U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, will visit JBLM on August 7 to discuss her VOW to Hire Heroes Act, a landmark veterans’ employment law, to see how it is making an impact in Tacoma.
The Senator will receive briefings from Army and Air Force Joint Base officials on the successes of VOW at JBLM, and will discuss VOW’s impact within the local community, ongoing challenges to implementation, and how to work together to produce better outcomes in the future.
JBLM was selected as the first installation in the nation to pilot the apprenticeship program where active duty members are allowed to take time to participate in apprenticeship programs and still get paid. Senator Murray will tour a classroom where veterans receive this apprenticeship training.
The VOW to Hire Heroes Act is a bipartisan, comprehensive law that works to lower the rate of unemployment among our nation’s veterans. The law is designed to help put veterans back to work by providing them with real-world skills and job training as they leave the military and by easing the training and certification process veterans face. At JBLM, it is estimated that 90% of transitioning service members are taking advantage of the programs Senator Murray’s legislation created, and nationally, veterans’ unemployment rates among recent veterans have dropped dramatically from double-digits, and are now at or below civilian unemployment rates.