This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: From the Tuesday morning Twitter feed of Tommy Sowers, assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, we gleaned the following facts:
- Veteran-owned small businesses employ more than 1.8 million workers and bring in $1.6 trillion in revenue.
- Of the 26 million small businesses in the U.S., 3.6 million are owned by veterans.
During a lunch interview at the downtown Pi, we also observed the following: Sowers is a fan of the South Side Classico: mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions.
Sowers, a native of Rolla., Mo, was in town to make an appearance at the National Veterans Small Business Conference being held at America’s Center and within a pepperoni’s throw of the downtown Pi location.
Sowers’ old political followers might remember that a fundraiserwas held for him in 2010 at the Central West End Pi location when he was the Democratic candidate in the 8th congressional district race. (Sowers lost to Republican incumbent Jo Ann Emerson.) President Barack Obama is also a fan of the St. Louis pizza chain, which opened a location in Washington in 2011.
But we digest, er, digress.
Sowers, who served two tours in Iraq as a Green Beret, said he was at the conference to draw attention to some of the good works that the VA is doing. The conference brings together nearly 2,000 veteran-owned small businesses, plus 25 federal agencies and 30 commercial companies committed to expanding their contract work with veteran-owned businesses. A "Hiring Our Heroes” job fair sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce was held in conjunction with the conference.
"If you look at veterans' employment, it’s a success story,’’ Sowers said, noting that a few years ago unemployment for young veterans was in the double digits.
"Now it’s beneath the national average,’’ he said.
Sowers said the success was due to the efforts of many, including the VA, the job fairs, the G.I. Bill and Joining Forces, the initiative of First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
"A big part of my job here and really every week is I’m traveling around and shining a light on the great things that the VA is doing,’’ he said. "The fact is still, the majority of veterans know little to nothing of their benefits. And we at the VA are trying to change that.’’
A gathering of veteran entrepreneurs
The conference offers networking opportunities and a variety of support programs for veteran entrepreneurs, including training programs and information on how to compete for federal contracts and government procurement requirements.
Among the veterans in attendance was Louise Jaffe of Alexandria, Va., who co-owns TAPE, a technical and project engineering company that provides a variety of support services to the federal government. Among them: cybersecurity, training, research and development and tests and evaluation
Jaffe, who was commissioned as an Army officer in 1973, said that she and her husband sold their home to start the company 10 years ago. It now has 170 employees and has done work in 12 states, plus Washington. The company did just under $26 million in business last year.
"I’ve been coming to this veteran entrepreneurial conference since it started eight years ago,'' Jaffe said. "I think it’s wonderful that the VA is continuing this tradition. It’s a place for me to meet other veterans. We mentor small companies, and it’s a chance to connect with government clients, as well.”
Jaffe said that sequestration has had an impact on her business, mostly because the government has changed the way it deals with contractors.
"What I tell people is that, despite sequestration, the government is not closed for business. They still have work for contractors to do, but it’s not easy,’’ she said. “If a small company is expecting the contract awards to just jump into their basket because they are veterans or service-disabled veterans or woman-owned, I guess it might happen. But as a business strategy that won’t work. We’ve had to get very focused. We have to be smarter. We can’t just take things for granted.”
Darren Corcoran of Vets Access of Montrose, Mich., said his company comes for the networking opportunities. The 10-employee company contracts with veteran-owned companies to provide modifications for the disabled, such as roll-in showers, bathroom modifications and patient lifts.
"The point of this conference for us is to find vets who come for the job fair. We love to employ veterans. They’re right at our fingertips. This brings everybody around the nation together,'' Corcoran said.
A new face for the VA
Sowers is a new -- and approachable -- face for the VA. He’s into social media and his folksy message on the website is a contrast to the government-ese often spoken at the VA. Among other things, he promises to "completely change the way we talk to vets and the media. We want to communicate with each of the over 22 million veterans, their families, and their survivors in their preferred medium, tone, time and frequency.”
Sowers was appointed to the VA post last August. Among his credentials: He was a senior adviser to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and he taught at West Point. He came recommended for the post by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
Sowers said he takes his cue from his boss, retired U.S. Gen. Eric Shinseki, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, who has made increasing VA access for veterans one of his top goals.
"My role is part of a broader strategy orienting the VA to our customers, which are the veterans themselves,’’ Sowers said. “We’ve got the most number of FaceBook fans of any cabinet-level department, the most number of Twitter accounts. We want to engage with veterans where they are, in the medium that they like. The next thing after Twitter, we’ll be there as well.”
Sowers said that contrary to popular belief, his generation is accessing VA programs in unprecedented numbers -- about 84 percent of post-9/11 veterans have signed up for programs, ranging from health care to the G.I. Bill.
He said an important focus is reaching older veterans who might not have signed up for programs in past decades -- before the VA improved its service.
He noted that that the backlog to provide access to benefits has decreased in recent months, and he expects further improvement as the VA continues to transition from paper to an electronic system.
"We made some tough decisions that were correct decisions to open the aperture and allow more veterans to apply -- easing the qualifications on post-traumatic stress, the Gulf War syndrome and Agent Orange. We knew the backlog would peak, and now we’ve seen it start to come down,’’ Sowers said.
"The bottom line, though, is that the secretary looked at this process, which was a six-month process historically and said we can do better than that. Our goal is to reduce the backlog to a four-month process in 2015.’’
