The American Forces Press Service reports:

The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is lauding today's Labor Department announcement that it is issuing rules clarifying re-employment rights for citizen-soldiers as a major step forward for Guardsmen, Reservists and their civilian employers.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced final rules interpreting the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act that helps ensure job security for reserve-component members returning to civilian life from military duty. The rules will be published Dec. 19 in the Federal Register.

Speaking at the National Press Club here, Chao noted that this is the first time since the law's passage in 1994 that regulations have been developed to enforce it.

The rules are particularly critical now, she said, when the United States has the largest group of mobilized National Guard and Reserve members since World War II. Since Sept. 11, 2001, almost 530,000 reserve-component members have been mobilized, many for more than a year of duty.

You can read the final regulations here. I am particularly proud that the Department accepted the comments of the National Employment Lawyers Association's USERRA Task Force in strengthening its proposed regulations at several key points. I was a member of that NELA Task Force.