The House of Representatives unanimously approved a piece of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill on Wednesday and sent it to his desk to be signed into law.
The bill, which the Senate voted in favor of last week, would repeal the never-implemented requirement that state and local governments withhold 3 percent of their payments to contracting businesses. The major component of the legislation, though, included tax credits of $5,600 to $9,600 to businesses that hire veterans who have been unemployed for at least six months or who are disabled – both pieces of the bill were a part of President Obama’s American Jobs Act.
After the vote, President Obama said he was pleased Congress voted to help out-of-work veterans but also stressed there was more to be done to help other unemployed Americans.
“Congress needs to pass the rest of my American Jobs Act so that we can create jobs and put money in the pockets of the middle class,” he said.
The veterans portion was intended to help lower the unemployment rate among that group of citizens. According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate for veterans was 7.7 percent in October; however, the unemployment rate for veterans who have fought after Sept. 11, 2001 was 12.1 percent.
The goal of the legislation is to hire 100,000 veterans or their spouses by 2013.
Legislators on both sides of the aisle also praised the bill’s passage.
“Neither of these measures alone is going to solve the jobs crisis, but they’ll provide relief to job creators and help American veterans,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.
“Nearly a quarter of a million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are now unemployed,” Rep. Joe Baca, San Bernardino County’s only Democratic representative, said. “This is shameful. The 23 million American veterans, including almost 36,000 living in my district, deserve better. While Congress still must take action on all aspects of the American Jobs Act – today’s vote is an important step in the right direction that will put more of our returning heroes back to work.
“As an Army veteran myself, I am all too aware of the hardships our military men and women and their families must endure to protect our freedom. We still have much more we must do to ease the jobs crisis in our nation. But today’s legislation ensures we better live up to our responsibility of caring for those brave men and women who sacrifice every day to keep us safe.”
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