President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at Fort Campbell, KY, May 6, 2011. (White House Photo)
President Barack Obama is continuing his western states swing and his "We Can't Wait" initiative, a series of executive actions on jobs and the economy to work around Republicans in Congress who continue to block his efforts. The projects announced today are intended to put
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who face higher unemployment levels than the national norm, back to work.
The latest effort, part of a comprehensive plan to transition veterans from the battlefield to the workplace, challenges community health centers around the country to hire 8,000 veterans over the next three years.
Community health centers, clinics where the poor can receive medical services even if they have limited or no health insurance, are uniquely positioned to hire veterans because many of them are located within 100 miles of a military base and many military veterans have the medical and team-oriented organizational skills these clinics need, White House officials told reporters Tuesday.
“I think all Americans can agree that veterans shouldn’t have to fight for a job once they’ve come home from the fight overseas,” Matt Flavin, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and White House director of veterans and wounded warrior policy, wrote on the White House blog Tuesday.
“But, all too often, those who have sacrificed so much for America struggle to find a job worthy of their talents,” he continued. “As the President has said, ‘if you can save a life in Afghanistan, you can save a life in an ambulance. If you can oversee millions of dollars of assets in Iraq, you can help a business balance its books here at home.’”
Through the new initiative, the Obama administration is trying to make it easier for veterans to use the training they have in the military to become physician assistants, healthcare professionals who work with patients in limited ways under doctors’ supervision.
This initiative doesn't require an executive order, but is a challenge to the public health system to hire and train more veterans. The administration will also give priority for grants to colleges and universities that provide physician-assistant training for vets. This builds on the Post 9/11 GI bill that is sending 600,000 veterans back to school, more hiring of veterans by the federal government, and the partnership with the private sector First Lady Michelle Obama annouced last week in which "the American Logistics Association (ALA) and their 270 affiliate companies have committed to hiring 25,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013."