Stimulate US: How veterans will benefit

Other than a one-time payment of $250 to disabled veterans and making it easier for employers to hire vets, the federal government's economic stimulus package won't give much immediate help to the estimated 24 million veterans in the United States.

Most of the just under $4 billion for veterans in "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" will be spent on services or buildings that vets use. Specific sites are still unknown, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has no information on its Web site on how it will implement the act.

The "shovel ready" jobs talked about often in the stimulus package will increase jobs for veterans by giving them a preference in being hired, just as they already are under a federal law that mandates 3% of government contracts must go to disabled vets or a veteran-owned business.