Legislative language for the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 is now available. The bill will extend WOTC categories for eligible veterans through December 31, 2012 but retains the current expiration date for all other categories. In other words, if a general extension of WOTC is not eventually included in a tax extender bill (or in some other legislation) the WOTC program will look very different in 2012.
A Senate Fact Sheet is available now with a summary of key provisions.
According to Paul Suplizio of the WOTC Coalition, this is not an unexpected development. (In fact, Paul as much as predicted this in a private correspondence to me on Tuesday afternoon — a day before the bill’s details became available.)
In the simplest terms, this veteran’s legislation involves more than the WOTC program and is written by veterans committees in Congress. Other tax issues, including an extension of the current WOTC program, must be dealt with by the tax-writing committees.
Lobbying efforts on multiple fronts continue to seek a general extension of WOTC.  The anticipated passage of this bill can only add momentum to that effort.