Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ) recently introduced legislation to encourage the hiring of military veterans to Federal land management agencies. Cactus Politics sat down with him to discuss, and the former Navy SEAL said that as a veteran himself, helping fellow ex-soldiers "is always going to be a passion of mine."
Rep. Crane's Hire Veterans Act would address staffing problems found in the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest, and National Park Services by streamlining the hiring process and incentivizing these agencies to hire military veterans with appropriate skills. Introduced with Representative Mike Levin (D-CA), the bill has bipartisan appeal.
"It's bipartisan, which I think is good, gives it a higher chance that it will actually pass," Rep. Crane told Cactus Politics, adding the bill arose because "we have just talked to folks in the Forest Service before, and they told us that this is a problem because a lot of the bureaucratic red tape when they are looking to hire positions."
As a result, candidates will have already found a different job by the time they are reached back for the position.
Moreover, Crane compared the bill to similar policies prioritizing the hiring of veterans into law enforcement. Thus, his Hire Veterans Act is "a great win-win because we have a lot of veterans in my district looking for work and we have a lot of natural resource-type jobs that need support, and so this is kind of a way to fit that puzzle piece together."
The conversation turned into general aiding of veterans, which Crane said "is always going to be a passion of mine," recounting how many employees from his former Bottle Breacher gift company were veterans and his work in Congress.
"So regardless of where God puts me in life, it is always going to be something that is near and dear to me, just because I understand how most people do not change career paths," Crane continued, noting how many veterans have returned home from "multiple, multi-decade wars," and thus "a lot of them have a lot of issues, a lot of trauma [and] mental health issues."
In late February, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) led a coalition of Republicans in demanding veterans who served in the Panama Canal Zone receive benefits and services after toxic herbicide exposure in the area, while Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) introduced legislation giving disabled veterans free TSA PreCheck the week before.
