Summary: The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1997 (S. 1021) would provide that consideration may not be denied to veterans who are eligible for preference when applying for jobs in the federal government. By law, federal agencies are to give preferential hiring consideration to veterans and others as a measure of national gratitude and compensation for their military service. GAO testified that preference-eligible veterans remain a larger portion of the federal workforce than veterans overall in the general civilian workforce. In those job applications GAO reviewed for fiscal years 1990 and 1991, agencies properly followed veterans' preference procedures in the hiring process in virtually all cases. However, selecting officials were more likely to return certificates unused if they were headed by the names of veterans than they were if veterans did not head those certificates. Finally, in the four reductions-in-force that GAO reviewed, employees who did not have veterans' preference were much more likely to lose their jobs than were their colleagues who had veterans' preference.
