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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Veterans' Benefits: The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program


Benjamin Collins
Analyst in Labor Policy

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment for veterans (VR&E) is an entitlement program that provides job training and related services to veterans with service-connected disabilities. In cases where a disabled veteran is not able to work, the VR&E program provides independent living (IL) services to help the veteran achieve the highest possible quality of life. The VR&E program is administered by the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA), part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

To be entitled to VR&E services, a veteran must have been discharged under conditions other than dishonorable and be found to have either (1) a 20% service-connected disability and an employment handicap, or (2) a 10% service-connected disability and a serious employment handicap. After a veteran is found to be entitled to VR&E, a counselor helps the veteran identify a suitable employment goal and determine what services will be necessary to achieve that goal. The veteran is then assigned to one of five reemployment tracks:

Reemployment for veterans who wish to return to work they held prior to their military service;

Rapid Access to Employment for veterans who already have the skills necessary to compete in the job market and only need short-term services such as job search assistance;

Employment through Long-Term Services for veterans who require postsecondary or vocational training to reach their employment goals;

Self-employment for veterans who have the skills to start businesses; or

Independent Living for veterans for whom employment is not a viable goal. The most common track is Employment through Long-Term Services, and the most common form of training is undergraduate education.

In most cases, veterans are entitled to a subsistence allowance while they are enrolled in training. In instances where a veteran is entitled to both VR&E benefits and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the veteran may forego the VR&E subsistence allowance and couple VR&E training benefits with the typically higher housing allowance available under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

In FY2012, approximately 30,800 veterans developed a new plan of service with VR&E and almost 10,000 veterans completed rehabilitation. In FY2013, the VA estimates that mandatory VR&E benefits will cost approximately $921 million. Discretionary support services and other administrative costs will total approximately $234 million.

Date of Report: November 15, 2013
Number of Pages: 16
Order Number: RL34627
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Monday, November 25, 2013

On Transition in Afghanistan


Catherine Dale
Specialist in International Security

 
Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Smith, Distinguished Members of the House Armed Services Committee,

It is an honor to be invited to testify before this Committee about transitionin Afghanistan.It is a particular privilegeto appear with my three fellow panelists –LieutenantGeneral Barno, Dr. Cordesman, and General Keane –all of whom have sharpened my own thinking on these important issues.

I appear here today in my capacityas an analyst with the Congressional Research Service.  But I have also had the honorof serving as an advisor to a number of ourmilitary commandersin Afghanistan, as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and also on extended visits as an outside expert, most recently late last year.  I am profoundly grateful for theprivilege of having servedalongside our first-rate men and women in uniformand ourcivilian officials. In them, the nation has much to be proud of.


Date of Report: February 27, 2013
Number of Pages: 12
Order Number: T-022713
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Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Legislation in the 113th Congress


Charles Doyle
Senior Specialist in American Public Law

Defendants convicted of violating any certain federal criminal laws face the prospect of mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment. Bills offered during the 113
th Congress would supplement, enhance, or eliminate some of these. In the most all-encompassing, H.R. 1695 (Representative Scott (Va.)) and S. 619 (Senator Paul) would permit federal courts to impose a sentence below an otherwise applicable mandatory minimum when necessary to avoid violating certain statutory directives.

Federal drug statutes feature a series of mandatory minimums. S. 1410 (Senator Durbin) would reduce several of the most severe of these. H.R. 3088 (Representative Waters) would eliminate virtually all of them. The Durbin bill would also enlarge the safety valve exception. The safety valve provision allows a federal court to sentence qualified defendants below the statutory mandatory minimum in drug cases, if the defendant has a virtually spotless criminal record, that is, not more than one criminal history point. S. 1410 would expand safety valve eligibility to defendants with a slightly more extensive criminal record. Elsewhere, H.R. 2372 (Representative Scott (Va.)) would drop the sentencing distinction between powder and crack cocaine by striking the cocaine base specific references. Two proposals address the Fair Sentencing Act’s retroactive application. One, H.R. 2369 (Representative Scott (Va.)) would permit a court to reduce, consistent with the act, a previously imposed sentence for crack cocaine possession or trafficking. The second, S. 1410 (Senator Durbin), would also permit a court to reduce such sentences, but would limit the authority to instances in which the defendant had not been previously granted or denied a similar reduction.

The firearms bills are mixed. H.R. 2405 (Representative Scott (Va.)) would strip the mandatory minimums from §924(c) that outlaws possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence or serious drug offense. On the other hand, H.R. 722 (Representative King (N.Y.)) would add two years to each of §924(c)’s mandatory minimums, if the firearm were stolen or had had its serial number defaced. H.R. 404 (Representative Schiff) would establish a two-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for violation of either of the two firearm acquisition false statement (straw purchaser) proscriptions, if the offense involved two or more firearms and an intent to subsequently transfer them to an ineligible person. H.R. 117 (Representative Holt) would require the Attorney General to establish a system of handgun registration and licensing. Possession without a federal license or of an unregistered handgun would be punishable by imprisonment for not less than 15 years.

Several proposals add or enhance the mandatory minimums associated with individual offenses. For instance, H.R. 1468 (Representative Blackburn) would create a separate crime for anyone who, during and in relation to a computer fraud or abuse violation, substantially impaired or attempted to impair the operation of a critical infrastructure computer system or an associated critical infrastructure. H.R. 457 (Representative Issa) would establish mandatory minimum penalties for an alien previously removed from the U.S. for his criminal activities. H.R. 1577 (Representative Poe) and S. 698 (Senator Cornyn) would expand the class of protected public servants; increase the penalties associated with homicides committed against them; establish mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment for killing or assaulting them; and create a new flight-to-avoid-prosecution offense for fugitives accused of such crimes, punishable by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.

Date of Report: November 5, 2013
Number of Pages: 18
Order Number: R43296
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