Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, has introduced legislation he says will help put veterans back to work using the skills they developed while in the military. Braley says the Veterans’ Job Corps Act would help veterans with jobs as police officers, firefighters and workers in national parks through cooperation with federal agencies.
He can’t say how much money is needed to fund the program. “We don’t know right now how much it is going to cost, because the bill is an outline of what type of programs should be in place. It would then go to the appropriate committees to be debated, to have hearings on what type of costs would be involved, what type of economic benefits, what type of ripple effect on the economy it would have,” Braley says.
Braley says he is working to move the legislation forward. “We’ll be looking for cosponsors on both sides of the aisle who believe in our commitment, our sacred commitment to our veterans, and the need to reduce unemployment among veterans, and at the same time, give people the dignity of a job and expand our economy,” Braley says.
Braley is running for re-election in the new first district in northeast Iowa.