Vallejo Times-Herald – Reps. Thompson and Young announce year 2 of Vets Congressional Fellowship Caucus

U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA-5) and Don Young (R-AK-AL) think there should be more veterans working on Capitol Hill, so this week they announced the bipartisan Veterans Congressional Fellowship Caucus is accepting applications for 2015 fellows.

Both veterans, Thompson (U.S. Army 1967-1973) and Young (U.S. Army 1955-1957) last year launched the caucus fellowship program.

"Every office on Capitol Hill would be lucky have a fellow from this program," Thompson said in a statement. "Our veterans are some the most skilled workers our country has to offer. As a veteran, I understand we have a responsibility to help those who've served our nation find a job when they return home. This fellowship program helps us to fulfill that responsibility by increasing the number of veterans working on Capitol Hill and providing our heroes with new skills to help them excel in the civilian workforce."

"The Veteran Fellowship Caucus is a powerful resource for both members of Congress and our veterans," Young added. "Congress significantly benefits from the knowledge and expertise of these battle tested individuals, while our veterans learn the skills necessary to excel on Capitol Hill. I have personally benefitted from hiring veterans and would encourage all my colleagues to do the same. My goal is to change the attitudes of Congress, which has in recent years forgotten about the commitment our nation made to our veterans."

It is estimated that fewer than 180 veterans, out of more than 6,000 employees, are working in personal offices on Capitol Hill, the statement says. To increase this number, the bipartisan Veterans Congressional Fellowship Caucus created a fellowship program to provide them with the resources and skills necessary to bridge the gap between military service and legislative work, according to the statement.

Interested veterans can apply for the program at mikethompson.house.gov/constituent-services/veterans-fellowship-program.

Veteran fellows will be placed in participating offices, will take part in an educational curriculum to learn the legislative process and how to assist constituents dealing with federal agencies and will be provided a certificate at the end of their fellowship highlighting their completion of the program.