bucklaw
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« on: December 18, 2008, 10:48:35 am » |
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, 12/15/2008 Dec 15, 2008 - 12:02 PM Gov't goes AWOL on vets' services By John Kerry Monday, December 15, 2008
Bloated salaries, first-class travel, pricey steakhouse lunches on someone else's dime - in the last years Americans have expressed their outrage about this kind of behavior from Wall Street CEOs and politicians. But when it happens at a charity funded by taxpayer dollars to help veterans, that truly is a new low.
One year ago my Republican colleague on the Senate Small Business Committee, Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and I began investigating The National Veterans Business Development Corp., better known as The Veterans Corp. (TVC). TVC was created by Congress to oversee and fund a network of veterans' small business centers. We'd read disturbing reports and heard complaints from the veterans' community, but what we discovered surpassed even our expectations for outrage.
Simply put, the organization's wasteful and negligent behavior has put the future of the veterans' centers on the line - including the center here in Boston which helps serve our state's 477,000 vets.
At the root of the problem is TVC's waste of your money. In nearly 10 years since its creation, only 15 percent of TVC's federal funds went to veterans' small business centers - including just 9 percent last year. Instead, much of the money went to excessive executive salaries - in fact, the top two executives gave themselves almost a quarter of the group's federal dollars, far higher than the charitable average.
These executives traveled first-class, treated themselves to high-priced meals, and hobnobbed at private clubs - all at your expense. At a film festival in Dallas, TVC's president rented a five-star hotel room; price tag: $725 for two nights. Pile on top of that the $1,500 tab TVC executives racked up at McCormick & Schmick's.
Our nearly 24 million veterans - 4.4 million of whom are new veterans - deserve better.
As more soldiers return home this holiday season, they face the highest unemployment rate in 15 years, a frozen credit system and families left to weather the storm because of foreclosed homes.
This is a tough moment for anyone to enter the job market. But veterans face even greater challenges as they transition back to everyday civilian life. A survey of recently-discharged veterans showed nearly 18 percent were unemployed - nearly three times the national average.
These men and women have served their country with honor. Providing them with the support needed to thrive in civilian life should be a sacred responsibility. Funding is the first step - starting with the enhanced G.I. bill we passed this year, as well as the bill that Sen. Snowe and I passed to help veterans gain access to capital and expanded business opportunities.cw-4
These bills should just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating economic opportunities for our veterans. But if those in charge of overseeing veterans' small business centers aren't on the ball, then Washington isn't doing its job.
To prevent any more tax dollars from being abused, Sen. Snowe and I recommend that Congress stop funding TVC. Instead, let's shift responsibility and funding of the centers to the Small Business Administration's Office of Veterans Business Development. It won't be hard to improve on the job the TVC has done.
Our veterans have been there for America when America has needed them most. Now we must provide them with support worthy of their sacrifice.
Sen. John Kerry is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
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