Time Line of Veterans' Preference in The Federal Civil Service
- 1865: First veterans' preference (VP) in appointment law; for Union veterans separated for wounds or illnesses. Vets must have been honorably discharged and qualified for job.
- 1876: First VP in reduction in force (RIF) law
- 1919: After World War I, law grants VP to all honorably discharged veterans, their widows, and the spouses of veterans too disabled to work
- 1923: To distinguish between the preference and granted by the 1865 and 1919 laws, an Executive Order grants disabled vets 10 points and other vets 5 points, to be added to their individual numerical ratings in examinations (pt system first introduced)
- 1929: Executive Order places disabled vets at the top of examination lists of eligibles and continues 10 extra points
- 1944: Veterans' Preference Act incorporates 1865, 1876, and 1919 laws, plus Executive Orders for extra points, passover protection, and rule of three. Continues to be cornerstone of veterans' civil service legislation today (applied preference to active duty service during war, expedition, or campaign for which badge was authorized, must be separated under hon cond, rule of three)
- 1952: Amendment extended 1944 law to include active duty service from 4/28/52 - 7/1/55 Korean War
- 1966: Peacetime preference for Vietnam-era vets added active duty for >180 consecutive days between January 31, 1955 and October 10, 1976; guard and reserve service not included
- 1967: Expanded 1967 act to all vets who served on active duty for >180 days (no req to serve during war, campaign, or conflict) between January 31, 1955 and October 10, 1976 (guard and reserve service not included)
- 1968: Executive Order creates Veterans' Transitional Appointment, a new way for Vietnam-era veterans to enter Federal service without public examination. Forerunner of Veterans Readjustment Appointment (VRA)
- 1974: VRA enacted into law
- 1976: By law, veterans whose service begins after October 14, 1976 are granted preference only if they become disabled, or serve in a declared war, a campaign, or expedition. (This resulted from the end of the Vietnam War and draft and Department of Defenses desire to build a career military service.
- 1978: Civil Service reform act creates new benefits for 30 percent or more disabled veterans; special appointing authority, and extra protection in hiring and retention. Preference ends for nondisabled retired majors and above. Efforts to broaden rule of three and make exceptions to numerical ratings in examinations defeated by veterans' groups
- 1988: Law requires Dept. of Labor to report agencies' violations of veterans' preference and failure to list vacancies with State employment services to OPM for enforcement
- 1990: VRA law amended to include post-Vietnam-era veterans, but end coverage of most Vietnam-era veterans
- 1992: VRA law revised to restore eligibility to Vietnam-era veterans
- 1997: Defense Appropriations Act grants preference to gulf war veterans and certain campaign medal holders in Bosnia (included guard or reserve service if for other than training)
.
Read more about this topic: Veterans' Preference Act
Famous quotes containing the words time, line, preference, federal, civil and/or service:
“Everybody thinks that this civilization has lasted a very long time but it really does take very few grandfathers’ granddaughters to take us back to the dark ages.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“For as the interposition of a rivulet, however small, will occasion the line of the phalanx to fluctuate, so any trifling disagreement will be the cause of seditions; but they will not so soon flow from anything else as from the disagreement between virtue and vice, and next to that between poverty and riches.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“He that has his chains knocked off, and the prison doors set open to him, is perfectly at liberty, because he may either go or stay, as he best likes; though his preference be determined to stay, by the darkness of the night, or illness of the weather, or want of other lodging. He ceases not to be free, though the desire of some convenience to be had there absolutely determines his preference, and makes him stay in his prison.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans. If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge, and especially the necessary willingness on the part of the Federal Government, we would have saved a sum, a sum of money which has cost the taxpayers of America two billion dollars.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Both of us felt more anxiety about the South—about the colored people especially—than about anything else sinister in the result. My hope of a sound currency will somehow be realized; civil service reform will be delayed; but the great injury is in the South. There the Amendments will be nullified, disorder will continue, prosperity to both whites and colored people will be pushed off for years.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)