Rosen meets with the Executive Director of Work for Warriors in Las Vegas. Rosen’s Bipartisan Hire Student Veterans Act Will Mark First Piece of Legislation Introduced by the Senator this Congress
LAS VEGAS, NV – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s Subcommittee on Employment and a former member of the House Armed Services Committee, toured Work for Warriors, a non-profit organization that provides Nevada National Guardsmen, Reservists and their immediate families, including Gold Star families, with access to employment opportunities through partnerships with local businesses across Nevada.
Following the tour, Rosen announced plans to introduce the bipartisan Hire Student Veterans Act next week when the Senate convenes for votes. The Hire Student Veterans Act would expand the existing Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) to ensure that all student veterans using their GI benefits can take advantage of valuable paid internships or work opportunities while in school.
“I was thrilled to learn about how Work for Warriors is helping our veterans and their families find good-paying jobs across Nevada. Hundreds of thousands of veterans call Nevada home, and many of them are pursuing an education after having served our country,” said Senator Rosen. “My legislation will help provide our student veterans with clear pathways to success by helping them find fulfilling jobs that advance their careers. This is commonsense legislation that I hope will gain support from both sides of the aisle in the Senate.”
“We are thankful to Senator Rosen for supporting our veterans and choosing to make this commonsense legislation her first bill introduced as Nevada’s newest Senator,” said Toni Giddens, program manager at Work for Warriors Nevada. “Our veterans put their lives on hold when they answered our country’s call to duty. This bipartisan bill will not only help our student veterans gain access to employment, but it will help place our veterans on a path towards success by helping them find meaningful work experience.”
BACKGROUND: Last Congress, Rosen introduced the same legislation in the House, alongside former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) who introduced the bipartisan Senate companion bill (S. 3563). Rosen first filed the legislation last year after speaking directly to Nevada veterans and community leaders about the challenges veterans face during a roundtable discussion. Currently, the WOTC is limited in its application to hiring veterans. Employers can only qualify for the credit by hiring veterans who have a service-connected disability or have been unemployed for more than four weeks. There is also a stringent 400-hour per year work requirement. As the law stands, the WOTC does not incentivize employers to hire student vets part-time and does not reflect the reality of today’s job environment in which new college graduates often need work experience in order to obtain even an entry-level career-track job. Rosen’s bill seeks to make three important changes to the Work Opportunity Tax Credit that will incentivize businesses to hire more student veterans, ultimately helping to move their careers forward. The Hire Student Veterans Act will:
• Automatically qualify employers who hire veterans using their GI Bill benefits for WOTC’s 40% tax credit on the first $6,000 of a new employee’s first-year wages.
• Reduce the 400-hour work requirement to 120 hours if a newly-hired employee is a veteran using their GI Bill benefits, allowing a student veteran to work part-time, including in a paid internship during the summer or semester; and
• Directly incentivize employers to hire more student veterans for part-time work and paid internships.
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