U.S. Chamber Testimony on Hiring Our Heroes

Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Schmiegel, founder and executive director of the U.S. Chamber’s Hiring Our Heroes program, and a 20-year Marine veteran, will be providing a testimony highlighting the Chamber’s efforts over the past year in helping veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment in the private sector.

As Kevin writes in his testimony:

In our first year, we pledged to host hiring fairs in 100 cities, and I am proud to report that we have already exceeded that goal conducting 114 hiring fairs in 45 states and the District of Columbia.  Since its inception, Hiring Our Heroes has connected more than 100,000 veterans and military spouses with 5,000 different employers, and more than 8,500 of them have gotten jobs.  And we’re just getting started.

Hiring Our Heroes is not about charity. Companies that hire veterans and military spouses gain a competitive advantage.  Our nation should view the imminent drawdown as an opportunity, and there is a precedent.  After WWII we saw millions of veterans re-enter the workforce, and the massive infusion of talent that helped the manufacturing sector to grow and America’s economy as a whole to thrive.  As we come out of this recession we need to look to sectors that are growing like energy, healthcare, and infrastructure and hire transitioning post 9/11 veterans to help those industries expand and our economy to prosper.

The full testimony is available here:

https://www.uschamber.com/issues/testimony/2012/testimony-services-available-returning-veterans

Kevin’s testimony comes a week ahead of the March 28 one-year anniversary event, in which Hiring Our Heroes will host hiring fairs at the USS Intrepid in New York; in Chicago, IL; a military spouse fair in Fort Hood, TX; and a virtual fair with Military.com in Stuttgart, Germany.  At the fair in New York, the National Chamber Foundation and Capital One will make a major veterans hiring announcement.