[TheMMAn]

i'll go ahead and pile on here.

i work for a service-disabled vet (SF Captain injured in Fallujah in 05). Through the SBA-backed SDVOB program, we have built a nice company, working as contractors in the federal market. There are all kinds of tools for vets to help them start their own business, from business loans, government set-asides, and special bonding programs. In fact almost all construction work at the VA facilites is offered to veteran-oened, and service-disabled owned businesses, taking the place, in terms of preference, over the 8(a) minority/disadvantaged firms..

We give back by hiring and training (apprenticeship program under the IEC) vets to be electricians (which make around $40/hour on Fed contracts) as a career.

Also, about half of our work is at VA facilities, and i am around Vets pretty much every day. From a contractor standpoint, i can tell you that the VA's are flush with money. The region i work in has so many funded projects this quarter, that they have had had to outsource contracting duties to the Corps of Engineers. A lot of the renovation/expansion work we do is directly tied to programs that are being started or expanded.

I have to agree with Poly's question. What exactly do think needs to be done? My guess is that you are more concerned with politics than you are these vets.