Defense

The Senate moved forward on a veterans’ jobs bill that would hire more vets as first-responders and police officers.

The 95-1 vote to end debate on the bill came on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Veterans Jobs Corp Act would create new job-training programs to help veterans find work in targeted fields such as national park conservation, historic preservation projects, police work and firefighting, among others.

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) used the anniversary of Sept. 11 to highlight a looming security threat — a cyberattack.

Coats said Congress must act on the cybersecurity bill before it’s too late, comparing it to the intelligence breakdowns ahead of 9/11.

Two House Democrats marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States with speeches on the House floor that criticized the later decisions to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"After an original terrific response, routing the Taliban in Afghanistan, we took our eye off the ball," Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said on the House floor Tuesday morning. "We allowed Osama bin Laden almost another decade of life and mischief."

The House will vote Tuesday on a bill to revise a law that makes it a crime to lie about military awards, after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version of the law this year.

The Stolen Valor Act is slated for a suspension vote in the House as early as Tuesday, which would require a two-thirds majority to pass. It’s expected to have wide bipartisan support.

Congress already passed a Stolen Valor Act in 2006, which made it a federal crime to lie about military awards. But the Supreme Court in July found that law unconstitutional in a 6-3 decision based on First Amendment concerns.

The court’s opinion, however, left open the possibility that a revised and narrower law could be found constitutional.

The House next week will consider a bill that would replace the sequester for defense spending on the condition that Congress passes legislation that finds other ways to achieve the required deficit reduction in the Budget Control Act.

West's bill, the National Security and Job Protection Act, finds that the pending sequester would cut defense spending too far and that alternative plans need to be made to avoid these cuts.

Republican senators told Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that his department has failed to protect the voting rights of military service members.

In a letter sent by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), John Cornyn (Texas) and James Inhofe (Okla.), the lawmakers voiced their concern with the Department of Defense’s (DOD) lack of on-base voter assistance for service members and their families, which is mandated by law.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense will continue funding a veterans helpline that otherwise would have expired next month.

The national Vets4Warriors program was set to expire on Sept. 30, but the DOD has committed to continuing the program for six months while a long-term solution is worked out. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday that President Obama has been “AWOL” in trying to stop the sequestration cuts to the defense budget.

“Since the failure last fall of the Congressional ‘Super Committee’ to agree on $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, President Obama has been AWOL in trying to avert the catastrophic impacts of nearly $500 billion in across-the-board cuts in the defense budget,” said McCain and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) in a statement Monday.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) sent a letter Thursday to Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis criticizing the department’s decision to tell military contractors that they don’t need to warn employees that they could be laid off due to defense spending cuts by the federal government.

Walsh pointed out that the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires businesses employing more than 100 people to notify their workers and the state within 60 days of a company’s intent to lay off workers. As part of the sequestration package, defense cuts are set to kick in at the beginning of next year.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) called for the extension of a tax credit for hiring veterans during a visit to her home state Wednesday.

Shortly before the August recess, the Senate Finance Committee passed the Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act on a 19-5 vote. Cantwell, who serves on that committee, voted for the bill and said she hopes it passes when the Senate returns in September.