Rodney Frelinghuysen: “As a veteran, I am proud to support the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act, which addresses some very serious…”

“As a veteran, I am proud to support the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act, which addresses some very serious concerns I have regarding personnel decisions being made at Federal facilities in my congressional district and around the Nation. Those men and women who have sacrificed years of their lives securing the blessings of liberty for all Americans deserve to be credited for that service in the Federal workplace. My chief concern is that veterans' preference is being circumvented by many Federal agencies while they are downsizing through what is known as the designer reduction in force, or designer RIF. Many RIF's are carried out by Federal agencies artificially tailoring job categories to make them uncompetitive, thereby negating the employment of veterans' preference in the first place. The bill Mr. Mica has brought to the floor today would make it more difficult for agencies to use these types of RIF's and provide veterans who are RIF'd with enhanced rights to other jobs. More importantly, this legislation would finally give veterans who believe their rights have been violated a user-friendly redress system, while also making violation of veterans' preference a prohibited personnel practice to be enforced with disciplinary action.”