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Bill would protect vet preference for feds

The new chairman of the House veterans’ economic opportunity subcommittee wants to make certain that veterans working for the federal government do not lose their veterans’ preference as a result of downsizing.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., said a bill she introduced Tuesday, HR 728, “would ensure the application of veterans’ preference protections to federal and postal employees who are the unfortunate victims of downsizing actions that threaten to unfairly and involuntarily reassign them to locations far from their homes.”

It would do this by closing a loophole that allows employers to force some veterans to either accept involuntary reassignments or be fired for refusing. It would guarantee that veterans’ preference would apply in instances of reorganizations and transfers within an agency.

Herseth was officially named as the economic opportunity subcommittee chairman Wednesday during an organizational meeting of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Previously, she was ranking minority member of the subcommittee when Republicans controlled Congress.

The bill, the Veterans Reassignment Protection Act, is a direct response to “the actions of some federal agencies that are attempting to circumvent the application of certain employment preferences to military veterans in their ranks,” Herseth said in a statement.

Under traditional practice, veterans would remain employed in comparable positions in the same geographic area where the downsizing occurred because of their veterans’ preference rights, she said. But some agencies are applying special repositioning rules that do not extend workers the right to stay in the same area in a comparable job.

“The blatant actions of some federal agencies to circumvent preference-eligible protections in the course of downsizing actions must be ended, especially in light of legal challenges by involuntarily reassigned employees that have generally been resolved in favor of their employing agency because of a loophole in the law,” Herseth said.

Her bill is endorsed by the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation’s two largest veterans’ groups, and by the National Association of Postal Supervisors and the National Association of Postmasters.

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., R-Fla., is an original co-sponsor of the bill, which was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is responsible for federal civilian personnel policies.