Veteran Resources
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Overview

The Biden Administration proposed plans for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill that that would be larger than anything ever seen in this country.  This plan is expected to trigger a jolt into the country's economy after several quarters of challenging economic growth... to say the least!  From our perspective at GoVets, this also represents an opportunity for American to help out our veteran community.  

One of the primary ways that Americans will be paying for this plan is by an increase in the Corporate Tax Rate from 21% to 28%.  The plan is expected to be spent over the next 8 years, but would be paid by tax increase from the next 15 years.  The following list summarizes how this $2 trillion plan is broken down by key area, along with the percentage allocated for the given area (e.g. 9% of 2 trillion for electrical vehicles represents approximately 180 million).  

  • Key areas: 
    • Home/Community Care (~20%)
    • Affordable housing (~11%)
    • Electric vehicles (~9%)
    • Roads and bridges (~6%)
    • High-speed broadband (~5%)
    • School construction (~5%)
    • Power grid/clean energy (~5%)
    • Public transit (~4%)
    • Railways (~4%)
    • Road Safety  (~1%)
    • Infrastructure resilience (~2%)
    • Airports (~1%)
    • Waterways and ports of entry (~1%)
    • Reconnect urban neighborhoods cut off by highways (~1%)
    • Removal of lead pipes (~2%)
    • Modernizing water systems (~3%)
    • Jobs related to oil and gas wells and restoring abandoned mines (~1%)
    • Civilian climate corps (~0.5%) 
    • Community colleges (~1%)
    • Child care facilities (~2.3%)
    • VA hospitals (~1%)
    • Federal buildings (~0.5%)
    • Research and Development, National Science Foundation, and Technology Breakthroughs (~9%)
    • Semiconductor research and manufacturing, pandemic preparedness, and domestic manufacturers (~15%)
    • Workforce development programs (~5%)
  • Additional details about the plan are provided on WH.Gov FACT SHEET: The American Jobs Plan

Veteran Resources for Government Buyers, Enterprise Buyers, Hiring Managers and Patriotic Citizens: 

Given the struggles of so many veterans and veteran businesses during the past year, we urge Government buyers, businesses and patriotic consumers to continue to help support veteran businesses and hire veterans.  This infrastructure plan would be a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity for many of us to say thank you to our great veterans for their service.  There are so many ways that you can incorporate veterans and veteran businesses in your plans.  Here are a few reminders and helpful links on how to show your support for our veterans!

Direct Hire / Contract: Hire Veterans and Veteran-Owned Businesses

The following resources provide ideas on how to directly contact and research veteran businesses and/or hire veterans to be part of your infrastructure plans.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) - Vendor Information Pages

Veteran Business must go through a rigorous approval and verification process to become a VA-verified Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) or VA-verified Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).  Buyers can search HERE for specific businesses or even businesses that meet specific criterion (NAICS codes, DBA, Keywords, Geographic location, etc).   For example, GoVets is the DBA for Veratics, Inc, and GoVets' page can be found HERE.  Currently, there are 14,457 Veteran owned businesses registered with the VA, including 11,355 SDVOSBs and 3,102 VOSBs.  These wonderful businesses can support every aspect of Biden's infrastructure plan.  

 

Buy Veteran

BuyVeteran indicates that they are your one-stop shop to find Veteran-Owned Businesses in your area.  They offer a directory of members (3319 members) to find and support Veteran-Owned Businesses across the country!

 

Veteran Owned Business

The Veteran Owned Business directory is a great resource that includes over 35,000 members across the country.  This site has many visitors and continues to grow and become a reliable resource for our veteran businesses.  This site also offers many other valuable resources to access Veterans, including the ability to post jobs for Veterans, Veteran related events, and directories for different categories of veteran businesses, such as SDVOSB directory, NAICS Code directory, State directory, etc.  

 

Hire Veterans.com

Hire Veterans is one of the largest veteran-focused job sites out there.  They currently have 65,000 jobs available for Veterans.  

 

MilitaryHire.com

Military Hire was founded by Franserve and Amentum - Their mission is to connect veterans and military spouses with employers who value their character, skills, and service.

 

Indirect Opportunities to Support Veterans or Veteran-Owned Businesses

When it's not practical to work directly with a veteran-owned business or hire a veteran, there are many other opportunities to support veteran businesses, including, but not limited to the following: 

 

Work with Larger Companies that have a strong mission to support Veterans

According to a 2019 CNBC report, the following companies are considered to be some of the best companies for Veterans to work for: 

  • Capital One
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Microsoft
  • Northrop Grummon
  • Raytheon

Honorable mention: Amazon also has a strong mission to support veterans and support great storefront training programs for aspiring veteran business owners and hiring programs (20,000+ jobs available) for veterans.

When working with these and other companies, it is not uncommon to include contract clauses that require a certain percentage of purchases to include a Veteran Owned Business or to require a certain percentage of the company or given program include Veterans or Service-Disabled Veterans.  

Contribute Proceeds to Veteran Non-Profit Causes that support efforts to Help Veterans Find Jobs

There are so many amazing non-profits out there that help Veterans in so many ways.  This list is merely a subset of Non-Profits that help Veterans transition to civilian life and find employment.  

 

Purchase Products from Veteran-Owned Businesses

Thousands of Veteran-owned businesses are manufacturers, distributors and/or resellers and sell their products on several sites and/or directories including:

 

Summary

Given the upcoming capital injection into our economy, there are tremendous opportunities for government buyers, business owners, hiring managers and more to help support Veterans and Veteran-Owned businesses.  This blog post is just intended to help  provide our buyers some ideas on how they can support Veterans.  There are so many other great businesses, sites, and non-profits out there, so please do your research and make sure to work with a company that aligns closely with your values and goals.