Friday, November 11, 2011

Honor veterans by giving them work


On this Veterans Day, I wish a warm welcome home to the soldiers of the Idaho Army National Guard 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team. These Idaho citizen-soldiers served the past nine months in Iraq and returned home this fall. Idaho is proud of our men and women who serve our country honorably at home and abroad and of all the veterans who have served our nation. Thank you for your great service to our nation.

It is important to support measures to help our service members transition back into their daily lives and successfully enter the civilian workforce. We must all work together to ensure that they reacclimate to their roles in their families and communities, and we must help them move forward toward accomplishing their personal and professional goals.

Employment is critical for veterans transitioning back to civilian life. Unfortunately, the latest job figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that too many veterans are unemployed, and the overall veteran unemployment rate continues to rise faster than the national unemployment rate. Nationally, about 1 million veterans are reported out of work, and the unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is an alarming 11.7 percent.

We all know the current economic environment is very difficult, and I am doing all I can in Congress to stimulate job creation and reduce costly regulatory burden on Idaho's job creators. On this Veterans Day, I ask Idahoans to work to employ our nations' veterans and their spouses. I urge Idaho employers to reach out to veterans who are struggling to find work. The people who have fought for and defended our nation deserve the opportunity to become your best employees. Furthermore, I call on Idahoans to support veterans' education, mentoring and job-training programs at Idaho's institutions of higher learning.

I believe that finding ways to help today's veterans in need is a way to honor all generations of veterans. We will never forget our previous generations of veterans, as we will never forget those who gave their lives in ultimate sacrifice. Veterans have made tremendous sacrifices to preserve our way of life, and the American people are indebted to the men and women who have served our nation. I will continue working in Congress to ensure that veterans programs receive adequate funding so that all our nation's veterans receive the treatment and care they deserve. As always, I appreciate your input and active involvement in this most worthy endeavor.

______________________________________________

Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican, represents Idaho's 2nd Congressional District.




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.