Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing 20240704

Support for Military Spouses and families. Thousands of Companies Big and small have had Great Success at hiring veterans in the past decade. As most of you know before i came to congress i ran a familyowned trucking business and had the pleasure of knowing, we hired people from world war ii that worked hard most of their lives, korean war, vietnam war, and continued the tradition. When veterans applied for the positions, i always made sure to give them the opportunities to thrive, as did my grandfather and father. As a veteran myself, i knew that the service ingrained in the veterans does not just go away when they take off the uniform. They possess exceptional teambuilding skills and are highly trusted by colleagues in the workplace. We have seen this firsthand the way a veteran higher can benefit any business over 3 million americans are employed and together these companies contribute to the economy. An incredible investment over 74 of businesses are founded by a veteran rather than purchased or inherited. Making sure veterans can start a business and succeed as owners has long been a priority of our committee and is a personal priority of mine. Without veterans in the workforce, america would not be a world leader in innovation and economic growth. We are so grateful to have some of the corporations who hire veterans and personal veterans who owned Small Businesses here with us today, including one for my hometown. Thank you for your service and for serving your community and building the economy. I am eager to hear from our witnesses on the importance of hiring veterans and how we can increase opportunity for veterans as they transition to civilian line lives. Enacting progrowth policies that are often at odds with economic decisions made by the biden administration. I want to recognize the Ranking Member well, thank you, chairman bost and thank you for holding this hearing. On the impact of americas businesses on veteran employment and opportunity. Before we begin, its impossible to discuss employment without addressing recent news in the automotive industry. Id like to take a moment to congratulate the United Auto Workers on a truly groundbreaking agreement with ford stis and general motors. Thousands of veterans are members of the uaw and in the words of president biden, when he visited the picket line you deserve what youve earned and youve earned a hell of a lot more than youre getting now. Getting paid. Now, the agreement reached last week is a massive win for the uaw, american workers. Veterans and the entire United States unions are good for america and unions are good for veterans. Now to the topic at hand. The biden economy has pulled this country from what some believed was an inevitable recession, unemployment is down, wages are up, spending is up and inflation has cooled since the months immediately after the pandemic. Does that mean everything is perfect . Also, in the words of president biden, come on, man, no, more work is needed. We need to raise wages for veterans in the workplace to reflect the wage gains of the 1 and company executives. Strengthen employment protection so guard and reserve members dont have to worry if their jobs will exist when they return from serving their country. Ensure that opportunities for veterans of all backgrounds are fair. Simplify the process for veterans to translate their skills in the military into the marketplace, and make it easier for veterans to start their own businesses. Chairman bost, you and i have served together on this committee for more than eight years. Can you believe that . I want to thank you for introducing our resolution honoring this week as veteran employment week. And while we may have our differences from time to time and while there are certain issues on which we will never see eye to eye one thing i have , appreciated about working with you is that whenever possible, we have done our best to find common ground. And i think we can both agree that the goals ive outlined are worth pursuing in this committee. Today, we have the opportunity to talk about some of this countrys largest employers along with some veterans Small Business owners, some from your own district. Veterans on average earn more than their civilian counterparts. But i hope we can learn why veterans wages arent growing as fast as non veterans. I hope we can also learn what employers think of diversity initiatives. I believe we are at our best when we harness the power of our diversity to spur creativity and innovation. However, we know that some in congress have decried diversity goals and initiatives. So i look forward to hearing if employers feel the same way. I want to learn more about how employers treat guard and reserve members when their requirements to our Nations Defense conflict with their employee responsibilities. In preparing for this hearing, our staff attempted to find a Large Employer of veterans that doesnt use forest arbitration forest arbitration agreements. However, call after call yielded proof that forced arbitration agreements are rampant in the workplace, forcing Service Members to choose between employment and upholding their duty to our nation. Something i find truly shameful. In our subcomittee hearing earlier this year, it was asked how common are forced arbitration agreements for Service Members . It turns out extremely common. I hope our witnesses before us can explain how exactly their company uses forced arbitration and what that means for guard and reserve members. We have the chance to make real change in Employment Rights for Service Members. And i hope this serves as a wake up call. It is time to ban forced arbitration agreements for guard and reserve members and i look forward to engaging with our witnesses this afternoon. Thank you, chairman, i yield back. Thank you Ranking Member of chicano. Now i will introduce the first panel of witnesses. So first we have mr tommy jones, hes a senior director of military and Veterans Affairs at walmart. We also have eric eversull president of hiring our heroes, president of hiring our heroes, and mr Michael Mccall who leads veterans recruitment at verizon. And ms. Erin ising, senior director of workforce programs at home depot. And right now, i would like the witnesses if you would please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that under penalty of perjury and the testimony you are about to provide is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . Thank you. You may sit down. Let the record reflect that all witnesses have answered in the affirmative. Mr. Jones, you are now recognized for five minutes for your opening statement. Chairman boss, Ranking Member takano and esteemed members of the House Committee of Veterans Affairs. Im honored to join you today as an army veteran and the leader of walmarts military programs. I am grateful for your leadership and partnership in honoring our nations veterans and for the opportunity to share the work we are doing to support military families and create opportunities for veterans and Military Spouses at walmart. Supporting those who serve has been ingrained in our dna from since the very beginning, our founder, sam walton served in the United States army in World War Two and his values continue to define our company. We are immensely grateful for our nations veterans and the values they bring. Our goal is to support veterans and military families during and after their service. Over a decade ago, we announced our veterans welcome home commitment to hire 250,000 veterans by 2020. Since then, weve hired more than 533,000 veterans of Military Spouses and promoted nearly 64,000 to roles of greater responsibility and higher pay. Building on this success, we launched find a future in june of 2020. This tool guides military related prospects through an audit of their current skills experience and education. It helps them explore a wide range of future possibilities including employment, education, entrepreneurship and provides a road map to achieve their goals. After more than 3. 5 million engagements with members of the military community, find a future, we are expanding that platform to serve associates and and our own community. Our our Career Fellowship Program in partnership with the us chamber of commerce and hiring initiatives offers hiring summit and fellowship opportunities to veterans and their families support for our, our service Service Members comes in many forms. Our military Family Promise guarantees a job at a nearby Walmart Store or sams club for all military personnel and including Military Spouses employed by the company who must pcs due to military orders. Additionally, we provide free counseling, session, coaching and digital wellness tools to help our associates manage stress, build resilience and access to care they need. Walmart has established key relationships with organizations focused on supporting those who have served, including with merging vets and players, which provides veterans a new team to assist with transition, personal development and a sense of belonging. Another is sheepdog impact assistance which offers veterans opportunities for physical activities, peer to peer training, and volunteer opportunities for continued service. Once associates are hired at walmart, they have access to one of the Worlds Largest learning ecosystems including Walmart Academy and live better you. These programs have helped thousands of associates build their skills that they desire through training and educational offerings. As a Founding Member of the coalition of veteran owned businesses, wal mart supports veteran owned business across the u. S. Our annual open call event provides entrepreneurships the opportunity to meet wal mart and potentially get their products on our shelves or online. In fact, we spent 1. 2 billion with veteran owned suppliers in fy 23 fy 23. To strengthen our support of veterans in their community. Walmart and Walmart Foundation have invested 44 million since 2011 in job training, education and Community Based initiatives. Our aim is to build skill based talent marketplace that recognizes the skills that veterans bring, unlock opportunities and accelerate the economic mobility and civilian sector. To that end. We have supported organizations like hire heroes, usa and bmf at syracuse university, as well as a Manufacturing Institute. As we look, look to the future. We recognize the potential to address remaining barriers to successful transmit transition from military service to civilian life. Collaboration and a shared vision will be critical and crucial in achieving this. We remain dedicated to the work and look forward to evolving and growing our approach to best serve veterans and military families. Thank you for the opportunity to share how walmart is supporting military and veteran communities through employment, education, entrepreneurship, wellbeing programs and our philanthropic efforts. I extend my deepest respect and gratitude to my fellow veterans for their sacrifice and service. And im here to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Thank you, mr jones. And the written statement of mr jones will be entered into the hearing record. Mr eversull, you are now recognized for five minutes for your opening remarks. Good morning, chairman Ranking Member takano and , distinguished members of this committee my name is eric , eversull and im the president of hiring our heroes and a Vice President at the us chamber of commerce. Im also a retired navy captain. As many of you know, hiring heroes was created when there was a National Crisis in veteran unemployment. In 2011, we had hundreds of thousands of Service Members, many of them who were young, returning home from war zones and they were finding an awful job market working with the chambers vast network of state and local here and local chambers, hiring our heroes led a National Coalition of companies who were committed to making veteran hiring a priority. Im honored to be on the panel today with several of those companies and thanks to these companies and our collective efforts, much has changed over the last decade. Veteran unemployment is at a record low for vets in each category across the unemployment spectrum. The Unemployment Rates are lower than their civilian counterparts. Weve seen a shift, a paradigm shift in how Service Members transition from the military. Gone are the days where they simply were sent home to fend for themselves where many would spend months if not years trying to find meaningful careers. Our country has been investing in their futures by ensuring that they have the right tools and resources prior to their transition. And it is working events like our career summits which provide training and Networking Opportunities as well as connections to military ready employers are in are an important part of this pre transition work. Weve seen unprecedented success from our Fellows Program, the largest dod skill Bridge Program in the country which provides internships to transitioning Service Members with one of more than 700 Companies Across the country. That programs impact is clear and unequivocal. This year alone, we will host more than 2400 active duty fellows. 85 of those fellows will receive job offers within 90 days and the average starting salary is more than 110,000. Our data also shows our internal data shows that it will help recruit the next generation of all volunteers. And while some may question the need for these programs, given the labor market and the militarys current recruiting challenges, that would be a tremendous mistake. The best way to recruit the next generation of all volunteers is to ensure that the current generation not only survives but thrives in their civilian Career Opportunities. These programs accomplish that accomplish that. One last very important note, much like our country faced a National Crisis with veteran Employment Unemployment in 2011, we are facing a similar crisis with Military Spouses today. The inability of Military Spouses to find and maintain careers is forcing too many, many military families to rely upon a Single Source of income and is creating economic peril for those families, both in the near term and in the long term. It is causing Service Members to choose between serving their country and leaving. Much like we did in 2011, we must come together as a nation and make Military Spouse employment a top priority. We believe that the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Program which was recently enacted as part of last Years National Defense Authorization act is an important step in that direction. As some of you may know thats a Pilot Program that provides Military Spouses with a 12 week internship opportunities with host Companies Across the country and dod pays a stipend for those Military Spouses to participate in that program. And while the program has only been going on for 10 months now, weve hosted more than 400 Military Spouses in those internships and much like the Fellows Program in skill bridge, we are seeing an 80 plus percent offer rate and average salaries of approximately 70,000. So these programs work and theyre a step in the right direction and were certainly looking forward to continuing these efforts for Military Spouses. Once again, chairman boston, Ranking Member, takano, uh and the members of this committee, thank you for todays opportunity and i look forward to answering your questions. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of verizon and over 8200 veterans and more than 500 Military Spouses we are privileged to employ. Im honored to be here. My name is Michael Mccoy and im the head of military affairs of verizon. I am a proud Third Generation Service Member serving as an officer in the Army National guard since 2011. Serving our veterans is not just a job for me. It is my passion. Military service is an honor, but it presents unique challenges. For example, i was deployed when my wife was six months pregnant and returned home when my son was eight months old. The military is also all encompassing and becomes part of your identity, but military service cannot last forever if you understand the magnitude of transition from military to civilian life, verizon strives to make it as frictionless as possible. Today, i would like to share with you how we recruit and support veterans. At verizon, we believe that veterans make our Company Better in addition to providing for our national defense, the us military is the greatest Job Training Program in the world. It cultivates individuals who are disciplined, skilled, thrive under pressure, making them ideal for hypercompetitive communications industry. The military service imparts both hard and soft skills that translate into a variety of critical jobs. At verizon, we recruit pilots to fly drones for Disaster Response and engineers to build our best in Class Networks and protect them from cyber attacks. For all of these reasons, we enthusiastically recruit retain and engage the military community. Verizon is proud to be recognized for this. Weve been named the number one military Friendly Company in the u. S. Three times. Weve also been ranked number one by best for vets and received numerous employer support at the Garden Reserve awards. Verizon relies on a three pronged approach. Recruit, retain support to attract separating Service Members. We host a web page for veterans and Military Spouses that provides information on needed skills and open positions within the company. Verizon also works with the department of events programs such as skill bridge and the transition Assistance Program. Tap through skill bridge. We provide separating military personnel with civilian Work Experience through internships and training during their last 180 days of service. Regarding the tap program. We are working to expand relationships with tap centers, but we believe that tap may be under resourced and there is an opportunity to expand their impact for example, enabling virtual classes. In addition to those in person would allow employers to reach more potential hires. Another val valuable Recruitment Program is the hiring our heroes corporate Fellowship Program offered through hoh which gives rise to access to a broad pool of military talent. Through our partnership with the dod in the us chamber. We have trained 215 Service Members and hired 183. 90 of these participants are still with verizon today. Finally, we have strong partnerships with other Career Readiness veteran serving organizations, namely 50 strong and four block. But with over 100 va recognized veteran organizations, the amount of information can be overwhelming guidance and Co Ordination from the va could help filter what is most relevant. At verizon we believe that , retaining our veteran employees is just as important as recruiting them. We do everything we can to ensure they are valued and supported to give vera veterans a continued sense of camaraderie and the opportunity to serve others. We established an internal Employee Resource Group called. This gives veterans a forum for support and career guidance. It also hosts volunteer projects that provide thousands of hours of veteran focussed Community Service annually. This includes raising awareness for the Affordable Connectivity Program acp which provides eligible veterans with broadband service. A program we urge congress to continue funding. In addition, we help veterans register and track changes for earned benefits. For example, this year, we partnered with the v. A. S Communications team to inform our veterans of the passage of the pact act finally, for our employees in the National Guard reserves, like myself, we provide a generous military leave policy into including gap pay for up to 36 months in closing. I would like to thank you for holding this hearing as the Committee Considers ways to advance opportunities for veterans. Verizon stands ready to work with you and support the men and women who have bravely served our country. Im happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, ms mccoy, ms eisen, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today as a Military Spouse and mother of us marines who have separated from service. This topic is very close to my heart with me. Today is hayley weaver, the other apron who leads our military Relations Team and shes also a Military Spouse. Im the senior director of workforce programs for the home depot, the Worlds Largest Home Improvement retailer founded in 1979. The home depot operates more than 2300 retail stores, Distribution Centers and corporate facilities with over 470,000 associates. We take pride in taking care of these associates. One example is the investment of approximately 1 billion in annualized compensation increases for our front line, Hourly Associates announced earlier this year of those 470,000, tens of thousands are veterans, National Guardsmen reserves and Military Spouses. You can often recognize them in the stores by the celebration badges on their aprons. We find that veterans acclimate well through a culture of service and inverted pyramid leadership approach and bring to our ranks. 10 year leadership, adaptability, resilience, and collaboration. Last year alone, we hired over 14,000 veterans when veterans put on an apron, they also receive a military specific onboarding class, a veteran new hire coach, access to veterans specific resources and benefits and an invitation to participate in our military appreciation Resource Group. Our partnership with the department of defenses skill Bridge Program has allowed us to host over 150 transitioning Service Members since 2019. During their time with us, we provide handson experience for what its like to work in corporate america. And each fellow has a host team and veteran mentor to learn from. Graduates of our program have gone on to become cybersecurity analysts, software engineers, project managers and are even Senior Leaders in our stores and Distribution Centers. Programs like skill bridge and hiring our heroes provide invaluable access to Top Tier Talent emerging from the military. It is critical that the dod and the military commands continue to support important transition programs to bridge the life from active duty to civilian careers. Recognizing that less than 7 of the Us Population is served in the military we developed training , courses and reference guides for all hiring managers, Hr Professionals and Talent Acquisition associates to ensure they know the value veterans bring to the company and can understand their unique capabilities. Furthermore, we have a range of policies supporting our military affiliated associates and fostering their long term Career Growth to stand by our National Guard active duty and reserve associates, we recently enhanced our military leave of absence policy. This update includes a substantial full pay benefit for up to seven consecutive days. Complementing our existing supplemental pay policy ensuring that associates who temporarily step away from their role at home depot receive the Financial Support that they deserve while serving our nation. We also offer international loa for spouses following their Service Member on an international deployment. To further support these Military Spouse associates in 2020 we created the Military Spouse job transfer policy. This program guarantees a job offer at one of our stores or supply chain locations when they relocate under their spouses orders. With available positions across thousands of u. S. Locations we , can provide a stable career across their moves. Looking outside our own hiring, we provide transition support for all veterans. This summer, we launched Mission Transition online created by veterans and for veterans. This series of courses is designed to empower servicemen and women and equip them with the soft skills necessary for a seamless transition like translating their military experience into a civilian resume and the importance of branding and networking. These classes are free to the public and found on our career website. Turning to veteran communities in 2011, the Home Depot Foundation recognized the growing crisis with veterans homelessness and pledged to invest half a billion dollars in veterans causes. We are 475 million towards that goal and have improved or built more than 55,000 veterans homes and facilities. The Foundation Also made a 50 million pledge to train the next generation of skilled tradespeople and help fill the growing Skilled Labor gap. The foundations military program in partnership with Home Builders institute in skill bridge is offered on 10 military installations including Camp Pendleton and congressman levins district. Over 3000 transitioning Service Members have graduated from this 12 week program equipped with industry recognized certifications and ready to start a new career in the trades. Beyond the foundations military program, the home depot also helps other veterans and others interested in working in the trades to start their careers first through our free Construction Skills Program and then by networking with our hiring professional customers to find a job in their area. More information on all of our path to pro workforce programs can be found at have to pro. Com. We are proud to have been named a military friendly employer, spouse, Employer Company and brand as well as forbes best employer for veterans among other awards as you can see, i take immense pride in representing a company that has held an unwavering commitment to military families and veterans of communities. Members of the committee, thank you for having us here today. I look forward to answering your questions. We are now going to go to the time of questioning and i will yield myself five minutes mister mccoy, you know, as supporters of veterans employment, what do you see as what do you see as the Biggest Barriers to hiring veterans and how can this Committee Help improve the opportunities for veterans and eliminate these barriers . Thank you for the question, chairman. One of the barriers is aggregating veterans, we are elusive. None of us are currently wearing a uniform right now. How can you tell were a veteran and finding those veterans in our communities doing the work that theyre doing is difficult. As several people have mentioned, only 7 of our population have served. So we work to find them wherever they are. Weve been very successful with the hiring our Heroes Program. We take part in every single opportunity that they offer. We go to military bases. Camp pendleton, we go all across the country to find them. One of the things that can help us be more successful is having some type of employment, Coalition Connection team at the tap centers. Oftentimes finding somebody who , you can work with is, is difficult. Have you found that some of, and this can go to any of you, have you found that we have some tap programs that are more than willing to let you in and others that are not so willing and what problems do you face when they are not so willing . Thank you, that is a great question. What we see is everybody is stretched very thin. There are hundreds of Service Members who are looking for opportunities to learn how to translate their skills, their experience, their time in the military. What that looks like, what a right resume looks like. And so we work with them to figure out how we can help supplement any of the work that theyre doing by participating in career workshops. Were very active at military bases to help in those kinds of capacities. And we do that as much as we can to help Service Members. Good, ok. I would say seconding what he said, its difficult for us sometimes to get on to the base because theres quotas and maxes. And so if youre not the first there, sometimes were not, we often cant get in there. And then i would say the recruiting access, like the process for getting on to the base two can be different. Um it all depends kind of on the command and what they support and who their network is. And so having a central way for us to access those bases, like he mention would be very helpful. And just to add, mr. Chairman, about the turnover of those people that are working in the tab offices, the different contracts that land. In general, home depot does not have arbitration agreements in any of our employment contracts. In very rare cases, you might find them where we acquired companies, an agreement was already in place but in general, no. Ok. So when you acquire companies, they, they may have in place arbitration agreements, uh for guard and reserve members, but you do not employ them with your own employees. And can you comment as to why you dont . I cant. Ok, fair enough. What about diversity equity . We at home depot have many diversity and equity programs. We fully embrace them. Veterans causes are just one of them. And we do a lot that i feel actually is very impactful. Ill give you one example from a veterans perspective. I talked about our fellowships in our, in my testimony, weve 72 of the people that we have hosted through our fellowships are diverse based by self disclosure. And so we really feel because the military over indexes as somebody already stated on being diverse and being over educated that when you hire those people, thats what you get when you hire veterans. Probably disarming bombs is not something anyone needs. The veterans themselves and i express myself i express this to so many, we have to deal with people that have been hurt or however, every veteran we have to make sure that we stay focused on that is a quality employee. My time has expired and i will yield to the Ranking Member. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You mentioned agreements undermining protections. I would like to ask mr. Jones whether walmart uses focrd arbitrate forced arbitration agreements. We do not require arbitration to dispute. We dont force them to sign anything. And why dont you . We believe in citizen soldier partnerships. We understand that serving in the reserve makes us buddy better to the companies. The work they experience in our offices or our stores, they bring that to the military and then there other experience we value that from a diversity standpoint and the skills they bring are transferable. Speaking of diversity, i would like to know about walmarts philosophy about programs and whether you embrace them and why. We are stronger with diversity. We know that. And we know the military is one of the biggest foundations to pull from. We value that. We know that every person matters and we treat everyone the way they should be treated. We understand how impactful diversity as. Thank you, mr. Jones. Mr. Mccoy, does verizon force arbitration agreements . Thank you. We work with our legal teams to ensure that we comply with the rights. I understand how difficult it is to leave work in the middle of the week and so we do everything we can to ensure that we are compliant. As our specific policy, my legal team will respond with more detail. Thank you. Our diversity initiatives fully embrace that verizon . The diversity in the military is unmatched. We work actively to ensure that we are finding veterans wherever they are. We work with different groups. We look at groups that aggravate veterans wherever they are at. We work with all of those groups to ensure we are actively finding the top talent in these groups to recruit them to verizon then we work to retain them. You are looking for diversity in all different manners. Is that correct . That is correct. Could you comment on whether home depot uses force arbitration agreements . In general, home depot does not have arbitration agreements in any of our employment contracts. In rare cases you may find them in places where we have acquired companies. In general, no. When you acquire companies they may have in place arbitration agreements you do not employ them with your own employees. And can you comment as to why you dont . I cant. Fair enough. What about diversity equity . Home depot has many programs. We fully embrace them. Veteran causes are just one. We do a lot that i feel is very impactful. Ill give you one example from a veterans perspective. I talked about our fellowships in our, in my testimony, weve 72 of the people that we have hosted through our fellowships are diverse based by self disclosure. And so we really feel because the military over indexes as somebody already stated on being diverse and being over educated that when you hire those people, thats what you get when you hire veterans. And so your dei initiatives are not just focused on veterans. Uh but, but the full gamut from gender to ethnicity to raise all different , backgrounds. Do you believe that home depot believes that diversity is actually a strength . I would say that we believe our associates of all types bring us and make us our strength. So weve got all different genders and backgrounds. And we do support them through different dei initiatives. Well, thank you, ms eisen. I yield back, mr chairman. Thank you Ranking Member. Representative franklin, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr chairman and thank you to our panel for being here today. I appreciate everything that you all are doing both in your uh in your professional capacities and also in your service to our country. Not to be overlooked, ms eisen. Now my wife would be she would scold me if, if i did not acknowledge that the role you have as a Military Spouse and a mother is just as important and, and challenging and, and sacrificial as is all the, the gentlemen there to your right. But also what you all do in your leadership roles for businesses throughout the country. And obviously you guys are, are huge companies. You have a lot of assets to pour into this. But i would tell you that there are hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses out there that are looking to your initiatives to figure out what can we steal from those guys. What are the best practices . So i can tell you as a former veteran Business Owner too, i would often look to the things that you all are doing to see is that something we could, we could uh integrate um limited time. We have about four minutes. So about a minute for each of you, i would love to hear uh with respect to attracting and retaining veteran workforce. Whats the one thing, you know, im sure you spend a lot of time thinking about how can we improve our deal, our programs . Whats the one thing that you would either have us uh stop doing or do less of or start doing that were not doing that would help your job be easier. Gosh, its hard to pick one and fit it in 45 seconds. One thats most impactful. So one thing that would be really impactful for you guys is help making transition a priority in the commands. Weve talked about how theyve got a lot on their plates. Theyve got limited people. And so to be able to give up these people to do like a hiring our Heroes Program, its very difficult and weve had challenges where weve identified someone that wants to come to our Fellowship Program, makes it through our interview process. Were ready to bring them on and then their command decides that they just cant let them go. And so we lose that fellow or weve even had them in our program, get called back and get promoted, which is a good thing, but get pulled back out of the program. So making that transition and kind of protecting that time, a priority would be very helpful, especially at the junior enlisted level. We hear that frequently. Mr. Mccoy. Thank you for the question. I would say one of the things that you could do to help us all would be to continue to talk about and support transition programs throughout all phases of a career. When we look at how we go to a fs cs, we go to mls schools, all of the different professional, military education that we go to talking about what skills youre gaining when you go to those. And that helps us build a repertoire throughout the course of our career that when we transition, we know weve built these skills, we know who we are we understand , what value we bring to the workforce and continue to talk about that. And, and as my good friend, Sergeant Major of the army, retired tilley says, talk to those old veterans we want to help. Do you feel that they communicate those skills . Well, when they are out there in the job force looking, i know we try to help them a lot through tap and all. But, but translating military skills, whether its Ordinance Disposal to, to civilian skills, do they do a good job of that or can we do better to help them . We could do better. Its hard sometimes to talk about some of those uh very outside of the traditional civilian employment skills of, of how you translate it. But its talking about the generalities of leadership, time management, success that you have had. That helps. Sorry, i dont want to duplicate efforts. But, you know, i think the skill Bridge Program and programs like hiring a heros Fellowship Program, those programs give a preview and, and help educate the civilian population on the skills that Service Members bring. So its an on the Job Training Program that allows them to really understand. You know, its really easy to focus on hard skill, right . Cybersecurity to cybersecurity, but as a First Sergeant leading a Communications Team and moving into Talent Acquisition, um thats my soft skills that, that allowed me to do that, right. And so you dont get that, um, you know, reading a resume. And so i think theres an opportunity to really focus on how do we talk about Service Members of this generation . You know, World War Two is known as the greatest generation. I would say that this generation is the most educated military workforce weve ever had. And so what are we doing to promote that . I think theres an opportunity there. And we do that through these programs that we have, right . Getting it out into the commer, getting it out into the communities, into the civilian corporations and that really , gives them a good understanding and peak behind the curtain to understand, you know what this talent really is about. We chose to serve in the military for a purpose. Very quickly, i think we need to support bolster and protect skill bridge. The majority of, after doing this for a decade, the majority of Service Members that we serve and we see come out, uh they are relying heavily on their soft skills when they come out their leadership, their resiliency. Uh and those are the hardest things to, to show, you know, show to a potential employer. Uh i can put not that im a great leader on, on my resume, but nobodys going to buy it until they actually see it in the workforce. And so to protect these Service Members in these skill bridge opportunities allows them to showcase their skill sets in a Work Environment and allows them to get hired and brought in at the right level, which helps with retention and all the other things that go along with employment. Thank you, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. Thank you, mr chairman. I appreciate that. I was going to go down the line of mandatory arbitration, but im gonna switch gears here. Um since the Ranking Member has asked that. So i will focus on gender pay, equal pay. One thing about the military, there are a lot of good things about the military, but one really good thing about the military is that theres equal pay amongst men and women within the military, they come out of the military. Their Pew Research Center did polling to say that we are still um falling behind by an average of 7,000 of a pay differential between Women Veterans and male veterans. And so my question really to um all of you, um you know, what are, what are your organizations doing to eliminate the gender pay grab gap across the board regardless actually of veteran status. Show thank you, i think that were always evaluating our, our processes and evaluating our compensation. Recently, we have done a reevaluation of our compensation and well always continue to do that to make sure that one from a pay area and from a, a skills base that were paying accordingly. And so i think that thats something that is always top of mind. Were paying ourociates based off the qualifications they bring into the organization, not based off their gender. Thank you, mr. Mccoy. Thank you for the question. Not to repeat what mr jones said. But, but we agree we are working to make sure that when we work with Service Members of both genders, were working with them to make sure they understand the skills and experience they bring to the table, theyre selecting the right level of position and theyre articulating their skills and experience in a way that helps them ensure that theyre getting the job, thats the best fit for them that allows for maximum compensation. I will say the Pew Research Report also stated that Women Veterans are getting paid more than women civilians and likewise for male veterans versus male citizens. So, i guess, you know, the question is when you say, well, its about their abilities and so forth and so on, you know, to me it seems as though whats really happening is the people coming in from the military are more qualified, therefore getting a higher pay than their male or female counterparts. I would just like to add, i think some of the programs allow for that, you know, long understanding of it. You know, you do an interview process that may be three or four interviews and youre looking at a resume to base a decision off that and we try to focus on making sure that we have the right pay areas for each one of those. But as you start to be able to evaluate and understand the additional skills that that person brings into an organization. When you have a program like the Fellowship Program, where you have a 90 day evaluation of that person, youre understanding a little bit more level of detail of their skills. And therefore it allows you to bring that to when you come to the offer process, when you go to compensation and asking them, you know, this person brings these additional skill sets that we didnt see on their resume. But based after, after our evaluation of this personnel, you know, we have the ability to, to give them more compensation based off the experiences that they have. I think thats really important. I will comment also in , addition to what he said, i think its important to note not just what they get in the, in the initial wage. Its also the ongoing investment that Companies Make to make sure they have a best associate experience. So benefits bonuses, job and career development. And we see that at home depot, especially in our stores, 90 of our leaders started as Hourly Associates. So even though they may come in one place, its also helping them advance and move quickly based on the capabilities that they have. Thank you for that. I think the data that im speaking of incorporates, you know, all of the full package as well. I just have a few seconds left. I commend all of you for reaching out to our veteran population um for their employment. I also commend you for hiring disabled veterans as well. So i am just wondering what are you , doing in terms of accessing more disabled veterans to accommodate them either at work or their ability to work from home . Thank you for the question. We have a lot of accessibility. We service dogs equipment, whatever that needs, we work with them to find the right solution. And ill just add on day one. We are introduced to the, during the interview process. We talk about accessibility, but on day one, theyre introduced to our accessibility team. Anybody that has a need that to be able to better allow them to perform their duties at work. Were going to accommodate them best of our ability. My time is up, i yield back. Thank you, ms. Brown, thank you, mr chair. And i also want to thank the chair for having a hearing on something that reflects positively on our veterans. And that is the tremendous attributes that they have that they bring into the workplace. So often were focused on Mental Health or suicide or ptsd. And we get this thought that all veterans are like that. So as a, as a veteran, im just gonna say, i really appreciate that. Were talking about the positive attributes of veterans. One of the things that our state of iowa did i was director of , public health. So i was instrumental in this with our governor at that time, governor branstad to do a home based Iowa Initiative and our home based iowa, you are nodding your heads, you know, very well of the program was precisely to get veterans employed. And along that same time, what we also did was to have no state income tax on military pensions. And thats helped attract more veterans to our state and were delighted to have them. For my part, it was working with licensure and licensure laws, both for veterans, recognizing their training within the military, but also veteran spouses. So this question is for mr jones, um, what ways can the department of defense and the department of Veterans Affairs better prepare our Service Members to be successful in your company or the other panelists, uh, or a company or a similar one as they transition from military to civilian life. Uh thank you, and thank you for your service. You know, theres, theres many ways um that i think we can, you all can help us and we, we touched on it a little bit, um really focusing on educating them left of transition, right . Um allowing them to understand where their skills are best utilized. And i think we talked about hard skills and soft skills. I think about the abs va, right . So when i joined the military, i took the abs va and i had no idea that i would be good as a combo guy for 20 years in the army, right . 20 years later, if i would have reversed, engineered that and took the abs i on a way out that might paint the picture of what i could be. Now, all the skills that i learned again, michael talked about, were the best trained workforce in the world. We have the best training organization, the best leadership training, right . And so reassessing those is, is i think the biggest piece of doing it and lo it left of transition is really important. Thank you. Mr. Mccoy in your testimony, you , mentioned that verizon has a special dispensation for employees who serve in the National Guard and reserve. Could you elaborate on that . Yes, thank you for the question. Thank you as well for your service. We have the opportunity to make sure that were asking Service Members whether theyre currently serving or theyre veterans to self identified in that we then work with them to make sure that they understand hey, when i go out on military , leave, its not a bad thing. And so the military gap pay provides the opportunity to cover the up to the horizon base salary compared to the base salaries that were from base to base in the military. This doesnt account for any kind of special pays or flight or any of those other things that makes sure that they are full when theyre gone, that if their military pay is much lower, they would be made whole. I, my last deployment i had an individual who is a cto at his company. He was an e five. He couldnt deploy, he would have lost his house. And so, you know, making sure that we find ways to keep our guardsmen and reservists in uniform, helps our nation. And and, thank you for that. First of all, i really appreciate my 10 discount as a veteran at home depot. Im just gonna throw that out there. Does home depot partner with the va and the department of labor . And what recommendations would you have for improving opportunities for transitioning Service Members to connect with civilian employers . Yes, we certainly partner with, um, the department of labor. We partner with a lot of partnerships, gil bridge hiring our heroes um across, across the way. And i would say, um keeping those partnerships, making sure Congress Supports them like weve been talking about is critical. Um i would also say, and, and we touched on this a little bit, the hard skills versus the soft skills. And usually when we say soft skills, people think, oh, they need to know how to write the resume or how to do the interview, but its really being able to talk through how um you know, chairman bo boss mentioned um an artillery person. My husband was a tanker. So talking about how when youre a tanker, what does that mean when you come to the civilian workforce . And he is now a middle School Teacher. So translating tanker to middle School Teacher isnt something that generally a class is going to teach you how to do or that youre gonna get um from a military schools, translator. So making sure that were giving enough in those classes to talk through some of those things so that they can fully, you know, articulate their transition would be very helpful. Even though its been a while since ive been in military school, i can readily see how a tank commander would be able to navigate middle school. But with that, thank you to our panelists. And i yield back my time. I thank you gentlemen for making this a veteran employment week. I appreciate that. And i think, uh, what better commitment and what other example is walmart hiring as their, their senior military personnel and enlisted guy . Right. So i think that ive heard about base access that you have all the access you need at Camp Pendleton. Maybe we could speak after and you could speak with my staff after to see if we can do anything to help with that regard. I wanted to ask you about making sure that we are hiring enlisted and officers and that we are giving both the time and attention necessary. I think everyone that serves has unique skills, experiences and aspirations and it is our duty as a grateful nation to make sure everybody has an opportunity to succeed. Sometimes our enlisted Service Members are overlooked. Ive seen that despite the valuable skills and Life Experiences they are bringing to the table. I will start with mr. Jones. In your companys veteran recruitment work i was impressed to hear about what you are doing. How do you ensure that enlisted veterans specifically have operations on the retail side and in the higherpaying, corporate jobs . Thank you. What better commitment and what other example is walmart hiring as their, their senior military personnel, and enlisted guy . Right. So i think that thats an example of, of the Committee Plan this in advance. It wasnt planned, we were text message but it didnt come. Um well, no, iii i think, you know, we really focus on all levels of skills, but i think thats the, the narrative in the, in the civilian sector at west point, you think about the academies, that is the only way or the rotcs. And thats the exposure that people get because those are usually in positions of authority. And you know, you hear that. Um so again, its storytelling, internal storytelling of the personnel that are inside of your company and understanding those people and telling their stories. So and so was an infantryman now as a truck driver. So and so was a, you know, a medic and now is leading an it as a project manager. So, internal storytelling, i think is the most critical thing that we can do, not only to educate the civilian population, but for the other veterans in our organization to stand up and be counted and, and really pay it forward to those others, right . And so we see a lot of that, a lot of referrals from those types of actions, right . Theyre proud of their service after we tell that story and they bring the next person on. And so thats how weve really been focusing on it here. I appreciate that. Please keep at it. I want to ask about skill bridge. I have noticed that participation rates in skill bridge are lower for enlisted than for officers. Curious if you know in your companys skill Bridge Program, what percentage of participants are enlisted versus officers . I dont have the exact stat, i will tell you it is harder to get the junior enlisted. The commands are less likely to give someone who hasnt had 20 years in the military, the time away toward the end of their end of their time with us. And so theyre harder to find and we have stood up programs very specifically focused on the junior enlisted. We have a program to become a tool tech that is in our rental centers. We have a program for our it helpdesk. We have a program for store leadership in the Department Supervisor level. But our biggest challenge is finding the people to come be in the program and especially with the locations and trying to, with the relocations. That makes it hard too because if theyre finishing their time in virginia but they want to move to california. The relocations across can sometimes be difficult with the gilberd program as well. So its actually just finding the people and getting them into the program seems to be harder. I will say too with retail and im, im sure, uh, walmart can appreciate this as well. One in 12 people and one in 12 veterans work in retail, but one in four people in the United States work in retail. So veterans just dont think of retail as a place that i can go and have a second career. Even though as i mentioned before, 90 of home depots leadership in the store started as Hourly Associates. So they just dont think of it as a place to go. They think of it as a cashier so we could use help in making sure that Service Members understand the breadth of opportunities in front of them too. Its not just that they have to go out and find logistics. If they were doing logistics in the military, their skill set can translate across a wide range of industries. I very much appreciate that answer. And i think you have our commitment. Were going to do all we can to continue to improve tap, uh to be uh responsive to, uh, you know, everybody across the board, uh, enlisted and officers alike and im out of time. Let me know about Camp Pendleton, will you come up please and i yield back. Do you have an actual toolbelt on the arent apron . On the orange apron . Not on this one, but the one i actually wear in the store is. Yes, it is. Ok. Well, one of my proudest possessions, actually, i have a couple of them each from the Home Depot Stores in my district, signed by the veterans there. And i like dr miller meeks. Thank you for the 10 discount. I decided to invest some of my grandkids inheritance in it. So, but the, you know, to the, to the point here, mister chairman, thanks for holding the hearing and thank you for being here. And what, what i noticed in your initial testimony was the subject of access at the bases. And i think we might have a rare opportunity here to maybe to maybe take this hearing, uh you as a group over at Armed Services at some point in, in military personnel because roughly just under 70 of the people that youre going to hire are still committed to the individual Ready Reserve under their eight year contract. So when you think about access to the bases, when you think about who is the target market, if you will for your recruitment and hiring, um when they leave active duty at Camp Pendleton or pick your fort or pick your naval base or your air force base. Uh, they still have a commitment to the individual Ready Reserve. So my question to you is, have you, have you all looked into, um, what the Different Services might do as far as, as they maintain contact with the individual Ready Reserve . Sometimes theres irr musters other things. Anybody got any thoughts on that, any, any background or experience, mr . Mr. Congressman, i, i would say that im not aware of anything that weve done with. Iir, in my experience in my previous experience, i think its a great point. Its something we should look into, but i think the access still is going to be limited. I mean, we have challenges right now reaching Service Members in our own companies. So i think accessing them externally is going to be well, when you, when you, when you think about um here you have these, these and largely young men and women, whether it be officer and enlisted who have been in pretty intense in military engagement since they put the uniform on and now theyre in a transition phase, some of them are going to be looking for work immediately, others not so much, but i would, i would suggest to you that as we as, as Veterans Affairs committee, um were that second stage, you know, afterwards, after that, uh uh initial uh eight year commitment has been fulfilled that we begin to see the data on all of these folks, but all that means is that i believe there is different opportunities, love to explore those with you to see how we make the contact. And, uh, you can, uh, you can picture what a young, lets say if you serve four years active duty and you enlisted and went through boot camp at the age of 18, what their mindset might be at 22 especially if they are not married, and dont have children. They are a Pretty Tough Group to get a handle around there for a while because theyre probably gonna go out and just relax a little bit. But i, i just um im proud of all of you. We are all proud of all of you for what youre trying to do. Lets see if we can figure out in fishing terms a way to throw that net or expand the net so that we, we get the message across. I think you bring up a really interesting point. Some of the things i think extending, you know, nobody wants to extend an enlistment but think about what we did with the, the warrior care units um as people, you know, got into those transition units or those warrior transition units, you know, maybe theres an opportunity again, looking left of transition as an opportunity to work with those that are transitioning out of the military. I think one of the things that i failed as a Non Commissioned Officer, i thought i was pretty, pretty good Non Commissioned Officer. Uh, one of the things that i failed is my transitioning Service Members. I basically said were going on, we have missions, were going back to combat. You know, and, and i, and i felt that and so i think in my civilian life, you know, ive had the opportunity to kind of make i hate to cut you off, but you are eating up my time. But i will, because as a good nco you did exactly the right thing because youve got, youve got to take the next unit to the fight and those who are leaving, theyve served honorably have a nice life. Move on now. How do we bridge that gap . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you, mr chairman. Hello everybody. Mr jones. I want to just start with a quick clarification for your answer to the Ranking Members question about forced arbitration. I understand youre, youre not using those for folks, guard reserve. So you say cr a issues, but are you, is walmart using them for other employees . No associates at all, sir. Good, thank you. Thanks for that clarification. Shifting gears. I want to talk a bit about Military Spouse service, number, spouse issues, i may start with you. I understand home depot has a spouse job transfer policy, guaranteeing a job to one of your Military Spouse workers when their Service Member, spouse is transferred or reassigned or has orders elsewhere . Can you give me a sense of what is that program . How does it work . Has it been a success . What have you learned from the program . Sure. Id love to talk about it. So, stat i will use is that Military Spouses cross state lines 10 times more than their civilian counterparts. So, when youre moving every 2 to 3 years, its very hard to have a career. And when you have a family and youre having to go find child care and youre buying a new house and youre doing all the things that come with a move every 2 to 3 years, its hard to focus on your career. So what we do is we have a policy transfer program. So if youre working at one store Distribution Center or location and you move on spouses orders, we will help you find a job in where youre going and almost all base have a store within 30 miles of it. So we can, we can guarantee that we will have a job offer for you wherever you go. We have found it to be extremely um positive. In fact, on my military Relations Team, one of um my Program Leaders is a Military Spouse. She transferred across the us with her family two times i think before coming to atlanta and is now on my team in atlanta as well. So we see that it works. She was able to keep her career with us and we have a lot of Great Stories about Military Spouses that have done the same. Thank you. Either of you from verizon walmart, any similar programs or things you want to share that you are doing . Thank you for the question. We also offer a lot of portability. We, we look at how we can solve for whatever that challenge is, whether its geographic, whether its, hey, we dont have that type of role in that area. Our team, as well as the Human Resources team works to, to solve for those problems. On employment side, i think to some of the previous questions, its, youve got to find them just like a veteran who takes off the uniform. They dont have a shirt that says, hey, call me Military Spouse. Its figuring out how you can provide opportunities for them and meet them where theyre at. My spouse is currently serving and has lived through deployment. She understands that. And so i understand that we need to go out and solve their issues. We use the hiring our heros Military Spouse program, career accelerator, everything we can do. We, we try to find them and help them solve any issues that they have. Mister jones, anything to add from walmarts point of view. The only thing sir is just, i think selfidentity and michael hit on that. You know, its really, thats not a question that we ask. Weve, weve predominantly asked in the, in the past, but we are now asking that question to selfidentity as a Military Spouse so that we can help them inside their communities inside of walmart. So i may come to you on a related question. So home depot, for instance, has a store within 30 miles of, i think you said nearly every major base or many smaller businesses arent going to have that kind of footprint. If someones looking to move, what can we learn from success of these kinds of programs for companies with national reach, that Small Businesses could be taking advantage of . Uh thank you for that question, sir. Um i think the First Priority that all Companies Need to do is actually track it and make it a priority. So if youre not tracking Military Spouse employment, in the first instance, its really hard to think about what services or opportunities they may need in the future. And it also impacts how you recruit people. And so if you dont understand the unique needs of Military Spouses because youre not tracking it and you dont understand it, it makes it really difficult to create programs and opportunities around it. Its impossible for organizations like mine to actually track outcomes and, and were focused on outcomes right now. How do we help ensure that uh a population that is 92 women are finding meaningful Career Opportunities in this country because they are serving also. Thank you. And i encourage you all to continue thinking about spouses as well. The Unemployment Rate for activeduty spouses is six times the National Average for reserve and guard. For the reserved guard. It is double. I have got a bill, hr 3900 which extend some era benefits to spouses. I was pleased and very happy to see it as part of the Economic Opportunity. Thank you, mr chairman and thank you all for your service and for the spouses especially. I mean, my, i, im able, im on borrowed time, you know, i, im like most of you probably are too. So if, if it went for my love, lovely bride, i dont know if i can make it. You know, i told her when i got out of the military, i was like, im never gonna leave you again. And im sure my, all my colleagues in here that serve mills like im never gonna leave you again and damn it, we got elected and i havent seen my family in almost eight weeks. So its, its just, its one of those things, you know, if you follow a Service Members career. If they come [cl cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you know, i told her when i got out of the military, i was like, im never gonna leave you again. And im sure my, all my colleagues in here that serve mills like im never gonna leave you again and damn it, we got elected and i havent seen my family in almost eight weeks. So its, its just, its one of those things, you know, if you follow a Service Members career. If they come out of high school into the military and they serve 2020 plus 20 years, 20 plus years. Theres, theres what ive noticed in the veteran space is theres that little miss of becoming and for lack of a better term, you miss the opportunity to become an adult. And what i mean by that from the time that you were a kid to the time you enter the military and you left the military, youve given being get clothes, food, shelter, your medical is paid for, the insurance is paid for. And we make these transitions outbound those little nuances that have been taken care of for, for our entire adult life, theyre sprung upon us. And a lot of times i see my, when im dealing with veterans, thats the hole that they start to spiral down and the great things that each one of your companies are doing. Im curious with the turnover or the, or the, you know, if theres, um, if theres something that we could pinpoint, are there, are there problematic issues that you see in the veteran space that maybe we could start addressing in the dod space . Because i know time frame when it, when a Service Member is exiting and you said the recruiting is a big problem. Some bases arent letting you in because they need to hold on to those bodies. And i can appreciate that. But inevitably were going to get out and, uh, and, and i, you know, it hurts my heart to see because when eli and derek and myself jumped off the bullet train that we were riding on, it didnt even stop at the station. We literally had to jump off. No, no taps. No, nothing. See later. Yeah, my uniforms were still in my locker and they never looked back, you know, and i, we had to figure these things out. So my, i think my question is um one is there, is there, this is, theres a little focal point that were missing that maybe we can handle on the dod side that we, that would assist you all. Um ill start with that and anybody can open up. Uh thank you for the question and thank you for you and your family service. What i would say is, is talking about transition earlier. We know that as soon as you join you have an expiration date, you had your mrd, you know, when youre getting out, mines 2042. And so i know that im going to get out of the military, talk about it, understand it, realize it, internalize it and, and bring it through into all the different phases of your career so that its, it doesnt punch you in the mouth. Its, its talking about, hey, these are things that are going to change, talk about how you have to buy insurance, how of expensive is insurance and all the different facets that are going to that never happens. It doesnt, i promise you, i was in listen and officer this conversation just never came up especially and i, and i, and unfortunately i was injured. So my time frame got cut and i just had to leave done. I would say, you know, one of the things that i feel we, we missed out on as we started after 911, um is that we started to shrink down our training in Non Commissioned Officer courses and officer courses. And so one of the areas that i think we, we limited and we got rid of was the general studies portion of it, right . Right, and were in that portion of general studies, you know, as i was transitioning, i was like, what do i want to be when i grow up . I dont know what thats gonna look like. Um i think about the, the month of general studies about army effective writing or Financial Planning and all that, that stuff was really focused on occupational. Um and i think theres an opportunity that the military um and you all can go back into and saying, you know, what are we doing to help them again, left of transition, but through every point of uh of training, um when it comes to professional development and even in counseling. So as you start your career and you end your career, youre already building that resume, youre already talking about the grown up conversations that you talk about right. And youre getting exposed to that in a, in a training environment because thats the one thing that were really good at is training. So i think theres an opportunity right there is in our, in our academies and in our um different professional Development Opportunities to add that in. Sir. I, ill just say that we have to start seeing um employment postil services, this preserve preservative benefit of, of transition because if you can take care of employment and find meaningful employment, a lot of the other uh more dangerous issues that some of our transitioning Service Members face are mitigated when they have good employment in a network. Uh and, and i dont think the military sees it that way. Uh and, and so we, we really have to work aggressively on this and we also have to understand that some of these programs, even if theyre for more senior enlisted and more Senior Officers are really important if the Service Member has a family, because if you have a family, your Decision Making matrix looks a lot different than if youre going to go home and sit on moms couch and it doesnt mean that the other person doesnt have, you know, real fears and concerns that that person who has a family to take care of will take whatever job they can find even if it creates long term problems. I ran out of time. I know. Im sorry, mr chairman i yield back. Thank you, representative. Thank you, chairman. Um and thank you Ranking Member. Thank you to the witnesses for joining us uh, here today on this very important topic. Um i appreciate chairman boss giving us this opportunity uh with this hearing to highlight what businesses are doing for veteran employment as well as um areas for improvement. Uh my questions for you are really focused on Stem Education and how we can expand those opportunities that currently exist or maybe new opportunities we could create for our veterans. Um i mentioned this at last weeks hvac uh education opportunity hearing the veterans really do continue to face some significant challenges to employment and Educational Opportunities upon returning from service. Notably, these challenges are even bigger for student veterans in particular, which is the issue i spoke to um that are seeking education specifically in the stem fields. Improving Student Access to Stem Education is crucial for many reasons including protecting our National Security and expanding workforce um across Industries Like health care where were seeing a severe shortage. Um thats why ive been proud to introduce the veterans in stem expansion act, um which would improve access to the Edith Norse Rogers stem scholarship for student veterans in particular. I believe veteran, im, im sorry, i believe federal legislation like my bill, as well as the opportunity businesses offer such as yours um are crucial to bridging the gaps for vets to that we see in stem fields. This leads me to my first question really for all the panelists, im curious you observations and stem veteran graduate available . Im sorry. Do you think there is a lack of stem veteran graduates available to hire . And what is your businesses . What are your businesses doing to improve these opportunities for our veterans . Um and maybe i could start with mr jones if you wouldnt mind matter. Congressman, congresswoman, im sorry. So one of some of the things we have is live better you, i talked about, we also have our find a future platform. So our find a future platform acts as kind of like a Career Services for those personnel and understanding that the gaps that are in the industry, um and what skills that may be best suited for you. And so we do push them as part of those opportunities um uh where we have underrepresentation from a skill set in our company. And so thats some of the ways that we do that. Any other panelists . Yeah, id love to speak about that. Yeah. So weve talked a lot about what home depot does to hire veterans, but we also have programs, as i mentioned earlier to help get more people into the construction sector and fill the Skilled Labor gap as you just mentioned. Um so getting that information into the hands of these um separating Service Members early enough. So that theyre aware theres a skill Bridge Program for construction or that these jobs are out there and available is really critical and we could use the help. Great. Thank you. Thank you for the question and thank you for your work in this space, finding opportunities for Service Members. And we talked about junior enlisted traditionally aggregate over into colleges. And so its finding ways to engage them where theyre at. Um providing these understanding of how do you take this degree and turn it into this job . And, and talking about that is one of the things that we do when we engage our student veteran population, theres over 750,000 student veterans. Theres almost 90,000 in californias Community College system alone. So were working to make sure that we meet them where we are and help talk about how to get a real job. Thats excellent. Great. Thank you for the question. Um ive seen across corporate america, especially over the last five or six years that companies are investing heavily in stem training programs. Uh not only for military Service Members but, and, and Military Spouses, but all their employees. Uh the one thing that weve seen and we work very closely with uh Companies Like salesforce and manage googles uh career Forward Program which provides training for veterans and Military Spouses is that even with those degrees and certifications, getting a job without relevant Work Experience is really difficult. And so were Firm Believers that even, you know, the the investment in training is critically important, but we also need investments in bridges, experiential bridges like internships to help ensure that, that they get the skill sets and then they get the job, which is critically important. Thats a great point. Ok. Could i actually stay with you mr eversole just for some follow up questions. I appreciate the significance of the hiring our Heroes Program and understand you all partner with other businesses, including some here to engage veteran, veteran talent from your experience um in the program and in your work, what do you think are some of the ways the federal government um and Industry Partners can improve future partnerships to expand access to Stem Education for Veterans Building on whats been discussed . Yeah, thats a great question. Thank you for that question. I, i think its critically important in the first instance to understand where a lot of our Service Members are coming from, from a background and a socioeconomic perspective for me personally, even though i retired as a navy captain, neither of my parents graduated from high school. I grew up a small town in indiana and my dad said go to college or join the military and i did both but finding a job and understanding how those skill sets transition is really difficult. And so we have to, and, and what is real Economic Opportunity look like in this country . Um and, and thats a real challenge with a lot of our Service Members, we have to help educate in the first instance, what real Economic Opportunity and pathways into stem look like and how theyre attainable. Uh for me, uh a job in the it industry would have been the local High School Computer lab and thats not what it looks like at all today. And so we really have to make an investment in helping uh Young Americans understand what those opportunities and pathways look like. Its a great point. Um great. And if i could also ask, um, similar to what congressman franklin asked, are there any additional barriers . So ive run, im out of time. Im out of time. Thank you so much. I yield back. Representative rosendale. Thank you very much, mr chair. Um before beginning public service, i owned a real estate land and development company. And when hiring employees in business in congress, i sought out individuals who took initiative where leaders had a strong work ethic worked well within a team where critical thinkers possessed Emotional Intelligence and could handle stress. I found that through their service, veterans often have acquired all these important skills and make for great employees. Unfortunately, on a larger scale, these skills that veterans have acquired through service do not always translate easily to professional success. Veterans are 37 more likely to be underemployed than non veterans. Glad to hear the employment numbers are actually going up but, but im sorry to hear about how many of them are underemployed. This statistic is very concerning, but i do believe we can fix it. The transition assistant Assistance Program attempts to provide pointers including building a resume and interviewing tips. However, ive heard from veterans across montana that the transition Assistance Program is not adequate and more focused on checking a box than helping soon to be veterans find meaningful employment. I appreciate the committees focus on improving the transition Assistance Program. So that actually translates into material progress for, for our veterans. In your testimony, you mentioned that the home depot military Fellowship Program, this is an innovative 12 Week Cohort Program that provides transition assistance where each fellow has a host team and veteran mentor. Can you talk more about the successes of that program . Sure, id love to do that. Um yeah, so we have a skill Bridge Program. We also partner with hiring our heroes. Weve had over 150, and 100 of those in the last year. So its a Building Program and theyre in areas um corporate such as project managers, analytics, logistics to and acquisition. Hr we have them in it. And so cyber developers, tech, even tech support for junior enlisted, and then we have them in retail out in our stores and in our supply chain for supervisor level experience. And so when we bring them into our 11 week program, they get one on one coaching someone from our military Relations Team meets with them on a weekly basis. And so it, i feel its really important we were talking about, um, what can you do . Left of transition, but right of transition, driving the camaraderie, they, veterans come from a place where they, theyre, theyre surrounded by people that, you know, are service minded and have been through a lot of the same things they are and then theyre thrown into a civilian population that doesnt understand them anymore. And so when we take these fellows and then pair them with other veterans at the home depot for their 11 week program, they get the taste of what it means to work right of transition and what it means to wear business, casual clothes or how you can take your lunch whenever you want to. Like, its the very simple things and we giggle, but its true that thats the stuff that they dont understand and dont know who to ask. So that Fellowship Program has been great for giving them a taste of what civilian work looks like. And then over 80 of them have come to work for us. So it, it works really well as a, as a trainer for us and also for the transitioning service. Very good. Very good. Yeah, theyre not used to that because theyre accustomed to having mister van norden barking at them to make sure they get their daily tasks done. Uh, uh, you also spoke about the home depot Military Spouse job transfer program. We spoke about it a little bit earlier, uh, that it guarantees the existing employee at a new store, uh, to must move to, for, to accommodate the spouses orders. So i, i really like that a lot. Uh, approximately how many spouses have benefited from this program . That is a great question. And i unfortunately dont have an answer because theyre transferring across lines and managed by the team that has them to the team that takes them. And so we ask them to let us know, but they typically dont, we have a challenge. We track Military Spouses in work day, which is our hr system, but some similar to what veterans do, sometimes they dont want to self disclose because they think it could impact their career, their potential for being promoted if somebody knows they might leave in a couple of years. So we dont even have, even though we try to track it, we dont have great data on Military Spouses or when they move, we know its working. I have lots of stories. We get great anecdotes from the field, but i cant give you a stat for how many. So if youre not able to track that, then my, my follow up to that was going to be, are you tracking the spouses that move to another location . If, if theyre taking advantage of the program and if theyre not, ok, so they start off at x store and then, you know, move to another. If youre, if youre not tracking that, then youre also not able to track why theyre not taking advantage of it. If in fact, they do not when they go to the other store or are they taking advantage of that . I think a lot of it happens because our home depot has a culture of doing the right thing. So i think quite honestly without a policy, our our stores just because of our culture would already be doing that. So we only hear about it when it goes wrong. And quite frankly, i dont think ive had a time when weve had it go wrong. Um we did want to formalize the policy so that its on paper and we have a process that they can follow, especially if theyre going somewhere where theres not a base. Theyre going somewhere where a position doesnt exist. We have, we have different processes to kind of follow when that happens. Um but i will also mention its not just for, for the people that are out in the field. We also have things like our Customer Care call centers. So thats a remote job. We have 5000 remote jobs. So we work to place them in. We have um apprenticeships and things like that within some of the remote jobs as well. Thank you. Thank you, mr sheriff. Yield back. Thank you so much, mr chair for holding this hearing today ensuring that we can connect our veterans to Economic Opportunities and also examine any of the blockades. My first question is to , thank you for your service. Your testimony mentioned that most military members begin to search for employment after leaving the services, forcing many of them to rely upon unemployment compensation. Many would spend months if not years trying to find the right career. The total amount of ucx compensation dropped from 966 million in 2011 to 111 million in 2022 finding gainful employment before the Service Member transitions out the military saves money. Can you describe what steps were taken between 2011 and 2022 to achieve these savings . Thank you madam congresswoman for this question. It was a whole of the private and Public Sector working together to find Meaningful Solutions and making veterans a top priority. Uh and a lot of that uh was really in the initial years, was focused on triage and helping unemployed veterans. And as we started to really uh do better with unemployed veterans, really thinking strategically about how we help uh transitioning service left of their transition to think about Career Opportunities to connect with military ready companies, to receive the right training to leverage skill bridge. And so, and, and then the whole of government policy um there, there is, was really, i wouldnt say one thing that really caused the needle to move so much. It was the realization that we all had to Work Together to make the needle move and thats what we did. Thank you. My next question is from mr mccoy. Im happy that you brought up skill bridge. Um thank you for your service and for being here today. Your testimony mentions that verizon and the department of defense skill bridge where you provided separate military personnel with civilian Work Experience through internships and training during their last 180 days of service. Can you talk about how many veterans take advantage of skill bridge through verizon . Yes, thank you for the question. Uh we get a lot of interest. Uh the work that mr jones did uh to establish the Verizon Program for the last 10 years has, has been well known and well recognized. And so we get a lot of interest. We require that the business have some type of head count to be able to host and to hire them at the end of this so that there is a successful work opportunity at the end of that training. And so weve been able to host 215 Service Members and Military Spouses through our program, hiring 183 of those individuals. And now, do you have a breakdown of the veterans who use gil Bridge Program by racial, ethnic or even um Sexual Orientation demographics . We have some of those. Would we be able to get a copy of that just to make sure everyone is taking advantage of this program . Yes. Thank you so much. And then mr mccoy, prior to coming to congress, i was ceo of a company that recruit and retain top talent. Um was always our focus. How, how has verizon worked to recruit and retain veterans . Uh thank you for the question. We work really hard to make sure we encourage first self self identification because if we dont know youre there, uh we cant include you in messaging. Theres lots of opportunities. I was able to give out 100 and 48 tickets to nfl salute to Service Games or opportunities to unfurl the flag at stadiums. I was able to invite Service Members across new york city and san diego to participate in parades. Um while those are the really fun ones, were also there to reach out to and connect. If you dont have your military badge on your profile, you maybe dont know that that person has some shared experiences. Its building that camaraderie, you know, we, weve all talked about that, that shared sense of Service Brings us all together the experiences that weve had and we make sure that we do that we recruit them to self identify and then we encourage them to self identify once they become an employee to help them be retained and engaged. This is a general question. Its my last, what could, what could congress do to help you retain and identify more talented veterans . Its for anybody. Well, the, the tap program would help us recruit more, uh, expanding the impact, the ability to add virtual connections. We talked about junior Service Members moving from one side of the country to the other right now, if you dont physically have a presence there to show up to attend those tap events, they might not know about the verizon opportunities in california as they move from uh the east coast to the west coast or vice versa, we wanna be where we can be as many places as we can. Um but virtualizing some of those opportunities would help us deliver our information and share those opportunities more broadly. Uh because as weve all alluded to, they are an elusive creature that veteran. And ill just second what he said because having a consolidated resource to be able to talk to people because were a small team like military relations at the home depot, were small but mighty, but we cant be everywhere. So when theres local bases doing local things, we cant always make it there. So having some way to in, in central to be able to talk to people separating would be fantastic. Thank you, mr chairman. I yield back. You are recognized. Uh thank you mr chairman. Um i hope im not very plowing old ground now that were back to regular legislative business. We do have to juggle committees. Um but i do wanna explore your access to bases that i heard in your opening remarks. The 180 days under skill bridge, how many of your applicants actually get the 180 days . What percentage, any idea . And well just go down the line. Uh thank you, mr congressman and all the way um airborne. Uh so i think i would say that they enter in 180 days, but we probably dont get them for about, we probably only get them for about 90 of those days uh due to the limitations that we have from, from the Fellowship Program. From the skill standpoint. I think theres a little bit more flexibility there. Um well, when you start working about skill bridges, now its a command to uh to, to Organization Relationship that you have to work with. And so i think thats where the, the opportunity is. Um what has benefited us from the Fellowship Program is that its housed in a relationship. A memorandum of agreement is housed at, at hoh. And so we dont have to work with that individual chain of command on that. So i think theres an opportunity there, but i dont think um id say probably about 90 of them are not maximizing the 180 days. And thats because of their command. I would, i would say theyre limited to that or theyre unaware of the skill Bridge Program or the Fellowship Program to be frankly. Ok. Thank you, mr mccoy. Thank you for the question. We also dont see Service Members taking 180 days. It is one of the things that we look at is we try to put them in on the back end so that we can hire them immediately. So theres not a gap. We take advantage of 90. Ill reiterate what my partner at walmart said it. I think the bigger problem is being aware of the program and then getting approval on the front end to participate in the program. Generally, once they make it to us and there are a couple of weeks in, weve had a couple get pulled back, but theyre pretty committed at that point. The bigger problem is, is especially in the junior enlisted ranks, getting the approval to participate upfront. So you see, you see an obstacle in the approval process . Correct. I yield back. Thank you, mr chairman. Thank you guys all so much for being here. Really appreciate the, the work you are doing to highlight the importance of veterans coming back in and having jobs in our community. So, um im excited at this hearing. I wanna highlight the need to have our veterans come home to jobs with dignity and good pay. Uh and so while were talking about that though, lets lets talk about our veterans. And specifically right now, we know that almost half a million vets pay more than 50 of their income for rent. There is still food insecurity. Thats a major problem. Uh the department of labor just released in their october jobs report that 8. 4 million million workers are working multiple jobs now. Uh so when we look at our vets, we know that our vets dont just deserve jobs, they deserve careers. Were talking dignified, good paying Work Opportunities for growth. Um, so i wanna drill into this a little bit when we talk about the jobs veterans are getting. Um, mr jones, i know well, well start with you. Walmart has done an amazing job. 530,000 veterans hired over the last decade. Uh, that includes Military Spouses. I mean, that, thats a, thats a huge number. My brother is still active duty right now. So i can tell you grateful to the commitment to hiring veterans. But id like to get a better sense of what that number means in reality. So lets say youre a recently separated junior nco, whats the starting salary . Are they earning minimum wage just above it . What kind of job is that person getting at walmart . Mister congressman. Thank you very much. Great question. I think its a diversity. We dont limit where your entry point is. Our goal is to meet that person where they are in their transition. And if that means right now thats working in our store as a cashier because it, thats whats right for their career. And we give them experience to our, our live better you to educate an upscale. Then we want to make sure that theyre gainfully employed and that they have income coming in. Thats the first and prominent. We dont want them unemployed. Second, we found that they advanced very quickly through the ranks. And so were not limited to front line workers. We have personnel through our entire organization. We are a self sustaining organization just like the military. And so giving them that exposure to understand where they can be or where theyre at um, is something that we really take pride in focusing on. So there is no limitation to where they start in the company. We hope that theyre working in jobs that are equivalent to what theyve worked in. But we know that not all skills, hard skills were transferred, but soft skills definitely will. Yeah, absolutely. And getting into that just a little bit more you mentioned lbu, which i, i wanna ask about because we talk about this idea of jobs versus careers. We know that walmart has promoted 63,000 of that 530,000 number that includes veterans. It also includes Military Spouses as weve talked about. So i dont have a breakout of that, but thats about 12 of those veterans have received promotions. Um how many are taking advantage of lbu and the programs that youre working on. Uh, what does that potential for promotion look like . I dont, i dont have the exact number, sir. Uh i will tell you that early on as soon as theyre on board it, that is the first thing that theyre eligible for. So, from day one, theyre eligible for, you know, Tuition Assistance for free from lbu. Uh so i dont have that number if i can follow up with that number. Um but theyre eligible and we over communicate that through our performance agreements. Um all throughout the year, every time theres an opportunity to talk about how to, to uh career, career progress. Um thats an opportunity to speak about that. I appreciate that because one of things were looking at here is how can we help, right . How can we help in this . Um and we look at apprenticeships when we look at on the job training, we know that dol vets program uh connects vets with apprenticeship programs um that programs led to good outcomes. But last week, we had a subcomittee hearing where we noted that less than 2 of post 911 uh gi bill recipients use that on the job training firm. I was wondering if you were having more success with that, which is why i was asking about lbu in there. Um just a little bit of time left. So ill go to mr eversole. Um i do believe in the apprenticeship model. I do want our veterans to have good jobs, good paying careers that they can get into when they leave. Um what more can be done to increase the involvement of veterans in registered apprenticeships . What can employers do and what can we do in congress . And you get the last thing . Thank you, sir for that question. Apprenticeships are critically important for our Service Members. Much like skill bridge. We have to do a better job of communicating those opportunities beforehand and leveraging things like skill bridge as a pre apprenticeship that then transition into a fulltime apprenticeship. So this is a function of communication and the department of labor. This is an area where the apprenticeships have grown significantly and and benefited our veterans and their families. Incredibly. Thank you guys for what you do. Representative van orten. Thank you, mister chairman. I, although i am not a purple heart recipient, i want you to take this back to your bosses and say thank you for having purple heart specific Parking Spaces in front of your stores. I mean, i know that just seems like its nothing but uh to me that is an incredibly powerful gesture. So thank you for that. Um mister rosendale was referring to me yelling at people and its part of my nature as a senior enlisted guy First Sergeant. You know what im talking about . Could you give me anybody here a list of specific bases that are not allowing you access. And the reason i ask this is because i learned in the military when a letter shows up from a congressional office, which it will to the base commander if theyre not allowing you access, i would like specifics. I know we speak in generalities lots of times, but we will type that letter up and i will get an answer immediately because that is wholly unacceptable. Captain. What has your experience been with you all vets and their disabled veteran Outreach Program offices . Thank you for that question, sir. I do not have any specific knowledge of their, the department of labors vets, disabled outreach effort. So im not respectfully declined to do that, but i am on the in full disclosure on the federal Advisory Committee for the department of labor vets. I know that from the department of labor and that committees perspective, making sure that our disabled vets have the right resources and tools to be successful is a top priority. And, and certainly something that we as a federal Advisory Committee talk about all the time. Ok. Thank you. First. My bad, sir. I think, i think one of the the biggest opportunities is working with the devops and levers in each of the career onest stop offices. So as a best practice, those are some of the things that we, we train our recruiters on in working out when we do outreach. And so youre intimately familiar with these programs. Yes, sir. And how often do you use them . And how many, what your throughput. In my current role im new to walmart. Ive been here for about 70 days, but in my previous work, id say on average, we would outreach to them once a month, just Ongoing Communications about opportunities that are available in those communities. And i think um instead of looking at it from a national level, i mean, really focusing at the county level is really important because they have a good understanding of the skills of those personnel, what their needs and resources are. Um and so if they have a disability, uh we can work directly with them ahead of time being hired to work with our accommodations team to identify those things. Thank you for the question. Thank you for your service. Uh tommy was my boss. So he trained me on how to, how to do this. So we, we still do that. We set up regularly. Is, is someone pinging for a submarine back there . Yeah. Ok. Thanks. We reach out to them based on the geographic location like you mentioned, we, we make sure that we empower the nonmilitary recruiting team to understand what do these organizations do . What are these opportunities to engage with them . Uh we host information sessions with them and were regularly outreach and, and try to get as many veterans to apply as we can. Very well. And then i have a minute 30 left, maam. Are you familiar with these guys . Im not eminently familiar with those programs. I would say that we treat our disabled veterans the way we treat all of our disabledociates. We have processes to make sure we do the right thing for them. As a company, we do focus on disabled veterans and helping them through the Foundation Investment i mentioned earlier of 500,000 million to veterans causes. One of the things that we do is help um critically wounded veterans have Living Spaces that work for them. Theres an example in the testimony that i have on file um with groups like gary sice foundation and groups like that, we outfit their homes to make sure that they have the, the appropriate Living Spaces. Well, im just going to take a couple of seconds to thank you all very much. I am the chairman of the subcomittee responsible for the transition Assistance Program. Mr levin, who had to go to another Committee Hearing is the Ranking Member and i want you to know were working very, very hard and we put, we put our veterans first. So if theres anything, you dont have to wait for a congressional hearing, if you guys have any ideas how to make this transition period more useful, id like you to reach out directly to my office because as we know that 24 month window from the time you take off your, your uniform is one. Unfortunately, a lot of our veterans commit suicide because you lose your rank and your status in your uniform and twice the husband, half the paycheck, that sort of stuff. So please feel free to reach out directly to me at any point that you, you know what im talking about and just god bless you and your families and your work. Thank you so much, mister chairman, i yield back. Mister mivan, youre recognized. I just wanted to take a moment, i realize its about employment. But with home depot, i was a local elected official, worked with a jim chancellor whos an ad advocate for veterans and home depot on two occasions, uh donated goods for it, for a roof and then their employees came out and did the roof and then for another home for transition for homeless veterans, they supplied all the goods in the windows. So i thank you and im not picking and choosing winners, but im giving you personal experience on the overreaching value of your organizations, with veterans and their families. And that being said, the period of transitioning out of the military is an extremely stressful time. Service members are balancing their responsibilities to military while figuring out where they are going to live, find a job or enroll in school, the bare minimum our military services should provide is a comprehensive readout of the skills and experiences of Service Member and how these skills and experiences qualify the individual for certain jobs in the civilian workplace. However, this is not the case and only the most basic summary of services is provided in the effort to facilitate a smoother transition of military personnel and civilian employment. What specific measures or initiatives do you believe employers can recommend to the military that would help improve the process of transitioning or translating military skills and experiences into valuable assets into the civilian job market . Thank you for the question and thank you for your work in this space. One of the things that we see in the civilian side is certifications. The the military is a heavy training organization, but we do not provide certifications for the skills and experiences that you learn. Youre not getting an isc squared cissp certification for going to a communications school, implementing some of the rigors of civilian certification processes could help with that transition because you understand your skills and experience that transition directly into requirements that are written, written in job descriptions that would help it could be portable across state lines and it could be easily implemented. I would just add uh you know, we understand the importance of that at walmart. Our, our foundation has has focused on creating transition tools or focusing on skills with some of our nonprofits to help that, help with that translation of skills and identifying those areas. Um and, and allowing them to be available to them so they understand where they are fit. Um so working through uh the Manufacturing Institute or with higher heroes, uh to create a taxonomy of where those they can map into jobs directly from their military transcripts into walmart is what were really focusing on and thats underway right now. Ok. Um i guess just to take it one step farther, where, how are you communicating with the dod to make sure that that is a, those skill sets are um being uh administered on their end prior to . Uh so its a public partnership. Were working with mill gears and cos uh through that communication. So as theyre starting to identify and, and need their uh their transcript, their military transcripts, thats where they can do it. Um we also sit on board with the department of labor and chamber of commerce to communicate what were working on with that. And thats really how the message is getting out, sir. Ok. Thank you, mr chairman and thank you to our witnesses for coming before the committee to testify. Companies across the United States are working hard to support our brave men and women who have served our country and protected our freedoms. Um before we reschedule this hearing, uh my constituent lauren dougy, uh who is a Small Business owner in tucson, arizona was set to participate in this hearing. Uh i wanna take a moment to thank her for her willingness to participate in the legislative process and for her hard work and dedication serving our nation. Uh, lauren, uh now owns and runs a Small Business, cracked armor roasting company while attending school and also raising a family. Now, mr jones, the Walmart Foundation is something this Committee Sees as a unique program to help Small Businesses like uh lawrence around the country grow. What impact has the foundation had on veteran owned Small Businesses . Thank you, mr congressman. Uh so, uh obviously we have our open call. You all are familiar with that. Um and a part of that commitment, we, we committed to spend 350 billion over the over 10 years in items made and assembled in the United States. Um and we really because on veteran owned business as well. So we just had that last, last week where we had our open open call. Um one of those businesses is grind oral care sells us, made toothpaste. Uh but its a veteran owned business. Uh they came to our open call and they received the, the, the golden ticket, uh and were continuing to do that. So in the future, um we look to work with the ivmf um to, to focus on what are the areas of opportunity for veteran entrepreneurs um that needed help and where are they lacking resources. And so were going to come together and formulate a panel in conjunction with uh the, the certified veteran owned Business Coalition um to, to work on that, sir. Thats great. Let, let us know if theres anything we can do to help on that as well. I think thats a great effort, uh very interested in, in helping out in whatever way we can. You know, my district in cd six in arizona and southeastern corner of arizona, uh its, its home to about 70,000 veterans, a little over 70,000 veterans. So, uh all these things are, are highly important with our veterans. Also come their families and those that are in service now, but also our veterans. So they, they deserve all the support and resources the government can provide is a transition from service life to civilian life. Uh but we cannot this alone and that is why the work our businesses are doing to support and attract veterans and their families also is so important. So to all the witnesses, could you please speak briefly to the initiatives and programs your organizations provide for Service Members, spouses and families as well and what opportunities do they have and what benefits are they provided as well . Ill start on this one. So i talked previously a lot about the Military Spouse transfer program and how we have remote work capabilities for the Military Spouse career. So i will set that aside, but we also try to make sure that we take care of the whole family. So when you move a long way, you arrive somewhere new and you need childcare. And so we have resources to help you find local childcare, you need new doctors. So we have resources that help you find new doctors in your area, you probably are stressed out. So we have 24 7 counseling available for you. So its also the softer side. Its not just the career, but the softer side of what comes along with the move and the stress of a deployment. And then we also have guides and things that when a Service Member deploys that works for the home depot or as a guardsman who takes time away, we have guides, it tells the stores or their, their managers what to do during that time. So at 60 days, you should send a letter, at six months, you need to check in on the family at holidays. Be sure you reach out, which sounds so simple. But when youre busy and youre a leader in a store, youre not thinking about what you can do to help those families. So guides like that, that are so simple can be so impactful to make sure were taking care of the whole family. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Uh we do a lot of the similar things. Were, were working with our team members to make sure that we know, hey, when somebody goes out, we, we reach out to them, we send them care packages, we send them letters. Uh, we do a lot of, of letter writing across our entire organization to make sure that the deployed Service Member, as well as the spouse and the family left home are engaged and retained and, and, and just part of the community that is verizons family. So we do a lot of that work. We also have portability of careers. We also help with uh transitioning across different career areas with upskilling through our transition, assist our tuition Assistance Program, but also our internal certification programs. All the same. The only thing you add on and i know these organizations do the same as our associate Resource Group or Employee Resource Group engagement. And then during the onboarding process, making them aware of whats available to them from a benefit standpoint. And so we do a really good job of that and then just following up through our Employee Resource Groups or associate Resource Groups as companies. I think thats the biggest thing. Thank you. Uh were focused on employment. We have to add the 21 unemployment that Military Spouses are facing uh and really help the families have the income they need to be successful. Excellent. Thank you. And now i recognize the gentlewoman from the other part of illinois. Representative ramirez. I also echo uh my colleagues uh sentiments. Thank every witness thats here today. We know that high quality good paying jobs, provide veterans access to safe and stable housing. Right now our nation is facing a housing crisis, in my city of chicago, the part of the state im in um rent has gone up by 5. 7 in certain parts of the city. Uh, some communities are reporting that, uh, veterans and others are having to now pay, um, sometimes even 30 more when theyre having to renew their lease. And instead of passing critical legislation to fully fund and meet our Nations Housing needs today, when we go into the chamber, were gonna be voting on appropriations bill that will cripple Vital Housing efforts by cutting billions from federal programs for rental assistance and the construction of new Affordable Housing units. I think its imperative that we continue to prioritize housing as a human, right, including for our veterans. And i know we may not be able to fix the housing crisis today and certainly in this hearing now, but i know we can take one important step by ensuring that veterans have jobs with living wages that allow them to stay afloat with a safe proof over their heads. So just talking a little bit more about housing, um, this is a question for ms eisen and i guess also for, uh, verizon and walmart. Uh, do you hire veterans that are experiencing homelessness . Of course, we dont, we dont distinguish based on where you live . Great. And do you keep track . Yeah. Go ahead. Yes or no. Yes. Yes. And i assume you work with them, of course. And so what would you say . Do you keep track of how many, uh, veterans who you are hiring are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness . Um, we have enough trouble even tracking who the veterans are. They dont want to tell us. So i would imagine getting a veteran to tell us that theyre also homeless would, would be a very difficult thing, i will say at the home depot, we have whats called the homer fund. And it is our employeeistance program. Its our internal charity that is funded by our associates for our associates that helps people just like the situation youre talking about when they get down on hard times, somebody gets sick, somebody passes away this, um, organization steps in to help, help with that. So it would certainly be the case now that the persons working for us if we realize that they were down on their luck in that way. And so at orientation, is there an opportunity for employees to know about these programs . Should they need them . Ok, great. So i want to now talk a little bit about diversity. Um, and certainly the diversity that exists within our veteran community in this committee. One of my priorities has been amplifying and advocating for women, veterans, disabled veterans. Weve been talking about today and veterans of color, uh i know that they are a critical part of the veteran community and often they go unrecognized. So this is a question. Uh yes or no. I think across the board for all of you, do you have programs that are tailored specifically to Women Veterans, disabled veterans or people of color . And ill start with you. Yes. Thank you. No. Ok. And if, and let me ask a follow up question, do your organizations keep track of demographic information included but not limited to gender and race of the veterans utilizing your programs . Yes. [indiscernible] what . Yes. Yes. And our fellowship is 72 diverse. And our fellowship is 72 diverse. So numbers and data can shed light on who is, who is being unintentionally left out or who can be better served. So when organizations produce their esg or their diversity equity and inclusion reports, it is vital that veterans are included in all that data and id be interested in hearing this could be an answer from any of you, particularly those with uh specialized programs. What are some of the greatest needs youre hearing from some of these communities . Either of you can answer what we have left. I think one of the biggest things that we see, everybody keeps saying this is self identification. Uh, we see Women Veterans are one of the least likely groups to self identify. Uh, theres a variety of Different Reasons that go behind that but making sure that they understand that its a safe opportunity for them that theyre not going to be, um, put in a position where, hey, you have to self identify or you dont have to self identify. Its 100 of choice. And so we want to make sure that the opportunities that we create for female veterans are, are unique and they are specialized to them. Sorry. Uh did anyone else want to answer . Ok, i would, i would just emphasize, i think its really important as we hear from a lot of our veterans who wont self identify who. Of course, its the same we see even in school and trying to get that of how many families are experiencing homelessness that we have different efforts and resources to help identify those needs because youre gonna see that impact in the workforce. Youre going to see that in their performance and, and certainly, uh for are veterans who have other things that are happening. Its important to be able to tailor programming and provide that outreach. So i would love to it, particular programs that you have, you can send the information over, it would be really helpful. Um i had just one last question and this just goes following up on the tap program. I heard you saying, virtualizing the program, is there anything else you think that we could be doing to make the tap program more effective centralizing points of contact . Got it. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back. And this panel we want to say thank you for being here today. I think there was a great amount of information that was given to us. We appreciate that and we let this panel be dismissed and well set up for the next panel. Thank you all. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]