HIRE Vets Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act of 2017 or the HIRE Vets Act
This bill directs the Department of Labor to establish a HIRE Vets Medallion Program to solicit voluntary information from employers for purposes of recognizing through a HIRE Vets Medallion Award verified efforts by these employers to: (1) recruit, employ, and retain veterans; and (2) provide community and charitable services supporting the veteran community.
Labor shall annually: (1) solicit, verify, and review award applications from employers, (2) notify award recipients, and (3) issue awards at a time coinciding with Veterans Day.
An employer who receives an award is not eligible for an award the following year.
Labor shall establish two levels of awards for employers of 500 or more employees, to be designated the Gold HIRE Vets Medallion Award and the Platinum HIRE Vets Medallion Award. Criteria for such awards shall include the percentage of hired employees who are veterans, the percentage of veteran employees who are retained, the establishment of related veterans' assistance and training programs, the employment of dedicated human resources professionals for veterans, and income and tuition support for veterans.
Labor shall establish similar awards to recognize achievements in supporting veterans by: (1) employers with 50 or fewer employees, and (2) employers with more than 50 but fewer than 500 employees.
Labor shall establish the design of each award certificate.
A recipient may publicly display the award and award certificate through the end of the calendar year in which it is awarded. The bill prohibits an employer from publicly displaying an award as a part of any advertisement or business activity in order to convey the false impression that the employer received such award for any other year.
The bill establishes the HIRE Vets Medallion Award Fund. Labor may assess a reasonable application fee to carry out the award program and shall deposit such fees into the fund.
The bill excludes from the definition of "employer" the federal government or any state government.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on February 17, 2017. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on February 17, 2017: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced it on February 17, 2017, and 9 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 4 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 17, 2017, 3492 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3492 days ago, on February 17, 2017.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers