Tagged: Veterans

Senate Republicans shelved the Veterans Jobs Corp Act on Wednesday due to amendments introduced by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that sought to strip foreign aid from Middle Eastern countries.

The jobs bill would have added a $1 billion to help create jobs and train returning veterans for the workforce. Last week, Paul proposed changes to the measure to take away U.S. assistance to Pakistan, Egypt and Libya in response to the recent protests and attacks against American consulates and embassies.

The changes would have tripled funding for the jobs bill, according to Paul's office. But the amendments put up a procedural step that required 60 votes to waive objections.

That vote failed 58-40 in the Senate on Wednesday.

From The New York Times:

The bill was opposed, by, among others, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who said he believed the bill duplicated existing job programs for veterans that are not well run, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who has been seeking amendments on bills that would cut off funding to Egypt and to Pakistan until Pakistan freed Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden.

The Veterans Administration will soon purchase nearly 36 acres along Brownsboro Road to build its new medical center.

VA officials were previously considering two sites for the new hospital, which is expected to be at least 800,000 square feet, and had approved environmental studies for each. The announcement this week that the VA has made its final selection comes with assurance from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki that the VA will continue monitoring issues affecting area residence.

Veterans will have the chance to hone their resumes and job interviewing skills at the University of Louisville this week in the first of two events hosted by the University of Louisville which aim to get more veterans back to work.

Data released this month from the U.S. Department of Labor says the national unemployment rate rose slightly to 8.2 percent. For young veterans, that number rose to 12.7 percent, and there may be as many as 5,000 unemployed veterans in the Louisville region, said Leslye Erickson, director of U of L’s Career Development Center.

U of L will offer free workshops Wednesday for resume writing and interviewing skills and next week nearly 50 businesses have signed up to attend a job fair.