President Signs USERRA Protections for TSA Employees into Law

The president signed H.R. 3670 into law recently to force the Transportation Security Administration to comply with the Uniformed Servicemembers Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA. The VFW, which called attention to the problem and helped to introduce the legislation, applauded the bill’s signing.

“This new law not only offers piece-of-mind to service members already employed by TSA, but it also ensures that TSA can be an attractive employer to potential workers who possess the kinds of skills TSA needs to fulfill their mission," said VFW Executive Director Bob Wallace. "We thank the president, as well as leaders in the House and Senate, for continuing to make the well-being of our service members and veterans a priority."

Congress established TSA in the wake of 9/11 to strengthen security for American air travelers. In an effort to quickly mobilize the new agency and its thousands of employees, Congress designated transportation security officers, or TSOs, as a special class of employee considered vital to national security, and therefore exempt from certain labor laws like USERRA. However, the agency remained exempt from complying with USERRA more than 10 years later.

In an effort to offer reasonable protections to members of the National Guard and Reserve who may seek employment with TSA, VFW worked diligently with the offices of Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., over the past year to introduce and pass legislation that would finally close this loophole.

The VFW testified in support of H.R. 3670 before the House VA Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity in March, and VFW legislative associate Daniel Elkins, who currently serves in the National Guard, spearheaded efforts to find cosponsors for the bill, ultimately pushing the legislation across the goal line.

To read the official White House announcement of the bill signing, click here.

To read the official notice of the new law, P.L. 112-171, click here.

At a time when Americans criticize Congress for stalling on legislation, VFW advocacy efforts have resulted in dozens of new provisions becoming law, including the "VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011,", a comprehensive veterans' jobs bill, and the "Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012," an omnibus veterans' benefits package that finally resolved the years-old debate on how to care for service members and military families exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune.

But your VFW is not done. When Congress returns from the August recess, we will continue to push for more pending veterans' reforms, which we will highlight on this blog in the coming weeks. Check back regularly for updates.

Senate Passes USERRA Protections for TSA Employees; Bill Awaits President's Signature

This week the Senate hotlined the final version of H.R. 3670, a bill which will force the Transportation Security Administration, to comply with the Uniformed Servicemembers Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA. The VFW played a lead role in mustering support for the common sense legislation in both the House and Senate, and applauded its final passage.

“Once we learned that a loophole exempted TSA from complying with service members’ employment rights, our advocates worked hard to fix it to protect the employment rights of Guard and Reservists who work for the agency " said VFW Executive Director Bob Wallace. “The bill passed by the Senate today not only offers piece-of-mind to the service members working for TSA, but it also ensures that TSA will be an attractive employer to potential workers with the unique skills they need to fulfill their mission. We applaud Senator Joe Lieberman, Congressman Tim Walz, and the more than 60 bipartisan cosponsors in both the House and Senate for standing up for the rights of our citizen-soldiers, and we urge the president to quickly sign this responsible piece of legislation into law.”

In the aftermath of 9/11, Congress established TSA in an effort to strengthen security protocols for air travelers. In order to quickly stand up the new agency and its thousands of requisite employees, Congress gave TSA administrators broad authority to hire, fire and promote officers to meet the demand. As a result of this broad authority, transportation security officers, or TSOs, were included in a select category of federal employees considered vital to national security, and therefore exempt from labor laws like USERRA.

More than 10 years after the establishment of TSA, the agency remained exempt from complying with USERRA, and the VFW sought to finally close this loophole, offering reasonable protections to members of the National Guard and Reserve who may seek employment with TSA.

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., introduced H.R. 3670 in the House, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., introduced the companion bill, S. 1990, in the Senate.

The VFW testified in support of H.R. 3670 before the House VA Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity in March, and VFW legislative associate Daniel Elkins, who currently serves in the National Guard, spearheaded efforts to find cosponsors for the bill, ultimately pushing the legislation across the goal line.

The bill now awaits the president's signature. Your VFW will continue to keep tabs on H.R. 3670 as it moves closer to becoming law. Check back regularly for updates.

VFW’s Education Package Among Veterans’ Legislation Moved by the House

This morning the House Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a mark-up, passing three major pieces of veterans’ legislation supported by the VFW, including a veterans’ education package directly inspired by VFW advocacy efforts. The three bills were the Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act, or H.R. 4057; the Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act, or H.R. 5948; and the Military Family Home Protection Act, or H.R. 5747.

The VFW applauded the passage of H.R. 4057 in particular after leading the charge to introduce legislation that would offer improved consumer information to potential student-veterans on how to best utilize their G.I. Bill benefits and take action against schools, if they feel they have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse. In January, the VFW composed a letter calling on Congress to improve consumer information and consumer protections for student-veterans, building consensus among various sectors of higher education and among other veteran advocates in support of the concepts.

“In response to Senate reports on squandered G.I. Bill dollars and threats from Congress to scale back the benefit, the VFW knew we had to take steps to protect the educational opportunities we had secured for today’s warfighters,” said VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci, who had testified on the issue extensively in the past. “Our military is recognized as the most professional and most effective fighting force in the world because we give our troops the best training, equipment and information before we send them into battle. Unfortunately, when we send our veterans off to school, we fail to prepare them similarly for what lies ahead. If the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is going to be the generationally transformative benefit that we want it to be, we have to do better by our student-veterans.”

Gallucci went on to say that the information student-veterans currently receive can many times be inaccurate, misleading or downright false, making H.R. 4057 a responsible step to improving the information flow to potential student-veterans.

The committee amended all three bills extensively during today’s mark-up, adding provisions from more than a dozen other bills passed by each of the subcommittees during the series of mark-ups hosted just before the Fourth of July recess.

H.R. 4057 was amended to also include another bill that VFW and American Legion worked together to draft and amend, the HIRE at HOME Act (H.R. 4115), introduced by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio. Stivers’ bill ensures that states consider military training for professional licenses in medical and commercial driving fields. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., introduced an amendment to HIRE at HOME this morning, adding dental hygienists and radiological technicians to the list of covered professional licenses, and also clarified how the Department of Labor should share information collected from states on licensing gaps with the Department of Defense to improve training.

The committee also added language from two other VFW-supported bills ensuring safe housing standards for homeless veterans and commissioning an Open Air Burn Pit exposure registry with VA.

H.R. 5948, which ensures proper oversight of VA fiduciaries, was amended to include provisions from 10 additional bills that would prohibit the burial of Tier III sex offenders at National Cemeteries, ensure National Cemeteries respect the wishes of grieving families, extend VA’s medical exam contracts, ensure responsible advocate access to the VA’s Case Management System, mandate that VA disclose data breaches to veterans in a timely manner, formally honor the Patriot Guard Riders for protecting the burial privacy of grieving families, and designate 2012-2013 as the “Year of the Korean War Veteran.”

The final package for H.R. 5948 also included another bill that the VFW worked closely with Stivers to establish a “Place of Remembrance” at Arlington National Cemetery for unclaimed and unidentifiable remains of fallen troops. Stivers, an Iraq veteran who continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, wants to ensure that unclaimed fragmented remains, formerly discarded in landfills, would receive proper burial honors moving forward.

H.R. 5747, which offers improved housing protections for deployed service members, surviving spouses and disabled veterans, was amended to also include refinancing rights for active duty and deployed military personnel under the Servicemembers Civil Rights Act, and offers up to four weeks of additional leave for workers who need to seek medical treatment for service-connected disabilities but are no longer covered by the Family Medical Leave Act.

All three veterans’ bills will now be reportedly favorably to the full House of Representatives for consideration. Your VFW will continue to track each of the bills closely, updating this blog regularly with details.

The VFW testified recently on nearly every piece of legislation that passed as part of today’s committee mark-up. To view recent webcasts of VFW testimony on the issues addressed today, click on the links below:

• March 9, 2012 - VFW testifies on education and medical leave

• April 26, 2012 - VFW testifies on burn pits and safe housing 

• June 6, 2012 - VFW testifies on National Cemetery issues, medical exam contracting, and case management access

• June 21, 2010 - VFW testifies on state licensure, military refinancing and home protection

To read VFW’s full testimony from each of these recent hearings, click here. 


(Image: The House Veterans Affairs Committee hosts a mark-up of pending veterans' legislation in the committee's chambers in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)

House Passes VFW-supported Bill to Protect TSA's Guard and Reserve Employees

This week, your VFW is one step closer to better protecting the reemployment rights of Guard and Reservists who are employed at the Transportation Security Administration, which was exempt from complying with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act when it was created in the aftermath of 9/11.

On Wednesday evening, retired Army National Guard sergeant major and now Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., spoke passionately on the House floor in favor of his bill, H.R. 3670, which would close the USERRA loophole at TSA, and bring the agency into compliance with every other public and private employer that employs America's citizen-soldiers. His bill quickly passed, which now means that moving its companion bill, S. 1990, through the Senate floor is the final step. S. 1990 was introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

"VFW became aware of a little-known loophole last September that allowed TSA to be exempt from USERRA," said VFW legislative associate Daniel Elkins, who helped to introduce and muster support for the bill.

After considerable research, the VFW approached Walz to introduce a bill to close the loophole, and after months of work pushing others to support it, “we can all stand proud knowing that we're now just one step away in the Senate from accomplishing our goal,” said Elkins, who currently serves in the Army National Guard. "I encourage all VFW members and advocates to urge their senators to support S. 1990. We are within an arm's reach of changing the face of TSA for the better, to ensure all service members receive fair treatment in the workplace."

To contact your senators to support S. 1990, click here.

Your VFW will keep you posted on the progress on our efforts to closer TSA's USERRA loophole. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

Below is Walz's floor speech on H.R. 3670, broadcast on C-SPAN:

VFW Discusses Veterans Issues With House Democrats

Yesterday VFW Legislative Director Ray Kelley joined leaders from many of the nation’s top veterans’ organizations at the U.S. Capitol for a roundtable discussion on military and veterans’ issues with House Democratic leadership.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hosts the discussions each quarter to hear first-hand from veterans’ organizations about issues affecting service members, veterans and their loved ones. More than 30 organizations representing diverse interests across the military and veterans’ community were invited to join in the discussion on topics ranging from mental health care and surviving spouse benefits to Agent Orange exposure, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and federal budget constraints.

In his remarks, Kelley called attention to the recent VA Inspector General report on VA’s failure to deliver timely mental health care to veterans suffering from invisible wounds like post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Kelley recognized that VA planned to hire 1,900 additional staff in an effort to overcome shortfalls, but asked Democrats and fellow veterans’ advocates what more could be done to ensure that veterans who need care can receive it in a timely and efficient manner.

In response to Kelley’s comments, Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said he remains VA’s biggest advocate, but also its harshest critic. As a retired Army National Guard sergeant major and vocal advocate on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Walz said he and his fellow committee members will continue to hold VA accountable for their obligation to meet the mental health needs of the veterans’ community, and that if the agency needed more resources to accomplish its mission, his committee would continue to fight for them.

The VFW always welcomes dialogue over veterans’ issues with leaders on both sides of the aisle, which is why Kelley thanked each of the members in attendance for their attention to the issues facing the American veterans’ community. As the current conflicts draw down and Americans ask Congress to make difficult decisions on the national budget, your VFW will continue to advocate to continually improve and preserve the quality-of-life programs and benefits earned through the sacrifices of American military men and women. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

(Images: Top: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, center, welcomes veterans' advocates and House Democratic leaders to the quarterly roundtable discussion on veterans' issues. Middle: VFW Legislative Director Ray Kelley discusses PTSD during yesterday's roundtable. Bottom: Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., shares his thoughts on PTSD treatment issues at yesterday's roundtable. Photos by Ryan Gallucci.)