A look at the week of May 29 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  With the celebration of Memorial Day weekend, The Washington Post renewed its focus on how to educate and train our nation’s returning veterans.  White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel testified before a congressional committee, defending the federal government’s efforts to take advantage of the latest technology. On the small business front, Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills sat down with the Associated Press to discuss the agency’s decision to expand its focus beyond providing loans to include counseling and mentoring services to small business owners.

Program recruits older vets for employment training – A new program offered jointly by the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Labor Department entitled the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program is aiming to retrain up to 99,000 veterans for high-demand jobs, says The Washington Post. The program is part of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in August 2011.

White House CIO makes case for technology investment – White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel defended the federal government’s role in acquiring the latest, innovative technology before the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, & International Security. The hearing was set up to examine better ways for the government to use innovative technology while keeping costs down, says the National Journal.

SBA head looks beyond loans to help small business – Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills sat down for a Q&A with Joyce Rosenberg of the Associated Press  to talk about what the SBA is doing to help small business owners through various loans, counseling and mentoring programs.