Committee hears testimony on H.531, a narrow hiring preference for military spouses

The Government Operations & Military Affairs committee took testimony on H.531, a bill that would create a modest preference for military spouses in state hiring.

Melissa Ouellette, New England regional liaison for the Defense State Liaison Office, said military spouse unemployment (she cited about 21%) and frequent relocations make modest hiring preferences a tool to improve family economic stability. Ouellette emphasized the proposal does not guarantee employment or bypass qualifications; rather, it provides a small edge — she and other witnesses described examples where veterans might receive 10 preference points and spouses 5 to avoid direct competition.

Michelle Richard, Midwest regional liaison and the office’s policy lead on this topic, described Nebraska’s approach and other states’ experiments: some states extend public preference while others permit private employers to adopt permissive preferences for spouses. Kristen Lejunez, a military spouse who testified in support, described frequent job market resets that disadvantaged spouses and said H.531 preserves merit‑based hiring while offering five additional points for military spouses who meet job requirements.

Robert Burke, director of the state Office of Veterans Affairs, raised implementation questions: Vermont does not operate a uniform numerical civil‑service exam scoring system for most state hiring, so it is unclear how a fixed point bonus would be applied in practice. Committee members agreed that Human Resources, labor relations and Legislative Council should be consulted to determine appropriate language and operational details before advancing the bill.

Ending: Committee members asked staff to follow up with HR and labor relations and to consider model language from other states; no vote was taken.