Senate passes veterans jobs bill

By Rosalind S. Helderman, Thursday, November 10, 12:45 PM

On the eve of Veterans Day, the Senate approved new measures to help unemployed former service members, advancing a modest piece of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs package with rare bipartisan support.

The bill, approved Thursday on a rare unanimous 95-to-0 vote, would extend tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed veterans. It would also provide new dollars for retraining older unemployed veterans for high-demand fields and includes programs designed to make it easier to get civilian certifications for military training.

 President Obama has been traveling across the country in recent weeks, touting his $447 billion jobs plan and pledging to help get Americans back to work.

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President Obama is promoting new ways to help veterans find jobs in a tough economy while pressing Congress to approve tax credits for businesses to hire former members of the military. (Nov. 7)

The vote came after weeks of partisan sniping over the presidents’ jobs plan. The Senate held doomed votes on the package as a whole and then on pieces of the proposal that had drawn strong Republican opposition, while Obama barnstormed the country slamming the GOP for its obstinacy.

But lawmakers in both parties said the veterans vote showed that Washington is still able to rally around the troops and reach some bipartisan agreement.

“It’s no secret that the House and Senate are divided on any number of economic and political issues facing average Americans right now,â€