On the recordJanuary 6, 2015
I thank the gentleman and Representative Rodney Davis. Today I honor the 54,000 veterans in my district and 20 million veterans across America who deserve the opportunity to have a job with the Hire More Heroes Act. The bill makes a change to ObamaCare and encourages small businesses to hire more veterans by exempting veterans as long as they already have health insurance. Currently, the employer mandate under ObamaCare requires that all businesses with more than 50 employees provide health insurance to their employers or pay a penalty. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for veterans last year was 6.6 percent, for those who served on Active Duty after 9/11 it was 9 percent. What saddens me about this is both of these percentages were higher than the national average of 6.3 percent. No veteran in the United States of America should be jobless because of ObamaCare's employer mandate. Our brave men and women return from serving our Nation, return to civilian life while facing many challenges. Getting a job should not be one of them. This bill will ensure that employers can and will hire veterans and will not be penalized. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. We must do everything in our power to ensure our finest men and women who come home have every opportunity we promised them.
