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The House of Representatives is currently considering a  focused on providing a range of services to veterans, from healthcare to housing support. Despite being introduced with bipartisan fanfare in both chambers of Congress, the bill has been slow to move over the past month and has yet to move out of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, as of this writing.

The bill’s stagnation is costing America’s veterans access to much-needed support in many aspects of their lives. But one of the most important parts is a small, relatively unheralded part of the bill. Tucked away in Title II, Subtitle A is a program that helps veterans access training to prepare them for roles in fast-growing technology disciplines. It’s better known as VET TEC, and it’s an example of a program that not only accelerates economic mobility for veterans but also provides a roadmap for what effective education and training can look like in the digital age.

The VET TEC program began as a pilot in 2019 to combat the persistent challenge of un- and underemployment facing veterans. Roughly  American veterans — or about 6% of all adults in this country — served their country in the armed forces. Thanks to the unique training they’ve received during their service, veterans have the core foundation to succeed on the job. They bring not just maturity and an understanding of how to collaborate and work in teams but also harder-to-acquire security clearance and an understanding of the cyber defense landscape, which are . Importantly, the core values of military service are often aligned with some of the most innovative and fast-moving technology companies.

Unfortunately, the military service credential alone often  into high-paying civilian work. A  of  have found that veterans are nearly 40% more likely than non-veterans to be underemployed — working in jobs that don’t make full use of their skills or credentials. 

That’s the challenge that the VET TEC pilot was designed to address, and by many accounts, it did so effectively (if imperfectly). Over the course of five years, more than 14,000 veterans took part in tech training programs, around  found jobs in the industry that made at least $65,000. While we should strive for a higher job placement rate, it’s an impressive start for a never-before-tried pilot: some 7,000 veterans bolstering the country’s technology workforce who otherwise may not have had a pathway into the technology arena.

Consider the case of Mellah, who spent more than two decades in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst. When he left the service, he searched for opportunities to leverage those skills in the civilian workforce but knew that more training would help him secure a role that suited his goals. Through the VET TEC program, Mellah accessed training from SkillStorm and earned a certification as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) developer. Now, he’s working on a project for the Air Force at a large government systems integrator, thanks to the training available to him at no cost and the job placement support he received.

The veterans’ benefits bill currently before Congress would give veterans like Mellah the chance to pursue pathways to economic mobility. It acknowledges both the successes of the VET TEC program and the places where it still has room to grow. It is intentionally designed as a two-year extension, with the aim of evaluating what works (e.g., finding and promoting training programs with the highest rates of completion and job placement) and changing what doesn’t (e.g., creating processes for veterans to more easily report on their post-program jobs and wages). It holds the promise of extending the opportunities of the VET TEC program to veterans and their families across the country. 

And, just as importantly, VET TEC lights the path for future initiatives. While VET TEC is a one-of-a-kind program right now, it can set the stage for other federal programs designed to expand access to additional supplemental career-aligned training in technology that drives measurable economic mobility, particularly for our veterans and marginalized communities At a time when the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is up for reauthorization and Congress is considering extending Pell grants to short-term and supplemental training programs, the successes – and challenges – of VET TEC provide a clear view of what works and what can be improved.

In the coming weeks, we hope that Congress can give veterans across the country a well-deserved win in the form of passing this bill. In the case of the VET TEC program, a win for veterans is also a win for skills development and the U.S. economy. It’s a crucial step toward demonstrating what’s possible when we invest in new pathways to high-wage jobs for populations who often face barriers to economic opportunity. That’s a system where everybody wins.