on how the federal government can better serve those who have already given so much to this great country.

When deployment began for Operation Enduring Freedom, OPM immediately issued guidance to federal departments and agencies to make certain that the Rights and Benefits of Reservists Called to Active Duty were respected by the federal government - by far the largest single employer of members of the Armed Forces Reserves. When our new veterans return home from their tours of duty, they deserve to be greeted with doors open wide in welcome at the employment offices of federal agencies and throughout America. Veterans' Preference is one very tangible way that we can show our gratitude as a nation to those now serving - and to the 25 million living veterans in whose footsteps they follow in selfless sacrifice.

Indeed, I consider it an honor and a personal mission to fight aggressively for this principle, to defend it, and to do everything in my power to ensure that laws regarding veterans' preference are adhered to. When we find violations - if agencies ignore these laws - OPM will respond forcefully to correct the injustice just as we did in April. We ordered one of our cabinet Departments to redress a 1999 violation of Veterans Preference laws and give priority consideration for future jobs to the two wronged veterans.

Efforts to modernize the Civil Service are long overdue, but reform must be consistent with our ongoing commitment to offer opportunities to returning veterans who want to use their skills and talent in public service. Our veterans have already given to their country. Certainly their service and experience ought to count for something, ought to be recognized in the federal hiring process!

The Nobility Of Public Service

It should come as no surprise that many, many veterans want very much to continue to serve this great nation after their military career. Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "A man who loves his country on his own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be divorced from it, can never refuse to come forward..."; Indeed, it is a special kind of person who answers the call to public service. Whether you wear the uniform of our country in military service or enter the other service, the American Civil Service, our goals are one and the same. This is America's team-and we are all here to serve the cause of freedom.

President Bush observed recently: "Public service in America today is not just another job. It is an important act of citizenship... a way to fulfill our obligation to those who have gone before us, to those who will follow us, and to those who have sacrificed and died for us." From our founding, public service in America has been a noble calling. Think back to those early Patriots who signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, knowing "we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

It was not personal gain that inspired these men. They risked all - their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor - to leave a legacy of liberty. In the years and decades and centuries that followed, our nation has continued to be blessed with men and women of vision and character who understand, as Thomas Paine wrote, that "those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom undergo the fatigues of supporting it."

Eagerly, successive generations have "asked what they can do for their country"; unselfishly they have answered the call. Why do we do that? What makes us, those of us who serve, answer the call? You and I know something and feel something that those who have never served might not: There is a tremendous privilege and a tremendous honor associated with serving our country. We understand what the President's father, President George Herbert Walker Bush, meant when he spoke of government service as "a noble calling and a public trust," when he said that "There is no higher honor than to serve free men and women, no greater privilege than to labor in government beneath the Great Seal of the United States and the American flag."

Americans who understand this - the need to work for something greater than themselves, the desire to make a difference in their country and their world - have added to the rich legacy of our forefathers. These dedicated public servants have applied their talents, skills, and energies on behalf of their country, often at financial or other sacrifice to themselves or their families. And thanks to their contributions, the fledgling democracy that was born in Philadelphia in 1776 continues to shine forth today as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.

Department Of Homeland Security

I want to focus for a few minutes this afternoon on a special group of public servants who are part of our front-line defense in the War on Terrorism, whose primary mission is to keep America safe. That should provide them with a great deal of personal and professional satisfaction. But I need your help to make sure they can carry out this urgent and compelling mission - to make sure that special interests do not tie our hands and hamper our ability to succeed in addressing the larger, national interest.

The very nature of the threat we now face has led the President, after careful study, to call for a major reorganization of the federal government. Do you realize that homeland defense functions currently are scattered among more than 100 different agencies?

The President has concluded we need a unified homeland security structure to accomplish the vital mission of defending the homeland and protecting Americans from terrorist killers who deliberately target innocent civilians.

We had hoped that the Congress would act quickly on the President's request, and indeed the U.S. House of Representatives has done so.

Now the legislation is in the Senate. We hope they will take it up as soon as they get back in September, and that they will pass a bill the President can sign. We are optimistic that it will not get bogged down in unnecessary partisan bickering.

There are many competing interests in this debate. To keep priorities straight, it is important always to remember why we are creating this new department, to remember that we are a nation at war, to remember the more than 3,000 innocent people who were killed in unprovoked attacks that placed the front lines of the battle right here on American soil.

So I am here to make an appeal to you today because I think people inside this room "get it." When we talk about the importance of flexibility and maneuverability on the front lines, you get it. And I need you to help explain it to those people commenting on what we are trying to do who never had the opportunities and experiences in service that you have.

You understand that those on the front lines must be defined by a culture of urgency and a culture of excellence. You know that when you are at war, you must be able to act quickly on intelligence that tells you that the nature of the enemy threat has shifted. You know that we cannot afford to tie the hands of those running the new department with rolls and rolls of red tape.

We will be moving 170,000 of our finest public servants to the new Department of Homeland Security. Our responsibility to these dedicated public servants - the men and women who secure our borders, protect our transportation systems, investigate terrorist organizations, respond to emergencies, and protect us against biological agents - is to give them an organization that is as focused and committed to protecting our homeland as they are.

The Department of Homeland Security must be World Class, with the best possible equipment and the best possible personnel systems - not a patchwork of antiquated systems and inflexible, outmoded, out-of-date practices. Yet even though employees at the Department of Homeland Security arrive with their pay and benefits, and yes, their union membership intact, there are those who are trying to turn this into a debate about "workers' rights." They ignore the fact that the bill that passed the House with broad bipartisan support - legislation the President endorsed - guarantees the very essence of civil service protections: veterans' preference, Merit System Principles, Whistleblower protections and protections against Prohibited Personnel Practices chief among them.

So while the President is worrying about how best to stand up the new Department of Homeland Security to protect Americans and prevent future attacks, those critics are running around like a flock of Chicken Littles warning that the sky is falling for the civil service. These charges play on emotion and fuel the natural fears that people have when facing change. Unfortunately, they are being used in a politically charged atmosphere, one where normal tensions between labor and management are easily manipulated into distrust and fear.

Unintended Consequences Of Misguided Compassion

I am reminded in many ways of the debates that took place when we took on welfare reform in Virginia. One of the reasons that I fought so hard for welfare reform- and it was not popular at the time - was that I had seen up close and in very personal ways the effect that the welfare system had on peoples' lives. There was no question that the system was failing and, in fact, it had failed. It was a horrible system that sapped motivation and sucked up initiative, trapping people in a culture of dependency.

Now let me say clearly that there was nothing wrong with the people - many are people I know and love and grew up with in the public housing projects in Richmond, Virginia. The problem was the system. Anyone operating under that system would be devastated. But there were awful, awful battles to preserve the old welfare system. Even though it was a horrible system, they did not want to change. People are hesitant to let go, even of a bad system, if it is the system they know.

At the time, I was eviscerated in the press; the state NAACP uninvited me as a speaker, unceremoniously dumped me from their conference. Once we passed the legislation and started to put a new, positive system in place, however, it was a different story. Today, people thank me for what we did. Everywhere I go in Virginia, I hear wonderful, touching stories from people who are leading independent, self-reliant lives and building strong families thanks in part to our efforts.

We are involved in a very similar debate today. I do not want anyone to come away thinking that I am somehow comparing public service to welfare. It is the dynamics of the debate that are so strikingly similar - the atmosphere of distrust, the bad systems. When the President says we need flexibilities for the Department of Homeland Security, it is not an indictment of hard-working public servants, the vast majority of whom appreciate the tremendous honor and tremendous responsibility inherent in their assignments and are committed to making the Department as successful as possible. It is about fixing bad systems so that employees at the Department of Homeland Security can carry out the urgent and compelling mission of keeping Americans safe.

We need to keep what works, and get rid of what does not:

• Systems that do not motivate and will not allow us to reward and develop the talent of our workforce.
• Systems that are slow and unresponsive, that turn off world class talent.
• Systems frozen in the 1950s and inconsistent with the enthusiasm, vitality, and energy the 21st Century workplace demands.
• In short, systems that are a mismatch for the mission, the work, and the workers at the Department of Homeland Security.

The problems with our current systems are no secret. It takes an average of five months to hire, and 18 months to fire a federal worker. It is position not performance that determines salary and the passage of time that brings pay raises. The vast majority of federal employees themselves identify dealing with poor performers as a serious problem in their agencies. And protracted collective bargaining can delay crucial action for months and even years.

Jack Welch, identified by Fortune Magazine as America's most admired CEO before he retired, built General Electric into a world leader in productivity - in large part because of his emphasis on people. The systems he put in place to manage them created a strongly motivated workforce. But I would be willing to predict that if you took a high-performing team from GE and put them into our system, within five years they would be "bureaucratized" - and probably much sooner. The problem is not the people. The systems we have send the wrong messages. Even Jack Welch himself could not create a world class organization with these systems.
So I get a strong sense of deja vu listening to the Homeland Security debate. Once again we have well-meaning people - many of them champions of federal civil service - doggedly clinging to old systems, blind to the unintended consequences of their misguided compassion.

In their zeal to "protect" workers, they have constructed an elaborate game of "Let's Pretend."

• Let's pretend that bureaucratic work rules rooted in the long-ago are relevant to the 21st Century workplace.
• Let's pretend that there is a uniform compensation system in place governmentwide; let's ignore the patchwork of premium pay rules that apply to the employees who will be transferred to the new Department. Or maybe we can pretend that having dozens of separate compensation systems in one department is a good idea.
• Let's pretend that Congress can design World Class personnel systems for the Department of Homeland Security in the next three weeks. Surely that is preferable to bringing stakeholders together to work with the Department and OPM through a deliberative process as the President envisioned.
• Let's pretend that weak links won't matter at the Department of Homeland Security, that we should give poor performers multiple chances to fail. After all, a federal worker's mistake just means filing some bureaucratic correction form. Why not keep them on the payroll, tying up valuable resources not to mention our supervisors' time through months and sometimes years of appeals?
• Let's pretend that the clearest indicator of how valuable you are in your job is how long you have been doing it, not how well you perform. Let's pretend that employees are motivated by being told the minimum they must do to avoid being fired. Let's pretend that will help promote a Culture of Excellence.
• Let's pretend that we have all the time in the world to negotiate out our differences. What could possibly be so urgent? What indeed!

The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is much too important for games like this. We might as well pretend that our nation was never attacked, that the World Trade Center towers still stand tall in Lower Manhattan. The September 11th attacks were a wake up call; the Department of Homeland Security an essential part of our response. Now is the time to marshal the urgency, the commitment, and the patriotism that every American instinctively felt on that terrible day. We are ready to seize the initiative and create a world class Department of Homeland Security that will protect American lives, and with your help, we will succeed.

Thank you!

Joe Sharpe, Director of Economics Commisson on the Subject of Homeless Veterans

Homeless Veteran Task Force - A Step By Step Guide

Healthcare For Homeless Veterans - Programs By State

Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Group (CHALENG) for veterans

Good morning, I am Joseph Sharpe, Deputy Director for Economics. Commander Zorn, National Executive Committeeman Pirolli and members of the Department of Pennsylvania: I appreciate this opportunity to come to Pennsylvania and discuss an important topic that is a priority of our National Commander Ron Conley, homeless veterans.

As a result of his leadership the national organization has adopted a multi-year plan to establish a National Homeless Veteran Task Force and we are asking each Department to establish a Department-wide Homeless Veteran Task Force that will involve the entire American Legion Family. A packet of information has been mailed to each Department that provides an outline of the objectives, responsibilities and suggestions for involvement that we hope will provide each Department the information they need to get started.

Here in Pennsylvania you have shown your leadership in this issue for over ten years and we are hoping your successes will be an inspiration for other Departments. I thought for this presentation I would provide you with an overview from the National Economics Commission on the issue of homeless veterans some which you may be familiar with.

Let's first talk about the demographics of homelessness and homeless veterans in America. The baseline demographics and census information around America's homeless are in two reports released around December 1999. “The Forgotten Americans - Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve", released by the Interagency Council on the Homeless is their National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients done in 1996.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans has a brochure titled "Homeless Veteran Fact Sheet" that they have sent for your use which provides an overview of the report data concerning veterans.

Veteran Specific Highlights:

• 23% of homeless population are veterans
• 33% of male homeless population are veterans
• 47% Vietnam Era
• 17% post Vietnam
• 15% pre Vietnam
• 67% served three or more years
• 33% stationed in war zone
• 25% have used VA Homeless Services
• 85% completed high school/GED compared to 56% of non-veterans
• 89% received Honorable Discharge
• 79% reside in central cities
• 16% reside in suburban areas
• 5% reside in rural areas
• 76% experience alcohol, drug, or mental health problems
• 46% white males compared to 34% non-veterans
• 46% age 45 or older compared to 20% non-veterans

Service needs:

• 45% help finding job
• 37% finding housing

The Urban Institute in conjunction with the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC) done in 1996 projected that During a year 2.3 - 3.5 million people are homeless in America that would then indicate by taking 23% of that range for veterans, there are 529,000 - 840,000 homeless veterans over a year

Accurate homeless numbers community-by-community is not available. Some communities do annual counts others do an estimate based on a variety of factors. You can contact the closest Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center, Homeless Coordinator or the office of your mayor or other presiding government to get local information.

The United States Conference of Mayors does an annual report of 27 cities on “Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities. In this report they compare demand for homeless services over the last 16 years and there has been an increase every year, and 100% of the survey cities expect that increase in demand to continue for the next year.

In an August 16, 2002 article in the Washington Post, it describes the city of New York wrestling with options as a record number of people are in need. The city's census for homeless people is 34,500 which is 6,000 more than in the bleakest days of the late 1980's, when the face of New York's poor became a national symbol of urban poverty.

What is your community experiencing? Homelessness in America according to most advocacy organization has not decreased and affordable housing is in an extreme shortage. The National Low Income Housing Coalition produces Out of Reach in an effort to provide this information to policy makers and advocates. Out of Reach contains income and rental housing cost data for the fifty states. For each, it calculates the income that renter households need in order to afford rental housing and estimates how many of these households cannot afford to pay the Fair Market Rent, and what they would need to earn to pay the rent and keep their housing costs at 30 percent of their income, the generally accepted standard for affordability established by Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. For instance, here in Pennsylvania the average rent for a 2 bedroom unit is $671 per month, and a worker earning the minimum wage of $5.15 must work 100 hours per week in order to afford the rent. The housing wage a worker must earn in an average 40 hour work week to afford this would be $12.90 per hour. What is the data for your city?

The Interagency Council on the Homeless, is the Federal level council of all the Federal Agencies and has been inactive for many years and met in July 2002 to reactivate and begin the planning to implement the President's goal of “ending chronic homelessness in 10 years". Advocates are hoping that Federal resources will be directed at supporting this goal.

What are some of the other current key policy issues? I will highlight a few issues: In December, Congress adopted the "Homeless Veterans Assistance Act of 2001, PL107-95" that has the potential to add almost $1 billion in services for homeless veterans over the next six years. The challenge for veteran advocates is to get the funding appropriated now that it has been authorized.

The VA has significantly reduced number of in-patient beds for mental health & substance abuse. Of all the veterans using the VA medical system 35-40% have mental health issues but the VA only has capacity to treat about one-half of those veterans. This new law addresses an increased capacity to serve these veterans but the VA has yet to adopt a plan to make this a reality.

A critical issue is the Department of Labor Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program funding. This program provides grants to local organizations to put homeless veterans back to work, which is a critical step into becoming self reliant. This same law PL107-95 authorized Congress to appropriate up to $50 million per year for this program. However, because of competing priorities the President's budget only asks for $17.5 million in FY03.

It is critical for each of us to continually be in touch with our US Senators and US Representatives to request they support increased resources and implementation of PL107-95 that they passed to provide services to homeless veterans. There is a big need to expand and add programs throughout the nation and the current funding levels cannot support that.

How can you help?

Advocacy

Local constituents can have a large impact on the decisions of Senators and Representatives that are members of the authorizing and appropriations committees. Please communicate to them about the needs for homeless veterans.

Volunteering

Find out what local nonprofit organizations need in terms of skills and encourage the American Legion Family members to get involved.

Donations

Have a special event to raise funds for a local organization or your Department Homeless Program.

Questions?

If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me at my Washington, DC office 202 861-2700 or you can contact our partner in this initiative, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans at 1-800-VET-HELP. Their website is listed on the brochure you received.

Thank you for this opportunity to be with you this weekend. The national organization appreciates your leadership in this national tragedy.

News from OPM:OPM and DoD Brief American Legion on National Security Personnel System
NSPS to Streamline DoD Personnel System

CONTACT: J. Porter, 202-606-2402 or jlporter@opm.gov

October 12, 2004, Washington, DC - The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in conjunction with the Department of Defense (DoD), conducted a recent briefing on the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) for representatives of the American Legion. The briefing provided information on the NSPS development background, guiding principles, NSPS program management, current outreach initiatives, and a national schedule of activities. George Nesterczuk, OPM Senior Advisor on the Department of Defense, delivered opening remarks and Mary Lacey, Program Executive Officer, NSPS, delivered the technical briefing.

"Defending Merit System Principles, guarding against prohibited personnel practices and honoring Veterans" Preference governmentwide, especially for qualified and disabled veterans, are top priorities for OPM Director Kay Coles James," said Nesterczuk. “OPM is working with DOD to ensure that federal workers who will fall under the new system are fully protected by these foundational principles."

The NSPS, as authorized by the Defense Authorization Act of 2004, will streamline much of DoD's outdated personnel system and allows DoD, jointly with OPM, to modernize a broad range of civilian personnel rules. The NSPS represents the most significant change to the civil service since the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, with flexibilities never before afforded that have the potential to impact the entire federal work force. These new flexibilities are being married with pillars of the civil service, such as Veterans Preference, in order to create a new, agile personnel system.

"As a veteran-making organization, DoD appreciates the critical importance of taking care of our veterans," stated Lacey. "Veterans are a valued constituency of DoD. Our meeting with the American Legion was to solicit their input to ensure veterans' issues and concerns are heard".

DoD continues to conduct outreach meetings to gain valuable information on crafting labor relations, appeals, and human resources design elements. Over 100 focus groups have taken place in 40 DoD facilities worldwide with the participation of over 1,000 employees. The focus groups conducted to-date have consisted of employees, civilian and military supervisors and managers, human resources professionals along with legal and equal employment opportunity staff. In addition, over 60 town hall meetings with DoD employees have taken place.

OPM and DoD also have held briefings on NSPS with other stakeholders, including public interest groups and employee advocacy organizations.

To further enhance communications with employees, an NSPS website has been established at www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps. The site is continually updated and it addresses various NSPS issues of interest to employees including pay for performance, pay banding, and labor relations.

The final NSPS regulations will be published in the Federal Register for public comment in December 2004.

OPM oversees the federal work force and provides the American public with up-to-date employment information. OPM also supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership, including staffing tools and programs to improve work force performance.

OPM oversees the federal work force and provides the American public with up-to-date employment information. OPM also supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools and programs to improve workforce performance.

Theodore Roosevelt Building
1900 E Street, NW, Room 5347
Washington, DC 20415-1000
Telephone: (202)606-2402
Fax:(202)606-2264