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Ted Kennedy and Max Cleland wrote an Armistice Day post at Danger Room in which they point out the workplace difficulties facing returning veterans. In reference to a 1994 law intended to ensure that the seniority and benefits of veterans would be protected, Kennedy and Cleland write:
Today, however, the federal government is failing in this responsibility. It's not even adequately informing returning service members about their rights, and it's not protecting them when their rights are violated. A study by the Government Accountability Office this year found that when the Department of Labor decided to refer federal cases for litigation, it took an average of 247 days.The Government Accountability Office also found serious problems in collecting and reporting data on claims under the law. Four different agencies collect this data. But they collect it in inconsistent formats, making it impossible to understand the problems that veterans face -- particularly disabled veterans. Until the hearing, the public had little knowledge of the problem, because the Pentagon had been classifying the most accurate statistics.This is sadly predictable. Laws mean little without adequate provision for enforcement, and an executive branch that has undertaken to gut its own oversight capabilities while at the same time filling key positions with pro-business hacks is unlikely to have either the interest or capacity to protect veterans. Rick Perlstein has devoted his blog to issues like this one, in which the ability of the government to do something that pretty much everyone wants is hamstrung by the Republican approach to governance. --Robert Farley
