§8505 Career and volunteer opportunities for veterans

Summary

Encourage federal land managers to hire veterans for jobs that involve managing recreational lands and waters. The Secretary of the Interior must set up a pilot program, working with the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to hire veterans for conservation and resource-management jobs at the Department of the Interior. The Secretary must find vacant Interior jobs that fit the pilot and, when possible, fill them using the pilot. A veteran hired in the pilot will be treated as a federal employee under 5 U.S.C. 2105. The pilot ends two years after it starts. The Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of Labor must brief the named congressional committees 60 days after January 4, 2025 with a description of how the pilot will reduce veteran unemployment and any legislative recommendations; they must brief those committees again within 1 year after the pilot starts about how it is being carried out; and within 30 days after the pilot ends they must report numbers on applicants, hires, hires who moved into full-time federal jobs, and other effectiveness data. “Appropriate congressional committees” means the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees, the House Natural Resources Committee, and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Each military department’s secretary is encouraged to let active-duty members join environmental stewardship or guided outdoor recreation programs.