On Monday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced the committee will be conducting a markup of House Resolution 22, the Hire More Heroes Act.
The legislation creates an exemption for veterans, allowing businesses to hire them without requiring them to be acknowledged as full-time employees as part of the health care reform law known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
One of the baseline concerns with Obamacare legislation, the provision mandates that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees offer health insurance. Many of these businesses cut workers or cut their employees’ hours to circumvent the rule. Under the proposal, veterans would not count against the employer’s total – which would be an incentive to hire them.
“The Hire More Heroes Act is a no-brainer,” Hatch said. “It will provide incentives for companies to hire more veterans by ensuring they don’t count against the 50-employee threshold.”
The markup will take place Wednesday, during the Senate Finance Committee’s 11 a.m. meeting.
“This is exactly the kind of common-sense, job-creating policy the American people demanded,” he said, “and I look forward to moving this bill through the Finance Committee.”