Written by Lynn Goya,

Veterans are preparing for a week-long surge on Capitol Hill to better inform legislators on how proposed legislation can affect those who served.  Storm the Hill, beginning today , is a project of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), a non-partisan group that advocates for veterans issues.  From March 28 through April 1, the group will bring two dozen veterans from their team from across the country to personally meet with more than 100 Congressional offices to promoter veterans issues.  (Click here to watch IAVA’s 2010 testimony.)

IAVA has been successful in the past in advocating for veterans benefits including the “incredible progress” veterans made during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress.  In those weeks between the 2010 election and the installation of the 112th Congress, veterans won several key votes including upgrading the GI Bill, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), overhauling oversight of burials at Arlington  National Cemetery and passing the Defense Bill (NDAA).  Those legislative victories allowed 85,000 full time National Guardsmen who were formerly excluded to participate in the New GI Bill; 58,000 students to receive tuition benefits for private and graduate schools; 21,000 disabled veterans to receive an additional allowance for vocational rehabilitation and 6,000 schools to get financial help to allow them to process veterans’ educational benefits.  In addition, veterans received greater job protection, saw increases in the number of mental health care providers available through TRICARE and increased efforts to screen for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST).

This year IAVA’s highest legislative priority is getting veterans back to work.  January unemployment for veterans spiked at a numbing 15.2 percent  as the national unemployment rate peaked at 9.0 percent.  IAVA estimates that approximately 278,000 new veterans were looking for work in January as part of a three year trend in rising unemployment numbers for those returning from war.  By contrast, in 2008, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were still unemployed at rates above the civilian population, but at the 7.3 percent looks like paradise in contrast to today’s rates.

February saw its best jobs creation numbers in months, helping the overall unemployment rate drop below 9 percent for the first time in two years and helping veterans unemployment drop to 12.5 percent.  While better, that still left 239,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans pounding the street for work.