- Amendment Would Aid Disabled Veterans Seeking State Civil Service Jobs -

Beacon, NY - U.S. Rep. John Hall, chairman of the House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, announced his support today for New York Proposal 1.  This amendment to the New York State Constitution would allow otherwise qualified disabled veterans who are not in actual receipt of VA disability payments to receive additional points on the New York State civil service exam. The amendment would update and streamline New York State civil service regulations and make more veterans eligible for preferences in state hiring and promotion.

"All veterans who are disabled as a result of their military service to our country deserve to have their sacrifice recognized on the state civil service exam," said Hall. "Any veteran certified disabled by the VA should be awarded this acknowledgment when they go to apply for a state public service job."

As currently written, the state constitution only allows veterans receiving disability payments from the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) to receive extra points on the civil service exam for state employment or promotion.  That leaves out those disabled veterans who are rated as disabled upon discharge from the military but who are not actually in receipt of VA disability payments. Proposition 1 would remedy this current inequity.

The proposed amendment would eliminate the requirement that a veteran who was disabled in the actual performance of duty in any war be receiving disability payments from the VA in order to qualify for additional points on a civil service examination. Instead, the proposed amendment would require only that the VA certify that the veteran’s disability exists at the time that the veteran applies for appointment or promotion, or that the service member’s disability be acknowledged at the time of discharge from the military.

"I have committed my first term in Congress to being an advocate for veterans and to streamlining the bureaucracy that deals with disabled veterans," said Hall, whose legislation to overhaul the VA's disability claims bureaucracy was signed into law Oct. 10, 2008. "Too many disabled veterans are forced to wait months, if not years to receive their federal disability payments, which is a national disgrace. We shouldn't let an outdated and poorly worded State Constitution be an obstacle to them finding employment."

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