Bill Nelson: “OK. Then what I would suggest to my friend-- and he knows he is my friend--if we have a difference of opinion, I respect…”

“OK. Then what I would suggest to my friend-- and he knows he is my friend--if we have a difference of opinion, I respect that, and I would like him to share that. I wish to complete my very brief statement and then the Senator from Oklahoma may make whatever statement he wishes to make. The unemployment rate among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is hovering around 11 percent, and for those unemployed veterans age 24 and less it is even higher. We have taken steps to combat this problem. This past summer we passed legislation that will help veterans get Federal occupational licenses when their military training matches civilian requirements. That made sense. That made common sense. As a matter of fact, we got that through the Senate unanimously and it was signed into law. The bill recognized that a veteran gets all of this specialized training and they ought to be able to utilize that training without having to go through all the retraining and the relicensing. We could do that--and what we passed is now law--we could do that in Federal employment where there is a similar kind of requirement.…”