The House Veterans Affairs Committee has scheduled for next week a rare oversight hearing on veterans preference in federal employment, the sort of hearing that in the past has raised criticisms that agencies are failing to follow their obligations under the law—for example by revoking vacancy announcements when the only referred candidates are veterans.
However, concerns about over-reliance have been raised as well. For example, MSPB has questioned whether the emphasis on preference undercuts the merit principle of open competition for career civil service jobs. It also has noted a side effect, slightly reducing the percentage of women in the federal workforce since four-fifths of veterans are male.
Hiring of veterans has been a focus of both the Bush and Obama administrations. According to the latest data, released last summer and covering 2014, veterans account for 30.8 percent of the federal workforce, up from 26.3 percent in 2010. Agencies with notably high percentages of veterans in their workforces included the military services—Air Force, 56.9 percent; Army, 49.7; Navy, 42.7—as well as Transportation, 36.4 percent, the VA, 32.9, and Justice, 28.2. At the lower end were HHS, 7.2, and EPA, 8.
Of the 180,562 persons hired by the government in 2014, 599,992 had veteran status, 33.2 percent. That compares to 72,133 of the 281,651 hired in 2010, 25.6 percent.
Two laws that create special paths into federal employment, the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act and the Veterans Recruitment Act, accounted for only about 19,000 of the hires, while the separate authority for those with disabilities of 30 percent or more accounted for fewer than 2,000. Several other authorities, for relatives of current or former military personnel, made up only tiny percentages.
