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:
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is something that I cannot get over—that a whole line could be written by half a man, that a work could be built on the quicksand of a character.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“The utter helplessness of a conquered people is perhaps the most tragic feature of a civil war or any other sort of war.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)
“Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)