Closing veterans centers now is insane!

I cannot believe this one!

Lawrence center for veterans may close
Operating funds are slashed N.E. lawmakers to launch probe
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / March 5, 2008
WASHINGTON - A center in Lawrence that helps veterans start their own businesses warned yesterday that it will have to close its doors because of a lack of funds, prompting two New England lawmakers to launch a probe into the federally funded nonprofit organization that had been financing it.


The Northeast Veterans Business Resource Center has provided night classes and other training to more than 3,000 veterans since it was established in 2004, including an Internet course for members of the Massachusetts National Guard serving in Iraq.

But its funding was recently pulled by the Washington charity established and funded by Congress in 1999 to enhance business opportunities for veterans.

"I had to lay off my staff of three, and, if I don't get some funds, I won't be able to pay the rent this month," Louis J. Celli, president of the Lawrence center and a retired Army master sergeant, told the Globe yesterday.

The center, located on Merrimack Street, does not make a profit and relies on annual federal funds and donations to run its operations, which include courses in computers, resource management, writing proposals, and communication skills. It is one of three such centers across the country.

Another of the centers, which is located in St. Louis, also announced yesterday that it would have to shut down by next month, while the third center, located in Flint, Mich., has also had its operating funds slashed.

Walter G. Blackwell - president of the National Veterans Business Development Corporation, which has funded the centers in the past - said yesterday that it had received only $1.4 million of the $3.7 million it had requested from Congress for this year.

Blackwell said the corporation may also have to close down if it is unable to locate additional funding.

The prospect of losing the three centers has raised the ire of influential lawmakers who believe they provide a critical resource to thousands of veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who are seeking to become financially self-sufficient.

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, announced yesterday that the Small Business Committee, of which Kerry is the chairman, would formally investigate the organization's management.

"The Veterans Corporation was established to create a network of these centers," Kerry said in an interview. "They have by all appearances not done that."
go here for the rest

http://www.boston.com/news/local/
articles/2008/03/05/lawrence_center_for_veterans_may_close/

How could anyone in their right mind think that cutting funds to help veterans get jobs after they served this country is not worth funding? Is this more of the same they have received from this administration telling them they are not worth the money it takes to get them back on their feet after they served and are no longer "serving" the nation? What the hell kind of message do they think the veterans are getting from this kind of stunt?

Survey Shows Veterans’ Unemployment Lower Than Nonveterans

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced in May the results of the Biennial Employment Situation of Veterans survey (as of August 2005), which showed the overall veterans’ unemployment rate is lower than that of nonveterans. The veterans’ survey is published once every two years as a supplement to BLS’s monthly Current Population Survey.

“The report shows that, overall, the employment of America’s veterans is strong,” said Charles Ciccolella, assistant secretary of labor for Veterans Employment and Training. “In August 2005, the veterans’ unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, 0.8 percent lower than that of nonveterans. On an annual basis, veterans’ unemployment was 4 percent in 2005, which is 0.6 percent below that of nonveterans.”

There is one age group of veterans—20-to-24-year-olds—where the unemployment rate is higher than that of nonveterans of the same age group. In August 2005, those veterans had an unemployment rate of 18.7 percent compared with their nonveteran counterparts. For all of 2005, the annual rate was 15.6 percent for 20-to-24-year-old veterans compared with 8.7 percent for nonveterans in that age group.
The U.S. Department of Labor has undertaken initiatives to address the situation, said Ciccolella. The department conducts transition assistance employment workshops for members of the military who are scheduled for discharge in addition to other programs. For more information on all of these programs go to http://www.hirevetsfirst.gov/•
http://www.gijobs.net/magazine.cfm?id=518

From May 2007 Boston Globe

(John Kerry) The Massachusetts Democrat, who chairs the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, is scheduled to unveil the bill along with a report on the economic difficulties facing returning veterans, especially members of the Reserve and National Guard who have put their civilian jobs on hold for repeated deployments.
The study by Kerry's committee staff, based on government data, found that 11.9 percent of recently discharged veterans are unemployed, compared with 4.6 percent of nonveterans; it found that 18 percent of 18-to 24-year-old veterans are out of work, double the rate of their nonveteran counterparts. Meanwhile, an estimated 40 percent of reservists lose income when called up, while the rate is even higher, 55 percent, for reservists who are self-employed, according to the report. At the same time, the share of small-business loans going to veterans from the largest federal program has dropped from 11 percent to 9 percent since 2001.
http://boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/28/kerry_seeks_business_loans_for_veterans/

While National Guardsmen come back after being deployed again and again, what we keep forgetting is that they leave their jobs in order to go. They leave their businesses in order to serve. At a time like this when too many people are out of work, closing one of these centers is just pure evil!