The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has released details of the GI Bill reform package it approved last month. It includes almost every change sought by veterans’ service organizations, institutes of higher learning, trade unions, vocational schools and VA administrators.
The only two key elements missing are an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on what these reforms will cost, and a plan to pay for them as worries over deficit spending mounts in Washington D.C.
The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 (S 3447) would expand education options beyond the pursuit of a college degree and into almost any type of training a veteran might want.
At the same time, S 3447 would enhance and simplify the payment formula, ease confusion for students and pare administrative headaches for schools.
The new GI Bill also would be opened to at least 80,000 National Guard members mobilized since 9-11 who previously were denied coverage. And its monthly living allowance would be used in a special way to support enrollment in apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs.
These are just some of the highlights. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), committee chairman, is leading the reform effort and drawing bipartisan support. The CBO cost estimate should be known before Congress returns in September when attention will turn to finding ways to pay for the bill.
Rep. Walter Minnick (D-Idaho) has introduced a near identical bill in the House (HR 5933). Among its early co-sponsors is Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. His committee plans its own hearing on GI Bill reform Sept. 16, a move that raises hope among veterans’ groups and educators that a final bill could be passed this year, even with elections in November and a lameduck Congress thereafter.
At the Senate’s GI Bill reform hearing in July, senior officials with the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense expressed support for most changes in Akaka’s bill. But at the urging of VA officials most provisions wouldn’t take effect until Aug. 1, 2011, to allow sufficient time to implement.
Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), ranking Republican on the committee, made clear in July he was miffed at Akaka for introducing S 3447 alone, in May, after calling in April for bipartisan cooperation on GI Bill reform. At the markup hearing Aug. 5, however, Burr praised the bill and the many changes Akaka accepted on feedback from veteran groups, educators and colleagues.
The bill, Burr said, “would help create a program that will be fair and generous, no matter where a veteran lives or chooses to go to school.” By covering vocational training, it “would allow more veterans and their families to pursue educational programs that best meet their needs.”
Akaka’s original bill “was good,” said Eric Hilleman, national legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “The one he’s put out [of committee] is outstanding. We’re super-excited about it.”
Here are more details:
– The revised GI bill would fully cover tuition and fees for all in-state degree programs including doctorates or graduate degrees. Removed would be a cap tied to the most costly in-state under graduate degree program.
– Payments to private or non-state colleges would be simplified using an identical $20,000 cap across all states. Private college payments no longer would capped at the highest priced in-state school. This would raise veterans’ assistance in 45 states and clarify for private colleges the point at which standard GI Bill coverage stops and the new for additional assistance using the Yellow-Ribbon feature starts. The $20,000 ceiling would be adjusted every Aug. 1 to reflect changes in education costs nationwide.
– Veterans who take enough online classes to exceed “half-time” student status could receive 50 percent of the GI Bill’s monthly living allowance. Currently they don’t qualify for any of this payment which is based on local military housing allowance rates for married E-5s.
– Post-9/11 students on active duty, or their enrolled spouses, would qualify for the $1,000 annual book allowance.
– Any guard member called to active duty since 9/11 by the president or secretary of defense under Title 32, used often for domestic emergencies or homeland security missions, or to serve full-time under the Active Guard and Reserve program, would be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
– Veterans enrolled in a qualified on-the-job or apprenticeship training would be paid 100 percent of the applicable living allowance for the first six months, 80 percent for the second six months, 60 percent for the third, 40 percent for the fourth, and 20 percent for any subsequent periods of training. This would be in addition to their GI Bill benefit, to be set for vocational training at the lesser of $20,000 a year or actual tuition and fees.
Hilleman said VFW and other veterans groups lobbied hard to correct the eligibility inequity for Guard members and to extend coverage to OJT and vocational training, a “huge benefit for many veterans.”
Tim Embree with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America agreed, saying, “These are the folks starting small businesses back in their home towns. It’s so vital to get them included.”
The big hurdle to passage would seem to be the cost. But Embree said he is confident that won’t derail the effort.
“We’ve been working very closely with Congress on identifying ways to pay for these reforms,” he said. And “the GI Bill, more than any other, ends up paying for itself” as shown following World War II. “We’re just finishing the job on the Post-9/11 GI bill. And this will prove to be the shrewdest investment made in this generation of veterans.”
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