Congress Tackles Vet Employment: The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is holding its first hearing of the New Year on the Administration’s progress with programs to help veterans find employment today. It’s being Web cast live and archived on the committee Web site. Lawmakers expressed concern over recent findings by the Labor Department that veterans aged 20 to 24 are twice as likely as their non-vet counterparts to be jobless.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.