probably not a good way to make sure your customers are happy. if they are happy on one end then they will want to use you for something else. i would focus on how do i make my customers most happy, i think that would be a faster service to help my business. >>s thanks. what strikes me when i think about this question is my daughter who is 14 who lives on her iphone who she's not at camp. she finds e-mail to be slow and cumbersome. instant messaging is so much quicker she tells me. to me e-mail is so rapid, it's incredible. the new generation is accustomed and expects what they want to arrive on the door, you know, within minutes and instant sort of gratification. we worry about that in some respects. in other respects it's a tribute

to the new communications and transportation capabilities that we've developed. given the shifting culture and those expectations for speed and ontime delivery, i'm reluctant. you have to look at the economics of all of this and the trade offs and costs, but i hate to see the postal service give up one, two, three. >> thank you. mr. miller. >> mr. chairman two things. one, as i recollect, the rational for this change in service standards was developed after i left. i don't know the details of it. i hesitate to answer because without having time to analyze the data. second, there is a trade off obviously. you can't do all things for all people. you have to make some choices here. service standards should be an input into the question of plant and logistical rationalization it seems to me.

i just don't have -- i don't have my hands on the information necessary -- >> i understand. >> everything else equal. i think there's something nice about having as you characterize, a one, two, three kind of standard. you would deviate that only for good reason. i don't know whether there's a good reason there or not. i just simply cannot say at this time. >> all right. thank you. i think i mentioned earlier on saturday when i was home for a little bit, about 5:00 in the afternoon, our letter carrier came and delivered our mail on saturday. it turns out there were things in the mail that we very much wanted to receive. it's not always the case but it certainly was on that saturday. part of the debate that surrounded postal reform these days is should we continue to have six day week service accept when we have a holiday that mixes in like july fourth if

it's on a friday maybe or should we allow postal service at some point in time to go from six to five day service. when we passed legislation two years ago, we had 62 senators who voted for it. in that bill you may recall the postal service could eventually go from six to five day service if they chose to but you have to wait for at least two years after enactment of that legislation. well, that legislation if it had been enacted, that means the postal service would have been free this year to go from six to five day service in 2014 and to do the same thing in terms of closing additional mail processing centers. in this year, 2014. the bill didn't get enacted. now we're grappling with the same issues. we've taken different approach this year with respect to our legislation from six to five. for years i have sat here with

our labor friends in the postal unions especially to the letter carriers and urges them to work with the postal service to find a way to continue the mail on saturday with a wage benefit compensation structure that makes postal service more competitive. it doesn't lose as much money. we were told a couple of years ago that going from six to five day awe week would save $3 billn a year going forward. because of the changes in the wage/benefit structure that have been negotiated between the postal service and letter carriers that that's not longer $3 billion savings it's somewhere between 1 1/2, maybe $2 billion a year which makes it more -- they lose money but there's a trade off there maybe between service and service delivery and labor cost. our legislation we took a different approach in the

legislation. our legislation said we're not going to say the postal service for two years you're forbidden to go to a five day a week service. what we say with our legislation is look at a volume trigger. postal service last year delivered 158 billion pieces of mail give or take. what we put in is a volume trigger that says if that number drops below 140 pieces of mail, then the postal service would be free to go from six to five day a week delivery. it didn't have to. maybe they will continue to find ways to use that internet, digital connection to make money. the reason why we decided to take this approach to use a volume trigger instead of somebody saying well you can go to five day a week service in two years is because we want to realign the inventives.

we want to inventivize postal service employees to work harder to sell products. if you happen to be in a post office in a town or city or community but we want them to be inventivized them to sell harder and sell more. we want to inventivize the mailers whether they happen to be nonprofits or cotatalogs or magazines. we want to inventivize them to mail more. >> i just want you to react to the different approaches what we put in our bill two years ago on five day a week delivery where we said you can't do that for at least two years after enactment as opposed to some kind of volume trigger today and what you like about it or not. please dr. miller. >> mr. chairman as i said in my response to questions from the committee, i think the postal service made a mistake in trying to obtain permission or first stated it would accomplish this without congressional

acquiescence but than tried to obtain permissioning to from six days to five day delivery. i think they should have asked for delivery flexibility. there are a lot of places in america where six day delivery makes it eminently good sense. some places, seven day delivery makes good sense. other places, five day delivery. other places still two or three day delivery per week. the postal service needs to have that kind of flexibility. i think the postal service can provide what any reasonable person would say is universal service to some places in america at two or three days where the costs are just extraordinary of doing six days a week. the postal service did couple its proposal with provision that the post office would remain open on saturdays if someone

were expecting an important bill or payment or box of medicine or something like that they do come to the post office and get it. i live on elane. i have to go half a mile everyday to pick up my mail at my mailbox. a lot of people go pick up their mail at the post office. i know a lot of people are very remote locations, et cetera. especially in rural communities. more rural than mine but i think with some flexibility, the postal service could inconvenience a few people somewhat but save a lot of money, money that is something provided by other postal rate payers. for the most part, what we're talking about in postal service revenue base is not money from the taxpayer but money from other postal patrons. they are paying for the losses

that are ascribed to service that is just economically prohibited. >> all rite. thank you very much for that insight. mr. crawford please. >> just to add to those very thoughtful comments, jim, that i see it as a last resort. when i was on the transition team, the volume in 2008 was 203 billion pieces. 158 billion this year from second quarter results, it will be 151 billion pieces or so in 2014. that 240 -- we're approaching some of the thresholds that are in the bill. what has struck me since i was here two years ago about -- and i learned this from the reform legislation that you and the

doctor have introduced is the potential savings in retirement and health care expenses which exceed even what i imagined when i had done earlier examinations. i think in light of really the large possibilities there that it may not be necessary to go to five day delivery. i think jim makes a good point about it depends on where you are and what makes sense and i do believe the postal service should have the flexibility. it should not be -- it would be better if it weren't just led legislated. i review any reduction in service highly regrettable. should only be taken as a last resort if we can show and i think the numbers show that there would be some savings as

you say, 2, $3 billion a year. that's not chicken feed but next to what we're talking about in the health care and retirement expenses, it just may not be necessary. for a lot of people who deliver catalogs, i get my economist most weeks on saturday. that would be a loss to have to wait until monday or tuesday on a holiday week. so i'd like to see us keep six day delivery but have the flexibility to reduce if we need to. >> all right. thank you very much. mr. bennett, please. >> yeah. i think six day delivery is something that's kind of a foundation at the post office in that the people expect that. i think it -- i think that customer service would probably almost demand it in most cases. however, that said, i think this is -- i think we have to be careful to try to have a one size size fits all for all the various problems.

as jim pointed out that sometimes there may be some areas where five day delivery is just fine. some areas where seven day delivery is most important. at the end of the day, i think we've got to be very, very careful not to try to fix the -- try to have a one size fits all kind of solution to the various challenges. this is just about the financial issues, i think as stephen crawford said that there are other ways that you've included in the bill to address the major financial issues. so just to make that change for the purpose of financialses as big of a savings it would have i'm not sure that's the right thing. if you go back and think about the model i talked about earlier where you've got these various silos of cost. if you start driving cost out of one area you may end up driving cost up in some other areas.

ending saturday delivery while we have this trigger of 140 billion pieces of mail before you can actually drop saturday delivery. if you drop it, all of a sudden your pieces of mail start to fall further. so the savings impact could end up causing revenue losses in other areas that we haven't thought about. so i think there needs to be careful analysis in that area to look at what the impact is across the enterprise. >> thank you. ms. kennedy. >> i really support what my colleague said. i really don't need to repeat it only to say i think we need to project a poet apostal service working and is available for people to want to use. any time -- i really reiterate strongly what steve crawford said any time you have a cut back in service in any way whether it's delivery standards, whether it's daily delivery, six days a week, i think it's a black eye.

i think it hurts us. we want people to feel that the postal service is excellent in every way. that the mail when they drop that letter in the mailbox when it's picked up by their postal carrier that it's going to get where they want it to go so it's going to get there in a timely fashion and they can rely on the united states postal service. that's the impath age we want t project and that's what we want to have happen. i would love to see us find other ways to keep our finances robust and maintain the postal service. >> thank you. i just want to reflect on this for a moment. the legislation that was reported out of this committee a couple of months ago allows the postal service to consider whether or not to reduce service from six to five with a number of caveats, including post office had to be open on

weekends. po people have access to their mailboxes and that kind of thing. certain items have to be delivered including pharmaceuticals, medication, that kind of thing. we didn't just use a straight trigger $140 billion -- 140 volume trigger to say when the mail volume drops below that you can go to five day week delivery. we didn't do that. we have a provision that says you can't do it before 2007 and effectively if even the postal service board of governors, i don't think it's going to with the economy coming back. god willing about the effect of what we put in there the earliest we could go from six to five is in 2018. we will see how it works out.

i think the challenge to the postal service is to figure out how to get more people to use this service. how do we make saturday delivery not losing $1.8 billion a year but maybe it profitable. that's the key. how do we do that? as we figure out how to get this digital intersection figured out and mr. bennett, you get on this committee, i know you will help us do that. that's the challenge for us. how do we take this legacy organization and make money on it and do so without encoaching in inappropriate ways in the private sector. we're still hoping the doctor will join us. he's flying in from tulsa. you know that old gene pitney

strong. 24 hours from tulsa. it doesn't take that long to get there but his flight has been delayed somewhat. chris, do you have any updates for us? all right. i have some bad news for you. that's the doctor's flight has been apparently delayed further. he's not going to be able to be here until 8:00 so we'll have dinner and -- you guys can get to know each other even better. no, i think we will wrap it up and he will -- knowing the doctor he will have plenty of

questions for the record. if he hasn't had a chance to meet with you, my guess is he will want to do that. i would urge that you make time to do that. he's a very thoughtful, creative person. he is saddled with not very good staff. no, he's blessed with good staff and so am i. they keep us out of trouble most of the time. a lot of times what i will do with a hearing if we have an opportunity -- we're invited to make an opening statement and i thought you had very good ones. sometimes when we have time i like to give our witnesses time to give a closing statement. not five minutes but sort of reflect on what you've heard. what you said and what others have said. some questions that were asked but if you would just take a moment and think about a closing statement just to take maybe a minute or so to do that. i will make a couple of comments and then we will call it a day.

ms. kennedy. would you like to lead off. >> thank you so much mr. chairman. thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here today. thank you for your very thoughtful questions. i think the challenges are there but i think there are great opportunities. the united states postal service is a tremendously vital asset for this nation and i look forward to having the opportunity to serve and if confirmed, i look forward to getting my -- serving with these magnificent gentlemen here to my right and having a great continuing conversation with you and with the doctor and the rest of the members of the committee. thank you very much. >> david michael bennett from charlotte, north carolina. >> this is a really neat process. thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. >> confirmation hearings aren't normally this much fun. >> sometimes they can be down

right pretty awful. >> well i've had a good time. more of a comment on my personality than anything else but this is a real opportunity. i look forward to having a chance to tackle this. the problems that the postal service has and we've talked about it today and that we've talked about it in our lunch is that they are really challenging but they are the same kinds of problems that other businesses have faced for the last decade. ibm transformed themselves. cisco is having to transform themselves now. company -- at&t. company after company had to transform -- they've had to transform themselves. they've come out on the other side better than they were before. i think we have an opportunity to take this 200 plus year old organization and make it better than it was before. do some things that are different. maybe in a year we are not even talking about the number of pieces of mail that we've delivered, maybe we're talking about the number of shoes or the

number of other other items that have been faxed that we've had a chance to deliver. so the world is changing. we have an opportunity, i think, now, at this critical juncture, we have an opportunity to take the most unique organization in the world in terms of logistics and moving things around and make it something really special for the american people. i look forward to the opportunity. i hope i get the opportunity to serve on the board of governors and help make that happen. >> thank you. i hope you will, too. thank you. >> dr. crawford, not mr. crawford. for the closing statement, i want to recognize dr. crawford. >> i appreciate is that. >> i kept asking my staff is he a mister or doctor, finally they told me you're a doctor. i apologize. dr. crawford. >> i will take this opportunity to say, you know, i was here two years ago, almost to the day for my hearing the first time

around. sf 1789 it had actually passed in the senate. since then my wife has said to me this classic question that we've all been asked, why do you want owe do thto do this? the board can't fix what's wrong with the postal service. congress seems to be reluctant to act. to be perfectly frank, i had to do ask myself, does this make good sense? it has been so gratifying to come back this time because s 1486 has been reported out of the committee and i have -- i am just so impressed by the changes that it holds forth.

i am hopeful enough that those -- or something like those will be enacted. that i find myself almost sharing michael david bennett's enthusiasm and the fact that there are four of us together here now with such an interesting background, i have to confess that i too, it's not like a cynical old professor and army officer but i too am enormously enthusiastic about this opportunity because of the legislation that's under way and because of the team that's here together so thank you for the opportunity. >> you're welcome. dr. crawford, thank you for your willingness to take this on yet again. we will try to get it done this time. okay? thank you. dr. miller, please. >> thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity of being here today. i appreciate also the opportunity of the pros inspepe serving with these three

individuals whom i say i have gotten to know and respect. i think great things could come from the postal service being led by them as well as the current governors. i concur with what dr. crawford has just said about the two legislative vehicles. i think the current one is much improved over the former one. a matter which i gave rise, i think, to some lack of cohesion last -- two years ago. i think mr. bennett, michael, summarized things well and made the case for something i have been saying all along. that is, i think the postal service really needs the freedom and flexibility to operate like a business. those businesses that have remade themselves have been able to do that because they had the freedom to experiment and to do

things of a sort that stephen mentioned earlier. all aalong we have to be cognizant of the public service mandate the postal serviceartic. i think we can do that. working with congress. both houses as you know, the other body has not come with a proposal that is quite similar to the one you have. there's more work to be done. i think though, that the prospects are reasonably good because the situation for the postal service is so dire i congratulate you on the progress that this committee has made and

i urge your prompt attention to the nominations and to the prospect of a full board operating in high gear. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you all. that was wonderful. let me add a couple of things. one sort of humorous and the other more serious. not long ago my wife and i happened to be driving by a cemetery. she's always asking us to update our wills. i said martha, i have no intention of dying any time soon. one day she said to me, we were driving by a cemetery and she said something about what you would like to have on your tomb stone. what would you like to have on your tomb stone. i thought about it for a moment and i said, you know i think i would like to have these words. return to sender.

>> that's pretty good. >> return to sender. it's not just a great song but a pretty good -- something to put on a tomb stone, it fit nicely, too, i think. the leaders are many things. you all have been leaders throughout your lives. i like to think that leaders are humble, not hardy. i like to think as leaders have courage to keep out of step when everyone else is marching to the wrong tune. they are also prevailers of hope. that's not my words. leaders are purveyors of hope. it's actually a hopeful situation. i've been out here drinking

water, this is a glass half full situation. this is definitely a glass half full situation. if we can get our act together here in this body on capitol hill, working with the president, all the key stakeholders, you know, this can turn out a whole lot better. some people are willing to believe just a few years ago. part of the key to this is having the right folks on the board of governors. when people say to me what is your all time favorite job, i tell them the best job i ever had was at ohio university where i was the pots and pans man at the delta gamma sorority house. the close second would be being governor. i taught people i am a recovering governor when they asked what i do.

some day i will have the chance to say you're recovering governors too. i think you'll be a great addition to the board of governors. we will try -- when the doctor arrives, we will have a chance to talk to him tomorrow and talk about how he'd like to move forward and how we'd like to move forward and do it in a timely, timely way. with that, let me just say that again, we're deeply grateful to each of you for your time and preparation today for meeting with our staffs. the nominees have filed responses, answering prehearing questions submitted by our committee. had had your financial statements reviewed by the office of government ethics. without objection, this information will be made part of the hearing record with exception of financial data which will available for inspection in the committee

office. the record will be kept open until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow for the submission of any written questions or statements. i'm sure the doctor will have some additional questions and my guess is some colleagues will, too. with that, it's a wrap and we'll adjourn this hearing today. thank you again so much. >> thanks mr. chairman.

on the next washington journal, we will talk about democratic representative karen bass of california about a bill aimed at ensuring child well fair agencies will better able to identify and serve child victims of trafficking. texas republican representative will join us to discuss house speaker john boehner's lawsuit against president obama alleging he has abused his executive power. also our spot light will focus on u.s. companies and corporate taxes. our guest is allen sloen. senior editor at large for fortune magazine. washington journal is live on cspan everyday on 7:00 eastern.

you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >> coming up at 1:30 p.m. eastern, the senate committee examines telephone scams aimed at the elderly. you can see the hearing live right here on cspan 3. tuesday, national center for missing and exploited children miss john ryan updated house members on his organizations ongoing efforts to find missing children and investigate violent crimes against children. you can see the event in its entirety on our website. here is a look. >> one of the most prevalent venues where these minors are being trafficked or in local hotels. now, typically, you know, people aren't paying attention to whose coming and going into these

hotels but those are in the business of operating hotels they are in a position to take notice of the behavior characteristics consistent with this trafficking. for instance, many times, a pimp will come in with three -- sometimes five young girls. the girls will be off to the corner. the pimp will go in make the arrangements for three to five rooms. it might be for a three day period. typical cash. these girls will go up to the rooms. they will never leave their rooms. food will be delivered. nobody sees them again until they leave. what's strange. what is going on? why is that pimp hanging around? why is he walking the hall ways you know 24/7? something is going on that's inconsistent with the regular routine of the trade of that hotel. i'm not just talking about the very small seedy hotel, i'm

talking about very well known, you know, reputable brand. >> chain hotels. >> my home exit at 22 and i 65, it's right there. so every chain that you know has -- is there so. >> what i invite people to do. i say this with some degree of reluctance, if you want to see the scope of the problem in your own neighborhood go to a back stage because they promote ads in communities and turns. it's not just cities but they break it down into counties and burros, into communities to if they are advertising your area in a an adult escort service, that means you have a problem. a child if not multiple children are being exploited in that area. >> yeah. you know as a matter of fact, i want to reach out to you and ms. brooks will reach out to you and those ideas which you think we

should present. i didn't think about inviting hotel owners to come to a round table but that sounds like -- >> you know, these young girls there are some boys but mostly girls are being trafficked from state to state. how are they getting to and from? many times they are flying but then they are getting into cabs. we've had many reports. law enforcement gets reported they see the same young girls over the course of a month, two months come through their area. go to the same hotels. go back, you know at some point. there are a lot of eyes and ears in different sectors who if they are probably educated, alerted, who can they call? typically it will be law

enforcement. they can get to the bottom of this and do incredibly good work. >> thank you. appreciate that. i yield. thank you for the time mr. chairman. >> next, a discussion on helping the nation's veterans transition from military to civilian employment. from the annual national governor's association summer meeting in nashville. this is 90 minutes. >> go ahead and get started. good afternoon i'm the governor

and chair of the nga home land security and public safety committee. i call this hearing to order. i welcome governors and guests. i am honored to serve this committee leadership this year with governor snirick snider. i thank him very much for his work. he is unable to join him. i want to thank the governor of ohio who is stepping in today as the vice chair or heartbeat away from the microphone here. if i mess up the able leader will take over and get us to the finish line. i'd like to begin with just a few straekti iadministrative is. the proceedings of this committee are open to the press and all attendees as a consideration please take a moment to ensure that your cell phones are silences. if not, if it's a really

interesting call, share it with all of us. home land security legislative director. please see him if you need copies. today's session will focus on sharing strategies and strengthening partnerships to provide meaningful and long term employment for our veterans. this is a structured session with a distinguished panel of guests offering various perspectives on veterans employme employment. they will look more about our to improve federal programs, share innovative practices among the states and discuss ways to strengthen the private/public partnership with employers. in recent years thousands have left military service as our commitments over seas are coming to a conclusion. as they turn to civilian lives, many are facing unique employment challenges that require assistance to

reintegrate into society. while federal data shows positive progress is being made in lowering unemployment, it remains above the national average. that means the unemployment of veterans since 9/11 is above the average folks. we want to make sure that that statistic is not one that we have a year from now. governors are working to address the challenges that they face leaving military service. we will fight for them. that's why many states including missouri, we've taken action to remove barriers and ease service transition to the work force. we have signed bills in that regard. many other states have also done that. i thank everybody for all of their tremendous work. governors are developing a host of programs to if prom their access to benefits and. meet the specialized needs with

those are disabilities. we have programs called show me heroes. you will hear about it in a little while here. it got started very simply. i was in afghanistan meeting with a group that was getting ready to go out to deal with some ieds. very difficult shift. 7:00 at night. i was in a small room with those folks. they were putting on their armor and getting ready and it felt like a high school locker room. i turned to a young fellow from missouri and said what scares you thinking he'd say ieds. he raised his night vision goggles. and he said do you know what scares me, not having a job when i get home. that's what scares me. i think we've all heard stories of one form or another like that. consequently all of us are trying to do a lot of things. in missouri, our pregram has

more than 4,000 employers who are involved in that program including enterprise rental and express grips. it's important to note that those 4,000 employers are already hired in our state. for those of you would want to know it's a very simple flag. folk who's are in service when they are in theater, they rip the subdues flag off their shoulders. the folk who's got the plaques for serving us, the employers actually get something that was worn in battle for our country. we appreciate the soldiers/veterans and the companies. we as states know it's not a one size fits all program. while the unemployment rate for post 9/11 veterans has dropped significantly from its peek we still have too many people unemploy

unemployed. that's why we wanted to have this session here to hear best practices to make sure we're moving forward. before we get started and introduce the panel, let me turn to the governor for any opening statements that he would like to have. our vice chair, governor from the great state of iowa. governor nixon thank you and thank you for your leadership on this very important issue. in iowa, i'm proud to say my top priority which a nounsed in the state address is something called home based iowa very similar to your show me heroes program. it included first of all eliminating the military -- the eye iowa income tax on military retirement. it also provides in state tuition for all veterans whether they come from iowa or not at our state or community colleges. it also simplifies the process for them getting professional licensing and getting credit for their military training and

education. when they go to our colleges and universities. we also have appointed bipartisan group of leaders of former congressman bosswell who's a democrat and bob mire. they are both retired colonels and friends. they are working very hard and the effort to line-up -- we hear all the time from businesses we have good jobs available. we can't find people with the right skills. we have people coming out of the military that have leadership skills and technical skills that fit in with that. we're working really hard to make that information available and to market directly to those. we also have an opportunity for communities to become home based communities for businesses to become home based businesses by setting certain goals and we

also extended veterans preference laws to give private sector businesses the same opportunities to provide veterans preference is it a state and local governors do in the state of iowa. this is a very ambitious program. i'm proud to say it received y bipartisan support. i had the honor of signing it on memorial day at the gold star museum. i lost 12 1/2 pounds and wore my uniform to sign the bill. i'm really proud to have had that opportunity. debby durham who was on the panel, it's her department who will be implementing it. and also our work force development people in the state of iowa. we think it's a great program. we want to do all we can. we also have a $5,000 stiepend

that we give to veterans who are purchasing homes. it reque can go to down payment or closing costs. we increase the amount so that every veteran who applies for that can receive that tax credit. i'm excited about it. we're just beginning to empliment it. we got two counties that already been designated as home based and our major iowa -- the iowa business council, all of the major employers in iowa have signed on to be home based businesses. we're seeing a lot of interests all throughout the state. i think we will see many other counties and communities participate. with that, i will turn it back to governor nixon. >> thank you. once again, iowa going one state further not only hiring veterans but a weight loss program also. >> we want to be the healthiest

state in the nation. >> usually we get the lecture of the healthiest state in the nation. always has the scaffold in there. let's get started. i will introduce the panelist here and we want to have an engagement between us. rather than sitting here and listening to an hour long spaeeh by everybody. you will see how it lays out as a really interesting panel. i think over the next 45 minutes we can have a really good engaged discussion. first is teresa gerton. the deputy assistant secretary for policies in veterans employment and training services at the u.s. department of labor. this office serves veterans and prepares them for meaningful careers. providing employment resources and expertise and protesting their employment rights. she also is in several senior executive service level positions in the department of defense. a veteran herself, ms. gerton is

a west point graduate and serves in a variety of staff and leadership positions in a distinguished 20 year career with the u.s. army. >> our next panelist susan kelly is the director for the transition to employment office in the department of defense. she leads the office in charge of implementing the resign transition program to meet the needs of post 9/11 service members as they separate from active duty and enter civilian life. she also serves as the cochair for the leading transition assistant efforts in the dod in the cord nation with five different federal agencies. she has a long and distinguished career in the department of defense and holds her doctor in marriage and family from st. louis university. she oversees economic programs for state including initiatives such as home base iowa. before that she served as president of the sue land

chamber of commerce. next to her is jeff harris. she has served as my policy director since january of 2009. prior to joining my office he was a member of missouri house of representatives from 2003 to p the coolests, also wins name contest today. itdquartered in st. louis, off rates alamo and national rental cars as well as the enterprise brand. the company offers a rental and car sharing services and retail car sales. he has served with the company for 20 years in various capacities. jonah as vice president of government affairs for expressed

ess scripts.pris the company coordinates the distribution of outpatient pharmaceuticals including retail drug card programs, home delivery, and other clinical management programs. he spent several years in product development and corporate quality before leading the public policy and advocacy efforts. done with that. a good panel. and private sector folks who have embraced this and hired thousands of veterans through a myriad of programs. i want to thank everybody for being here. rather than going through the routine of each of our panelists give a presentation, i would like to jump right into an interactive discussion. our goal is to make sure that everybody has a chance to discuss these issues.

our conversation will focus on three key issues. one, strengthening partnerships. two, improving the means to identify job opportunities. three, eliminating barriers to veterans in employment. i would encourage my colleagues to jump in at any time to share any innovative practices or questions for these folks. generalstart with a question about strengthening partnerships and leveraging resources. states are often in the best situation to provide employment support services and engage with employers. so effectively requires active partnerships with the federal government and the private sector. to our federal panelists, how can states best partner with their military installations, national guard and federally supported job centers to address veterans' employment challenges? >> thank you very much.

hit on something important here. it is a partnership. labor is uniquely positioned to help a friend this partnership. we certainly recognize the significance of full employment opportunities and its relationship to the readiness of your national guard duty. we frequently talk about the fact that many guard and reservists are either unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed. the job centers offer a great way to connect. trying are busy doing is to encourage our federally funded state reps in each of your states to work closely with your state workforce agencies to engage, to make sure that that relationship is strong so that

we can connect the local jobs in and around your unit with the folks in those units to make sure that we know the folks in those units to make sure that we know about them and they are registered in the system and we can help with the matching opportunities becausa you know all there are lots of opportunities and the challenge often is simply connecting that young guardsmen to the opportunities that are out there. so we think that the work force system and the jobs centers that are there close by offer a great way to have individual counseling for that guardmen or reservist and a direct connection through the state job banks. the job centers and that personal connection. so i think it's really important and i would encourage you as you go back and talk to your labor commissioners and your tags if you hook them up with that, who is there in your state and make sure that partnership is strong.

the next point i would make is regarding military installations. so obviously not every state has an active military installation but where you do have those we've worked very closely with dod to develop at the federal level memorandums of understanding that encourage military garrison commanders to activity engage with their local work force agencies and centers to bring those folks onto the basis. we're about to publish within dol guidance to those job centers directors through your state work force agencies encouraging them to be available when that military installation commander calls. it's vital to enable what dod has going on in terms of their transition assistance program and cab stone. making sure the service members know about the transition. i want to make sure you know as a matter of dol policy any one

who has separation orders or separation date is considered a dislocated worker for the purposes of access within the job center network, the work force system and for access to work force innovation fund raining. so service members with ets dates are eligible for wia. access priority of access to those resources. that's a critical way to help fill -- >> is that automatic. >> it is automatic. it's a matter of public policy in policy documents that the department of labor has issued going back to 2005 actually. i was very surprised that it wasn't back that far. understanding that dislocated worker status which also applies to spouses. both spouses of service members who are changing station and service members who are separating. so there's just a couple of things right off the top that demonstrate the critical partnership between dod, your guard and reserve units and the national work force system.

>> so if i might add, i think it's -- >> teresa, you said that our veterans are unemployed, under employed or unhappily employed when they come home from service from transitioning to civilian life. maybe it's a question for everybody but why is that? what are the obstacles for them to be happily employed? what is anybody under employed. what is the cause of that unplou unemployment unhappiness. >> i suppose in many cases it's unique as the individual but often times i suspect it is based in the fact that they may jump into the first job that's available because they feel the need to find some employment and then may have found a job that doesn't fit their skills, interest, their aptitude.

we want to make sure that the utility of the job centers and counselors that are there to actually do skills assessment for them. figure out where training gaps are. make sure they get the kind of guidance that will help them find jobs that will be happily employed with meaningful work. >> do we have a higher unemployment rate, i expect we do of veterans returning than we have in the general population? the general population is probably -- you think it would be about the same but -- >> i would point you to a couple of statistics. first of aggregate veterans unemployment rate has been below the national unemployment rate almost continuously for the last three years but you have to keep in mind that the veteran population skews older than the average demographic in america in fact 65% of the veterans in america are over the age of 45. so unemployment tends to decrease as age increases normally speaking.

the post 9/11 vets do have a higher unemployment rate but it is closing on the national average for the equivalent age groups in fact in may they were almost statistically equivalent. so it's closing. i think it has a lot to do with dods efforts to introduce folks before separation to really critical thinking about their transition. our partnership with dod to make sure they have access to the resources that they need before they transition to develop the right kinds of skills and search techniques and identify opportunities. >> i wanted to make sure everybody understood so we could structure this conversation that the transition assistance program for our service members has gone through a significant resign. you see some of that literature in your notebooks that are at the table.

what wife done is we'e've done dol, veterans affairs, even with department of education, small business administration and the office of personnel management and brought all of those subject matters experts together and really hammered out first what did we want as an end result with the transition preparation that we give to service members. it just like they need the physical fitness, military training, standards, all of that, they have to meet career readiness standards. monthmple would be a 12 postseparation budget. we get them to look at what they have coming in now and move them to, where do you think you will relocate to. tools,ome of d.o.l.'s finding out what the job market looks like there and what they could be earning.

one of the other career is aness standards military occupational code crosswalk so that they take their military occupational code , translate those into the civilian occupational code, go to the labor market in the location to which they think they're going to relocate, and look at if those skills are in demand. a lot of times are service members are thinking, i'm going to go back home. market does not have these skills that you want to have as a career, what is your plan b? the post-9/11 g.i. bill connects veterans to that part of their curriculum, which is accessing higher education, which tells

them how to select the best universities, community colleges , can they get the skills they need for that civilian a careern, or technical training track which teaches them all about the institutions that offer vocational training in your state, in your communities, and what is the correct course of study they can use to cover and pay for. part of this entire curriculum, we have moved from a four-hour separation counseling to a mandatory 88 hours of instruction. brick and mortar, virtual curriculum available to them. to teach them far earlier to start considering how they are going to use this rich skills outtraining after they get of the military and apply those to their lives when they separate.

that is the culture change for clearlyarticulating that everyone, whether they serve four years or 40 years, whether you are a first-termer or four star, everyone if all goes well will separate from active duty. how do you start making wise decisions for you and your family now to embed that kind of thinking that that exercise will start at the first permanent duty station for every service member. in the last 90 days of a military members career, we are embedding that across the military lifecycle. they are going to start looking at the information about your states, your colleges, your marketsties, your labor

, and they will be looking for those training opportunities you will be offering at your state towards the careers they want to have. differentcompletely mindset, a complete change in the system. we are partnering with dol to get that long-term thinking applied across all of the forces. you're not going to be seeing service members hurrying and scurrying at the last 90 days of their military service. starting in 2015, those coverts will start this long-term thinking and deliberate planning. of our, we have a lot service members coming back from a rack and afghanistan. they are already going -- iraq and afghanistan. they are already going through that training.

, a newers responsibility, commanders have to ensure that they meet career readiness. , they get one hand over to the d.ol.l. terrific resource for everyone. they make it connected -- make it connected to veterans affairs. it is very much a dovetailed curriculum. i wanted to offer that to you so we are not said in this thinking , short term, last 30, 90 days we will be looking at more deliberate planning so you can

also be knowing that service members are going to be looking at your state much earlier. >> clearly, a lot of work has been done on this, and we are at a point where all of us are going to be in service in one form or another when we break through the barrier. one of the key parts of that is we have twortners. with us, iowa and missouri. also with you, debbie. and getze partnerships the connections between employers and organizations and the families themselves. >> absolutely. tell you how we are implementing just what you said in the states through home-based iowa. home-based iowa is a five-year initiation. we have a single site portal that comes into workforce development. workforce development will do the first assessment.

we are using that crosswalk assessment. we are using that to say, this is what you did in the military. this is what it means in the marketplace. the we put them through national career readiness certificate skills assessment. we say, here is what you came out with an this is what you need, and we connect them with those jobs in our state. we are providing a service for them. this is a private-public partnership. he will spend between $750,000 to $1 million a year. sector is paying for the marketing. we are working with those 25 top employers of the state that are creating the same protocol for their hr department. what we have realized is there is a disconnect between those hr departments and trying to hire this population.

we are trying to create this continue on that is thatehensive -- continuum is comprehensive and matching exactly what you are talking about. then we have said, if you know this, let's drill down into the basics. we have done research to show every base in the company. those military rankings, and what that means to the marketplace when you do that translational software, and saying, we know you have one base that has an abundance of i.t. and we have to higher x amount of i.t. because we have predicted with the baby boomers exiting the marketplace how many people we are going to need. or just jobs today, but two three years from now when they are deploying. now we are reaching out to try to touch those individuals before they ever think of saying, here's where you need to go. arehe governor said, we

doing in-state tuition not just at universities, but arrive at an community colleges, and we are about the whole family. we are taking exactly the foundation that you have laid for us, and we are implementing it into the marketplace. governor, our show me heroes program in missouri was started in 2010. it is a basic concept. that is to link veterans, give them a chance at employment once they leave military service. as the governor mentioned, it has been a successful program. 400-6000 employers have taken the pledge to be show me heroes employers. 6836 military veterans are now gainfully employed in the civilian sector since the inception of this program.

if i were another governor in another state and if i were aoking at how to design successful program, there are two basic concepts. our program is pretty straightforward. an employer takes a pledge, signs a pledge to give a veteran a shot at an employment opportunity. person whoer gets a is trained to standard, who is mission oriented, goal focused. the two basic reasons why we believe this program has been successful are, we kept it simple. it's not complicated during an employer signs a pledge that that employer will give a veteran a shot. an additionald byzantine bureaucracy around this program. it is a single point of contact.

website. director, a everything works up to and through that director. is an existing apparatus out there. we did not believe it was in our best interest to make it anymore complicated, but to make it simple and to achieve our goals. the second thing we had done -- i think this is the other reason it has been a successful program -- we have utilized existing resources that are out there. one of the folks mentioned the levers, which is an acronym for local veterans employment representatives. we have 14 of those across the state of missouri and they are in direct contact with employers , direct contact with military veterans, and we worked with them, complement their efforts, and use their information to funnel up to the top to the show me heroes program and with the

ourmate goal, and we like success rate. the ultimate goal of giving that veteran the opportunity to succeed and giving that employer express scripts and enterprise, an employee whose skill is going to make their company even better. let's move to those employers real quickly, then we will open up again. representative of express scripts and enterprise said that we are already doing a lot in these areas and have really embraced these programs. i would like to let them talk about their experience and what and tothey would have other employers out there, what they have discovered, from embracing this -- these have been two of the organizations in our state that have been incredibly involved at every

level to assist folks that are transitioning out of the military to get into the economic sector. we will start from the express scripts gentlemen. >> you made my mother's day. she can see me on c-span today. >> saturday afternoon audience c-span, it spikes to unknown levels as she joins the two librarians in boise. [laughter] hello, mom. she may be disappointed i did not win the naming contest. we can revisit that later. thent to talk about some of partnerships that express scripts has built, at the federal and state level, and give some of the measures of success and things that we have learned through this process. express scripts has been

committed to hiring veterans since we began the company in the mid-1980's. what that meant in the 1980's was visiting military installations in missouri and across the river in illinois, participating in mock interviews and transition assistance programs. people seek employment so differently today than they did then. those programs have changed, and we do have more things on the internet, and we do more things through social media to connect with these groups. four organizations in particular the we have had successful partnerships. i will start with show me heroes, the program jeff described. he really did not make it sound so simple, but it is the simplicity of asking employers to make a promise and make a commitment. it is a public commitment that has really driven its success. since we signed on. signed on is how we think about it. we have added 300 veterans to our employment in st. louis,

missouri. a few other organizations, the military spouses employment partnership -- this is a department of defense program that allows for the better facilitation of job postings and listings to be shared with people who are actively seeking employment. to get thesei mean opportunities in front of current, active job seekers. which0,000 jobs mission , withinbeen involved in three years they exceeded the mission. it has been a very successful organization in that way. and then the employer support, refocusing our reserve. those are external partners. the mosthave had success is building a partnership with our workforce. hire au recruit and

veteran employee, you want to retain that employee as well. being committed to veterans is not a recruitment issue. it is a cultural issue. we have some reservists in our company who were sent overseas, both to afghanistan, one in 2012 and one last year. toking with them, we decided dash through the use of our internet, allow them to write posts for the workforce to see, sharing what was coming on in afghanistan, one being a who wast, one marine working to stand up the afghan national army. our workforce of more than 30,000 nationwide, we are able to see and read about and see photographs of and what does this mean. it will do patriotic feeling inside the company about the

workforce, and that commitment. express -- express scripts is meeting all of its obligations in supporting our reservist employees. it also serves to increase the visibility of how important it is to disclose veteran status. there are critical measurement problems. room, you mayhe not go back and update your profile in your hr system after the day you are hired. perhaps you did not disclose you are a veteran on day one because you did not want to or you thought there might be a bias or there was an error. you may have been with your company for 10 years and they would never know you were a veteran. when you share with your workforce that you are committed and here is what you are doing and you want employees to see it, they start disclosing and sharing. it helps solve for one of the pitfalls we have seen.

you, governor. it's a pleasure to be here, representing our state. i can't thank you enough for your leadership in this area. i'm going to talk about simplicity. i'm not going to tell you anything you have not heard yet. there's a clear message in that great simplicity when it comes to the issue of employing people, vitally important. there are a lot of institutions, employers, methodologies of finding the aptitudes of our veterans. if we overcomplicate things, connections are lost. the more simple we can keep it, the better things are going to be. a few areas where we have found tremendous success are the following. the first is the 100,000 jobs mission. this is a large organization of over 160 private employers where we get together on a quarterly basis and have an opportunity to share best practices about things that have worked for us,

things we are struggling with, and looking for ideas in which we can implement success stories. they surpassed the first goal and they are on their way to the second goal. the current goal is to hire 200,000 veterans by the year 2020 and as of the end of 2014, they have hired over 140,000 veterans. idea sharing, of the simplicity of identifying resources were successful employers are finding those candidates is an easy place to begin. the second is the pride of our show me heroes program. has beenicity there great. when you make a commitment to hire veterans, it is not just signing your name on the dotted line. it's a commitment to your effort and activities on a daily basis. thet's not truly woven into culture and fabric of who you are as an organization, it will come and go.

overpany our size of 66,000 u.s. employees, we have a constant need to hire individuals. today we have 10% of our workforce that are veterans. programs like to show me heroes program is vitally important to us in being able to exceed the goals we have. thank you for your leadership there. partnered with an organization called direct employers. we have been working with them since 2004. direct employers allow us to post our jobs on the job central national labor exchange. they take our opportunities and post them on popular internet sites you are familiar with, the googles, the simply hired. in addition to those large sites, they also post on over 1000 unique sites that are attracting individuals under topics like diversity, military,

veterans, state workforce centers and the like. we are trying to attack this from a national scale of the more popular specs, and the unique sites that somebody may not be familiar with unless you are part of that the citigroup. those two approaches have yielded a tremendous amount of success for us. specifically for veterans, we partner with 12 unique veteran sites, where we post all of our opportunities. recruit military.com and that success. -- vetsuccess.gov/jobs. pilotrated naval fighter in world war ii flew off the uss enterprise -- hence our name. when you have a name like that, your commitment cannot be to come to something like this today and talk about it. relationships established. any active service member today called to duty, enterprise steps

up and we will pay the salary differential while they're in service so that their family at home still trying to make ends meet does not have to suffer if there is differential pay that will be reduced. our commitment goes beyond what we normally think about when it comes to hiring veterans. i'm looking forward to sharing more ideas today and i think you. >> -- thank you. >> this panel has got it from the beginning to the end. let's look at this for a second and talk about some impediments. with the successes we have seen with the realignment and coordination of federal with specific programs, with employers with the will and specifics to move forward, what things are out there that can be improved? what impediments are there? one of the things we see as a state is that oftentimes folks will serve in the military and live 10 different places, and you think coming home -- coming home is not necessarily -- you will go where the jobs are. it is a national search sometimes for folks and

consequently we run into mechanical issues when you have someone who has served in a number of places and is not even going back to where they were born. as one of our challenges we have had a number of things we have had to work through. ask each one of you what sort of challenges are out there. to make sure that everybody who serves our country has an opportunity to continue to involve themselves and be economically independent. we feel a broader responsibility to those that have served for us, especially in a time of war. significant progress and now we want to continue to accelerate that progress with finish line such that in the future we as a country try to meet recruitment goals. folks can understand that with that service comes an opportunity to continue to improve themselves after they are out of service. as you sit here today, what continuing impediments do you see and what advice do you have to governor sandoval and i and

others about what the punch list should be for us to continue to move forward. effectivethe most steps you can take and we can it look at is to recognize is the military training that our service members go through, and the skills they are in during their active duty, and to recognize those in your certification for different job skills. to also recognize that sometimes colleges and universities, the technical training institutions don't recognize that training in the coursework or in the credit that they give to our service members when they are coming to use our post-9/11 g.i. bill, and perhaps to reconsider that. sometimes there is a small gap between skills. the corpsman and the medics, as a perfect example, trying to

fill the gap in health care. our service members, medics and for men who have had significant experience in the field and gain field, when in the they do return to their states, that experience is not recognized. fillhave to go back and those gaps even though they might be small gaps in some of the skills, so that in the coursework and the certification that the universities of the different associations required, that you could please look at that and acknowledge and recognize and give credit for those level of skills are service members have. the national governments to expandn is working some of that recognition and acknowledgment. tell you thing i would is that it has been highlighted here very quickly that there are lots of websites for service members to go to to find jobs,

and it has been one of their concerns to us and for veterans is that there are so many websites out there that they are confused. which ones are reputable, which ones can really lead to a good job for me. it is a federal effort now to develop one single portal to direct our service members and veterans towards, where they can go to get -- translate their skills into civilian occupations, and find employment. we are currently working on refining the veterans employment center, which will be based on the ebay benefits portal of veterans affairs. we are engaged -- e-benefits portal of veterans affairs. we are engaged trying to bring that to fruition. i would tell you that if we are our servicep

members, you may want to look at making the best use of that veterans employment center and make use of that portal. do you want to add to that? >> since we are talking military, i would say the biggest challenge we find is that there is a tremendous corporate commitment, but a lot of times we have trouble implement in that into hiring cactus. -- tactics. obviously, enterprise and express scripts have figured it out. a lot of companies have not. we take a lot of time to work with especially nationwide companies or regional companies and walk them through the process of saying, i want to hire vets to actually getting hired. that means figuring out who their local hiring managers are, where the opportunities are, writing descriptions that fit military skills, connecting them

through the job centers with a local veteran happy laois and, , introducing to each other and making sure that hiring happens. one of the big pieces is getting from strategy to tactics. along with that goes a companion issue, which is -- people will say, i want to hire vets. the total set of descriptions gets you down to perhaps one veteran that fits that skill. i had one financial corporation [indiscernible] we don't have a lot of veterans who are cpa's. and those who do are not unemployed. [laughter] there is typically a tight description around technical skills. as dr. kelly said, the dod is doing a lot to help service members track the growth of their technical skills to be enrolled in credentialing programs while on active duty.

typically they are going to separate without having final credentials. what i would like to encourage you all to think about is really remembering that veterans have priority service for all programs. use that and their individual training accounts to help fill that training cap for them. a lot of corporations are not willing to front that training. you have the grant that you can use to skilled -- bridge skilled training. >> if i can pick up on what dr. kelly said, as part of our comprehensive legislative package, we are dealing with the streamlining of the licensing and credentialing. the governor has given a directive to all the licensing boards and commissions that they have to have a plan into us by the end of december of how they're going to make that work.

in addition to that, the governor has also tripled funding for apprenticeships. we are looking at apprenticeships in a broad context. we are also looking at manufacturing and i.t., and working with the trade groups to also expedite their apprenticeships programs to say, how are you -- if someone comes out there doing electrical work in the military, they should not have have to go through a five-year process in the trade unions. we are working in partnership with them to make sure they are also doing that. we feel really good about that connection we are making. million of $100 grants scheduled for first-quarter fy 15. >> [indiscernible] [laughter] >> governor, when it comes to

military veterans and some of the challenges we probably all heard about at some point and they're getting civilian employment -- we have tried to address those through legislation since you have been in office. one is the licensure issue. in missouri we now have a law in place that we passed in 2013. board approvesg it, a military veteran gets credit towards licensure for work related to that perfection and occupation during military service. talk about military families, given the transitory as governor nixon mentioned, of military families moving from state to state. we also have a law in missouri that provides for temporary licensure for the relocated spouse of an active duty military member. that is one way we feel like we can support military families in what they do when they relocate

to our state to help the spouse smooth that transition back to missouri, if that spouse is redeployed to missouri. we have passed a law in missouri that allows for -- assuming it meets appropriate standards -- a military veteran to apply towards college credit, a college degree, training, education that veteran has received in the military. we have attempted to address some of the impediments to civilian employment through these two measures. one of the things shifting over to show me heroes, we have benefited as would every state from the centralized command structure of the national guard. the tag is appointed by the governor. there is an in-state command structure. the director of our show me were bothgram

national guard members. clearly an easy way to reach out to those folks when they are not deployed. have military installations in the state of missouri. it's easy to go to those basis and make sure that folks are aware of the show me heroes program. we have found it more challenging to find reservists recently separated, to locate them and match them with employers like enterprise and express scripts. guardve to the national is active duty veterans, it been more difficult. we all have to try harder, work with our veterans organizations. you may have a commander of a reserve unit in missouri who is in nevada, for example. without that centralized command structure entire within a state, it makes it more challenging to

bring reservists into the show me heroes program here in -- p rogram. >> thank you, jay. you have heard it called the see of goodwill. -- sea of goodwill. i guess this question is -- you got my attention when you said $100 million. [laughter] we have been doing a lot with not a lot of resources. , being nevada, have sought to tap into an ocean of goodwill. is there a place where we can go to see why those grant requirements are and see what opportunities are there? to use that as a multiplier to what we are doing in my state. >> absolutely. grants.gov. look under the employment and

training agency. most of these grants are coming out through them. it is a small brother to the eta organization. they are the ones putting out all of these job driven grants, national emergency grants, workforce innovation grants. your folks will find those listed. put out overwell $1 billion in job training over $1- dol put out billion in job training grants. if vice president biden spoke about yesterday, but his office is getting ready to publish a report on how the administration is doing on job driven training. it complements what we are all trying to do, what we have been talking about. love the competition between the states. i want to be the most veteran

friendly state in the country. that benefits one very important group. i look forward to having another conversation with you and following up. >> absolutely. >> john, could you give us a sense about these workers, these veterans who come in? now that we're making progress in making it smoother, there is not as long a time for someone to be unemployed as well as family issues, what not. what have you all found at your organizations about these veterans who work for you? anybody stand out as trades or challenges are things we should all be aware of that are unique, at least in a transition area phase of these workers? >> we have not, which is not to say we don't recognize that they don't or could not exist or it

will be are doing is creating a veterans employee resource group to let them self identify and network with each other and share the concerns collaboratively across the entire enterprise. i don't know that anyone sitting in a nature office or corporate headquarters can say aregorically that there unique issues here that they could or could not see them. we are wondering how employees are able to do this themselves. >> your first answer is what i was seeking. there are a number of employers who are concerned about posttraumatic stress syndrome, a number of issues that get a lot of attention. rightfully so. the bottom line is in your all's experience, you have found these to be great resources. >> outstanding. as was mentioned before, as

we try to take the significant progress of larger employers and filter that down into one or two employed, it is really important that we break through barriers. founded as the name, and you have had this eagles for a long time before any of these programs or whatnot trade anything about these particular workers? >> aside from our founder and his connection to the military, one of the primary reasons we are so interested in hiring veterans is because they bring a level of loyalty, a level of ,ommitment, dedication teamwork, strong ethic that really helps us drive our success as an organization.

understand there is a hierarchy that exists in the company, and we have individuals who come in and work a variety of capacities. we have positions which require a four-year degree. we have multiple positions that do not require four-year degrees. we are able to provide them opportunities regardless. the skill set can be taught. one of the things we are known for as an organization is having a strong training program. whether you are at the rental counter, or someone moving vehicles across states for us, or working in administrative capacity and helping with behind-the-scenes call centers or what have you, we provide all of that training. i go back to the strong work ethic and loyalty and commitment trade those are powerful things for us that we can capitalize on. we have found very positive results. occasionally we come across a challenging situation. 6600you have got over

veterans, you will find the occasional challenge. we are committed to working through those challenges. we have benefit programs to support our employees. we understand the value to them and to us. >> there has been a great deal of attention nationwide over the last number of months about challenges with the v.a. and whatnot. we are all concerned to make sure that any agencies work. in this area, folks have kept their eyes on the ball pretty closely in the last four or five years. at the state level, private sector, federal level. come into the final lap of today's committee hearing, i would like to go to the panel and see if there is any positive final points you would like to make. clearly the numbers are going to get bigger.

as the military downsizes, we will see a push numbers wise. to have a structure that is bigger in the short run is very important for us over the next year or two years and three both the warsee coming to an end and the forces being drawn down, as well as the force and the the entirety of dod drops, the demand of what we need to help provide, these connectors, will get larger. give us a second as we went through one more time positive things that you think you are accomplishing and are having practical effects for families, businesses and communities around our country. while many programs in the government are experiencing reduced funding, the fed program within dol has had increased funding for the last two years. that means we are pushing

increased funding to the states. we got a 15% increase in 2014, and we pushed that out to you for the purpose of hiring additional disabled veteran outreach programs. we want to make sure you know that you got more money, and you them in the places geographically where your veteran population is concentrated. who need the folks extra help, who may have significant barriers to employment, and are the ones who can walk that through. as an example, in florida, you may be familiar with allied burton. they do a lot of security guard contracts. they have a charm and to hiring veterans. the trust is so great that they are reaching out to our homeless grantees and making

specific efforts to hire homeless veterans into their security guard program. this partnership works. example of a company that is so comfortable using the job centers to staff their veteran objective that they are going beyond that and reaching really special veterans populations. it is a tremendous opportunity and we are happy to export that practice. >> the good news on our end is that we have an interagency partnership at the federal level which is actually working. we came together, we decided what it was that we needed to do, we have all committed resources, staffing, millions of dollars into the transition assistance program, the new curriculum, as well as getting staffed on the installations and in the communities to address the needs of the transitioning service members. we have put the pieces of the curriculum together that leads

our servicemembers to your community. we built this on the principle that you go back to your communities and our bridging that. we are doing that by bringing them very visibly to the department of labor, v.a., as well as to the schools, universities, technical training institutions in your state, and letting them decide what is the best course of action for them. one thing i want to highlight is that while we are focused on the iraq-afghanistan servicemembers coming back, nearly 200,000 servicemembers separate every year. every year. >> 200,000? >> yes. usual. business as 70% of the marines serve one term, four years, and they turn that over every year.

half of our armed soldiers served one term, four years. that turnover is constant. when you are talking about the need for talent so that you can compete in the national economy and the international economy, this population has already shown that they are trainable. they survived basic training, they survived our academy. they are highly trained. you have a handout in your notebook. -- military training leadership, organization, decision making, problem solving, teamwork and team building. they are coming back to your communities ready made. thatis a talent pipeline institutionalized year after year after year. ready for you.

you have to make the training opportunities for your state identify all by them. just as iowa has done and other states have done, there is lots of good work going on. staff aboutchairman to publish a bunch of best practices state by state by state. are all beings very creative and innovative and bringing best actresses to the -- practices to the fore. it cannot be one-size-fits-all. in reference to the talent pipeline, this nation has it. it is in their transitioning service members. >> 200,000 a year. >> putting veterans on the path to career success is a mission embraced by your entire enterprise. home based iowa is a mission embraced by our entire statewide enterprise. home-based iowa pledge, much like you have your misery business pledge.

we also have home-based iowa communities. i want to tell you an example of what they are doing to go on and above the legislative package that we passed creating a value proposition for the recruitment of veterans, and this county is giving a $2000 relocation support package to anyone moving to their county, 100% three-year and the tax abatement, county banks got together and said we will eliminate closing costs for veterans applying for v.a. financing. we are trying to create an environment to say, the only limits on being a home-based iowa community is yourself. use your imagination, partner with the state and to really make sure this is a statewide initiative embraced from the top-down, from our executives all the way to our community. for missouriews and veterans and reserve businesses is based on a conversation you had in the middle east, you came back and that conversation, we went to

work. later, over 4000 missouri employers have signed up for the show me heroes. i can't say this enough. in theterans have jobs civilian sector since we started that program. mes very moving to personally to think about that, and your dedication to achieving that goal. we have been successful because we have rented the program with a memorable name. we are the show me state. these people are heroes. show me heroes. we have kept it simple for employers and veterans. we have done a good job of communicating with employers. i cannot emphasize enough the need to communicate in person and through social media, communicate with employers and our federal partners. it's important to track the progress of both the veterans who are seeking employment, but also employers. after they take the pledge, to continue to monitor their

progress, stay in touch with them, offer that one-stop shop for them if they have any questions. and as a result, all these veterans who are employed butot just large employers, also small employers, mom and pop businesses have taken the show me heroes pledge. and you can see the results. -- ive us a little cents asse -- what can you do corporate leaders who have been successful in your organizations , embracing to lead other organizations -- what confidence can you give them, what best practices have you learned? what advice can you give to other organizations out there? havee advice that we would one, measurement and self identification of veterans.

,o expect low disclosure rates either because of understanding the tools, not willing to share that information, but always a challenge. the second recommendation would be that not every partner out there that can or claims to help to veteran hiring is someone do business with. you need to choose partners carefully. there is probably more information sharing that could and should be going on there. third, everything we are talking about here is not going to happen overnight. the companies that have been committed to veterans for decades or even since before their inception are going to be in a different place. there is flexibility and patience that public and private federal and state sector have. i would like to comment on that last question. athink what you were getting

was that the federal and state government and't have a lot-- l state governments don't have a lot of money. what could they do to be really impactful? there is something that is free. it is recognition. i don't say this in a self-congratulatory way. show me heroes just awarded the flag of freedom. scripts thexpress flag of freedom. we are proud of that. it is the community who hears about it, including our workforce and people around us across the state who learn that there is a company committed to doing this. it is raising awareness. lastly, this is something governor sandoval touched on, it engenders competition. express scripts got the flag of freedom award. what do they need to do to get it? it is the same reason why if my

neighbor bought four boxes of girl scout cookies, i'm going to buy five. we want to be able to one up one another. we should be competing as private sector employers who don't even do the same thing. because there is recognition on the table, like i said, it is nearly free. >> what a great base to end. -- great place to end. the folks from enterprise, got the flag of freedom -- the folks from enterprise that the flag of freedom about 9 1/2 months before you all did. [laughter] ofnow the senior leadership both of your organizations talk to each other. at a meeting when they were talking about it -- it is the kind of thing that resonates through a deeper sense of competitiveness and both organizations -- >> that was my fault. moon, bring us to the finish

line on this panel about what sort of summations or ideas you might have. >> the first question asked was about positives. i think the greatest positive i can take away from our efforts is that there is a strong willingness everywhere we go. 100 75 towne acquisition -- talent acquisition professionals trying to a push the same thing -- when you have 175 talent acquisition professionals trying to accomplish the same thing -- we visited the medical center, the third-largest me a center in the u.s. -- the third-largest the a center -- the third- largest v.a. center in the u.s. we got together and shared ideas . they didn't realize they were all doing three different things trying to get to the same place. we have offered to coordinate

efforts in involving other community organizations to be part of simple things like how can we as employers help veterans be prepared to transition their services? resources andr help with developing resumes, mock interviews, negotiating salaries. transferable skills they will need just to get a job. the willingness and the excitement that those individuals scared -- shared across the table is empowering. it got us very excited that not only it could make a difference with that one location, but with people like everybody in this room. the willingness is really strong and exciting. i think that is the greatest thing. if we can harness that together and continue to collaborate and share information across organizations like the 100,000 jobs mission and the show me heroes program, we get -- great things will happen. >> what a great panel.

[applause] we have a little bit of committee business. you only have to watch for like 4:00 -- four minutes. we have a couple of nga reports. the nga center of best practices and the director of policy -- >> here we go. thank you. whichever order you want to go. >> thank you, governor. i want to provide a quick overview of the project that nga is implementing. it is on veterans licensing and certification at the policy academy. it is supported by the department of labor's employment

and training administration and the veterans employment and training service, in partnership with the department of defense and the veterans administration. terry and susan have provided their expertise in support of the project. it was authorized under the veterans opportunity to work act that was passed in 2011 and the is assisting six states, both iowa and nevada are part of that project in creating accelerated pathways to licensure and certification for veterans and servicemembers with relevant employment or military training and experience in high demand occupations. the other states are illinois, minnesota, virginia, and wisconsin. the department of defense carried out a similar effort prior to this in which they

identified 10 occupational areas that have high likelihood of having transferability between the skill sets gained in the military and the civilian workforce. we were asked to choose from that list of 10 occupational areas to focus on in this areas, andur or five the states were asked to choose three occupational areas as part of that. the states are focusing on commercials drivers licenses, bus drivers and truck drivers. the emergency medical technician and paramedics, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, physical therapy assistants, and police patrol officers. those are the occupational areas. asked to focus on an area where they saw growth or need in their state and where there was likelihood to be employment. the state teams that were

appointed by the governor's in the states are working to remove red tape, any duplication across , to reduce unemployment of veterans, to increase the post secondary credential attainment, and also to reduce associated costs. those are the primary objectives of this initiative. in may oft started 2013 and will conclude in may of 2015. -- of the major projects products out of it will be a blueprint based on the successful strategies that these six states are improving, as well as the cost study. what are the costs that can be saved by accelerating the process to licensure and credentials? there are a couple of barriers that these states have identified that are worth

noting. probably the largest one is getting the various systems that are servicing veterans to share information, to be able to identify, first, starting with the discharge papers that a veteran receives and are given over to the veterans affairs officers in the state. for the most part, those are .ard copy and not digitized it is very difficult to be able to compare information that is available in those discharge papers. the military occupational specialties and personal information -- there are privacy constraints across all the different programs. in the six states, they are working to integrate across the data systems, first starting with those discharge papers, then if it is an unemployed veteran receiving unemployment

insurance, to be able to get those systems to talk to each other, and then you have the educational institutions that -keepingir own record process. that's probably the number one challenge that these states have identified. it is hard to identify who the unemployed veterans are in the states. iowa and nevada, where you are doing work in this area over the past few years, that barrier still exists. if there is a way to bring together those systems and better integrate those data systems, that will be a major step towards improving the services. the second barrier is getting institutionsndary thatt up bridge programs will allow the military inerience to be recognized

any of the training and of theon -- and any training and education that was received in the military can be recognized so this -- these programs can be shortened for veterans. there is an effort by community colleges, the main educational institutions that are working in this area -- part of the problem is they are concerned there won't be enough demand for program once it is put up to the other is there's a lot of complexity found -- once it is put up. the other is there is a lot of complexity. another one is raising awareness among licensing boards. this is of particular concern in the health area because of concerns about making sure the quality standards are met, loosening requirements may lower the quality standards