Veterans' Preference Act - Preference Between The World Wars

Preference Between The World Wars

The first major expansion of Veterans' Preference benefits occurred in 1919 in the form of the Census Act. This act, amended shortly thereafter by the Deficiency Act of 1919 granted preference to all honorably discharged veterans, their widows, and the wives of injured veterans. An excerpt reads as follows:

That hereafter in making appointments to clerical and other positions in the executive branch of the Government, in the District of Columbia or elsewhere preference shall be given to honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, and marines, and widows of such, and to the wives of injured soldiers, sailors, and marines, who themselves are not qualified, but whose wives are qualified to hold such positions.

This act is significant for two reasons: it no longer emphasized a service-connected disability as the primary basis for granting veterans' preference, and it introduced the concept of spousal preference in the appointing process. This act redefined eligible veterans to mean all persons who served in an active military capacity and were honorably discharged, whether the service was in wartime or peacetime. Added were their widows and the wives of those too disabled to qualify for government employment. This act remained the basic Federal law for appointment preference until June 27, 1944, when the Veterans' Preference Act of 1944 was enacted.

Two significant modifications were made to the 1919 Act. In 1923, an Executive Order was created which added 10 points to the score of disabled veterans and added 5 points to the scores of non-disabled veterans. This was the first time the points were added to the examination scores in the appointing process. Under this Executive Order, however, veterans were no longer placed at the top of the certification lists. In 1929, another executive order restored the placement of 10 point disabled veterans to the top of certification lists.

In 1938, a Civil Service Commission rule required that the decision by an appointing official to pass over a veteran and select a non-veteran for appointment be subject to review by the commission. Language regarding the pass-over of eligible veterans existed in earlier executive orders, but these early versions only required that the CSC be notified if a pass-over occurred. The 1938 rule strengthened this requirement and marked the first time that the Commission could overturn the pass-over if it did not regard the reasons as being adequate.