WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today announced that the president signed into law a bipartisan bill that she cosponsored to make sure veterans are prioritized in hiring and training at local and state career law enforcement offices.

“We will never be able to repay our veterans for their service to our country, but we can try by doing as much as possible to support them when they return. We took an important step as our bipartisan bill was signed into law to make sure veterans can find great jobs in law enforcement—helping protect our communities even after they take off the uniform,” said Heitkamp. “When our veterans transition back to civilian life, it’s our duty to make sure they have every opportunity to put the skills they picked up serving our country to good use. This law will help accomplish that goal. State and local law enforcement agencies will also benefit, because highly-trained veterans are well prepared with the skills they need to keep our communities safe.”

The bipartisan legislation would require law enforcement agencies receiving federal funds through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to do everything they can to connect veterans with roles in local and state law enforcement agencies as they transition back to civilian life.

Heitkamp has long fought to guarantee veterans in North Dakota and beyond have access to good jobs when they leave the armed forces. When veterans transition to civilian life, they have a variety of skills and talents from serving in the armed forces—and those skills are major assets in civilian jobs as well.

In May, Heitkamp and U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) introduced their bipartisan Empowering Federal Employment for Veterans Act to make sure federal agencies do everything they can to connect veterans with jobs that fit their skillsets in the federal government.

The bill would require large federal agencies to have full-time advocates for veterans’ employment, and would promote career development for veterans within agencies. Although veterans made up 31 percent of the federal workforce overall in 2015, only 12 percent of workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 7 percent of workers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were veterans, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

In 2014, Heitkamp introduced her bipartisan Connect with Veterans Act to better connect new veterans with services, resources, and benefits available in their home communities. The bill would create a directory of contact information for newly-separated veterans to allow local communities, as well as the VA and State Departments of Veterans Affairs, to better connect with veterans and provide them with information about services and other resources.