Posted on 07/13/2017 8:36:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
House lawmakers will introduce legislation Thursday to secure college aid for reservists and reimburse veterans whose schools unexpectedly close, as well as do away with a 15-year time limit for veterans to use education benefits – changes that together create the largest expansion of veterans’ education benefits since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was created nearly a decade ago.
The legislation represents an initial deal reached between House Republicans and Democrats, encouraged by veterans organizations that acted behind-the-scenes the past several weeks to reignite support for it. Details were obtained by Stars and Stripes ahead of the Thursday rollout.
Ending the 15-year time limit for veterans to use their education benefits marks a shift from the GI Bill as a generational benefit to establishing it as “forever,” said Will Hubbard, vice president of Student Veterans of America.
“We’ve been extremely vocal about removing the arbitrary 15-year time limit of using this earned benefit,” he said. “It will afford individuals who transitioned and either had a family or went right to work the opportunity to get an education. This gets to that ‘forever’ point because someone who gets out, they have an entire lifetime to use their benefit.”
Hubbard is optimistic the initial bipartisan agreement will lead to the bill’s quick adoption. Republicans and Democrats have compromised on other veterans issues this year that have resulted in new policy, including the creation of a faster firing process for Department of Veterans Affairs workers and an extension of the VA Choice Program.
“All arrows are pointing to us getting this done,” he said. “There’s every indication this is moving, and moving quickly.”
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the lead sponsor on the bill, will schedule a hearing on it next week, Hubbard said. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., the ranking Democrat on the committee, is a co-sponsor.
The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., told The Associated Press that he would introduce a companion bill. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., also praised the bill to The Associated Press as a major undertaking to modernize veterans’ education benefits.
A bipartisan group of 15 House lawmakers, as well as seven veterans organizations, were scheduled to introduce the bill formally Thursday afternoon.
Just two months ago, the House ceased discussions on GI Bill improvements and postponed a hearing, following a rift between veterans groups about an idea to have new enlistees pay for the expansion with a $100-per-month deduction from their basic pay. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars described it as a “tax on troops.”
The expansion is estimated to cost approximately $3 billion.
The bill to be introduced Thursday proposes paying for the expansion by decreasing living stipend payments under the GI Bill to the amount active-duty servicemembers receive.
“It’s common sense,” Hubbard said. “While nobody loves any kind of discussion on that front, there’s a new political reality, and you can’t just make demands of Congress and expect it to get fixed. It doesn’t work like that anymore.”
Student Veterans of America tried to create consensus among veterans groups at a gathering in May, when they agreed on four major changes that are now part of Roe’s legislation.
One change is to expand eligibility for the Yellow Ribbon Program to surviving spouses and children of servicemembers killed in the line of duty. The program allows veterans to attend schools or enroll in programs that cost more than the GI Bill tuition cap.
Another expands full GI Bill benefits to all Purple Heart recipients. Currently, a veteran must be medically retired from the military or have 36 months of active-duty service to qualify. According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, there are approximately 1,500 Purple Heart recipients who aren’t eligible for full education benefits.
The legislation would also offer tuition reimbursement to veterans whose schools close. Last year, for-profit ITT Technical Institute closed its doors, and thousands of veterans who attended the campuses were unable to recover lost education benefits. Veteran students attending other for-profit schools that have closed have experienced similar circumstances.
The most urgent issue is a fix to a Pentagon deployment authorization that is unfairly preventing thousands of reservists and guardsmen from earning GI Bill benefits, Hubbard said. About 4,700 reservists and guardsmen who deployed under Title 10, Section 12304b have been restricted from accumulating education benefits. Previous efforts in Congress to fix the problem have stalled.
“I get calls every day from individuals who either experienced school closures or reservists who are not getting GI Bill benefits, though they earned it,” Hubbard said. “And it’s heartbreaking to have to take those calls from people you know have earned this benefit, and simply by technical error don’t have access. This is an issue of serious urgency to get this done for those people.”
According to the American Legion, the bill will be named the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, after a past commander of the American Legion who authored the GI Bill of Rights in 1944.
“This bill... would launch a new era for all who have honorably served in uniform,” American Legion National Commander Charles Schmidt said in a statement. “It would close current gaps in the existing Post-9/11 GI Bill and guarantee that veterans have access to their hard-earned GI Bill benefits beyond the current 15-year time limit.”
AWESOME!!!
This is really good news. Why 15 years???? That is awful. Heck so if someone is 22 they have to be done by 39? What if they want to wait to 50? Tough????
As far as the 1200 contribution.....I personally think it should stand and they should pay it. I did and it is a reminder to get an education so at least I get the 1200 “back”. It shouldn’t be a welfare program.
When I got out of the Marine Corps in 1979 I heard a lot of vets lamenting about how they never used their GI Bill. Enough so I did use mine to get my Bachelor’s degree. Because I served in Afghanistan, I am now eligible for the post 9/11 GI Bill, but I’ve never used it and it runs out in less than five years. I have no intention of ever using it, as I’m retired and have no desire to go back to school. Eliminating the end date won’t matter to me, but I hope it gives other vets a chance to get their degree or training.
Finished active duty in ‘62 and was discharged in ‘65. Had 7 years to use college benefits that paid $75/mo. for at least 7 credit hours of courses per semester.
Spent years going to night school at Jr. Coll. while working and raising family, then transferred to Univ. Worked night job to permit day classes, while driving 120 mile commute from home-school-work-home.
1973 would be my last year of VA education benefits, so I took a year’s leave of absence from my job and arranged a deal with my apt. mgr. to knock off $5 from my rent for every hour I worked there painting, moving furniture, shampooing carpets, landscaping, etc. (that was more $/hr than my job as an Eng. Tech with a Secret Clearance).
In 12 months I knocked out 59 credit hours, with 21 in the final semester. Was rehired at the defense contractor where I was laid off in ‘70 as Viet Nam was winding down. Later earned a 48 hour Masters degree in ‘82; night and weekend courses.
If it had not been for the shorter time limit on VA education benefits, I probably would not have been motivated to gain my education and well paying jobs later, as well as my relatively comfortable retirement. ...Besides, I needed that $75/mo.
I didn’t know the VA Ed. Bennies had gone to 15 years, but I don’t believe that or the extension proposed will benefit our military servicemen/women, as it imposes no urgency. ...JMO
Too late for me.
I wonder if that means I can get my GI Bill benefits from my 1976 to 1988 USN service. I medicalled out in 1988 and went straight to work. Now, I am semi-retired, working from home as a science editor. I’d love to get a degree via correspondence courses or similar now that I have plenty of life experiences and time to study.
This is a nice benefit but an accounting nightmare for the government. We would basically have to be prepared for a contingency in which anyone who qualifies can use these funds up until the day they die; imagine the amount of money involved.
“It shouldn’t be a welfare program.”
The GI Bill is not a welfare program. It’s an earned benefit. It’s insulting for you to compare the GI Bill to the food stamp program.
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