Defense Communities 360 Headlines

Post-9/11 veterans are finding and keeping jobs in larger numbers, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans declined from 12.1 percent in 2011 to 9.9 percent in 2012, reported CNN. The unemployment rate for non-veterans last year, though, was 7.9 percent. Veterans of all generations also experienced employment gains last year. Their unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent in 2011 to 7 percent. Women veterans continue to lag behind their male counterparts, however, when it comes to finding a job. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 female veterans was 12.5 percent last year, compared to 9.5 percent for men, according to the story.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday approved a measure that would establish a five-year pilot program to expedite the disposal of the federal government’s most profitable surplus properties. H.R. 328, the Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act, would remove red tape and increase transparency by creating an online database for all property owned by the federal government …

The Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 111th Fighter Wing, located at Horsham Air Guard Station, will take on ground control for the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial system starting Oct. 1, officials announced Wednesday. The new mission for the 111th helps make up for the loss of the unit’s A-10 fighter jets, which were realigned following the 2005 round of base closures. The wing will add a total of 250 military and civilian jobs, including about 75 full-time jobs, reported the Morning Call. Sequestration could delay the new mission from going ahead, though, as the base currently has a hiring freeze, said a spokesman. The Air Guard station is located at the former Naval Air Station Willow Grove in suburban Philadelphia.

In separate remarks this week about how the military is coping with deep spending cuts, senior defense leaders said closing unneeded bases is one necessary component to putting DOD’s budget on a sustainable path. During remarks Wednesday, Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics, said the department’s inventory of installations is a fixed cost that it no longer can afford. “We didn’t get rid of nearly all of our excess capacity in the first three rounds of [BRAC], so there’s more to be done there and money to be saved …

The House is expected to approve by Thursday a fiscal 2013 continuing resolution funding the government through Sept. 30 after the Senate cleared the legislation Wednesday. Passage in the House would avert the possibility of a government shutdown after March 27, when the current continuing resolution expires. The Senate was able to move to a final vote on the stopgap spending measure after lawmakers reached agreement to consider nine additional amendments …

The Navy is still cleaning up the former Naval Air Station South Weymouth 16 years after the installation located outside of Boston closed, but officials believe the effort could be completed in about three years. So far, the Navy has spent $66 million on the effort and it estimates finishing the job will require an additional $25 million, reported the Boston Globe. While remediation could be completed in 2016, monitoring will be required at some sites for decades …

Industry needs to take the lead in reaching out to military veterans by either developing its own targeted hiring initiatives or relying on other companies’ best practices, according to a report Monster.com and Military.com released Tuesday. Private sector companies, including Boeing and J.P. Morgan, have launched veteran recruitment programs and veteran affinity groups that have successfully attracted thousands of veterans …

The Government Accountability Office is expected to review how the federal government prepared for and carried out sequestration, following a request earlier this month by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Ryan asked the congressional watchdog agency to monitor agencies’ compliance with the across-the-board spending cuts and “to review how agencies determined what constituted a ‘program, project, or activity’ for purposes of the sequester …

Defense communities generally would be better off if the Pentagon launched a base closure round sooner rather than waiting, due to the threat that the services would try to conduct a “backdoor BRAC” in the absence of a scheduled round and because of the benefits the BRAC process provides communities, Anthony Principi, chairman of the 2005 BRAC Commission, said in a recent interview. If no BRAC round is on the horizon, the services may try to trim the number of civilians or realign military personnel at some installations, as long as they don’t exceed statutory limits on such changes …

A final vote in the Senate on a fiscal 2013 continuing resolution is scheduled to take place Thursday and likely would be followed by a vote by the House, allowing Congress to avert the possibility of a government shutdown before the start of its recess. Once the Senate passes the stopgap spending measure needed to keep the government running for the last six months of the fiscal year, the House is poised to approve it as well …