Obama wants public works jobs for vets

WASHINGTON -- In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put them to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.

The president also will seek more grant money for programs that allow local communities to hire more police officers and firefighters.

"Let's get more cops on the beat, let's get more rangers in the parks, let's get more firefighters on call, and in the process, we're going to put more veterans back to work," Obama said Friday at a fire station in Arlington, Va.

"They've already risked their lives defending America. They should have the opportunity to rebuild America," he said.

The efforts, which Obama first announced in his State of the Union address last week, are particularly geared to those veterans who served after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a group with an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, according to the government's jobs report for January.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the Civilian Conservation Corps that operated during the 1930s could be viewed as a model for what the administration will try to accomplish through its "Veterans Job Corps." He said that the administration will propose spending $1 billion over five years that would be used to put an estimated 20,000 veterans to work restoring habitat and eradicating invasive species, among other activities.

The Veterans Job Corps idea arose at a November meeting between Obama and his aides, and the House Democratic leadership, including Rep. Steve Israel of Dix Hills and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the White House said.

At the end of the Oval Office meeting, Israel raised the idea of reviving a form of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which he called the Wilderness Warriors Initiative, and Clyburn offered a similar idea, officials said.

Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling said Obama was intrigued and asked him and the policy teams to look into the idea, and it led to the initiative announced Friday.

The backdrop of presidential politics is also playing a role in the Obama administration's new efforts. Several states that will be heavily contested in November have a significant military presence. Veterans will be evaluating specific ways the next White House administration intends to help them.

-- With Tom Brune