Washington Must Act: IAVA's new G.I. Bill

Doing right by our newest veterans
Commentary: Doing right by our newest veterans
By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, February 8, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. ?- There's a fast-growing new community on the campuses of our universities and colleges ?- young men and women combat veterans fresh out of military service Those here at the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College have change on their agenda.

With the help of a local congressman, supporters in the community and a soft-spoken campus veterans' adviser, they just might succeed in fixing some problems and meeting a need that no one imagined we'd face.

The biggest and most expensive dream of these new GI Bill scholars is to build a special 90-apartment complex to accommodate the physical and educational needs of young military veterans who've come home severely wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. SFCC President Dr. Jackson Sasser was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the assisted living facility for wounded veterans, and Dr. James Bernard Machen, the president of the University of Florida, supports the effort, too.

These veterans ?- some missing limbs, others paralyzed ?- require levels of assistance and care that virtually lock them out of higher education. Some are even sent to live in nursing homes filled with those whose lives are ending, not just beginning.

John Gebhardt works with the 900 to 1,000 new GI Bill veterans who're attending the university and the college each semester. He and they are passionate about wanting to provide a better opportunity for severely wounded young veterans to gain an education.

"The facility we hope to see built here would be totally handicap-accessible," Gebhardt told me this week. "With both hired staff and volunteers, the wounded veterans would be provided transportation to classes on the two campuses, as well as rides to the regional Veterans Administration center for ongoing medical care."

The complex also would have facilities for physical therapy and rehabilitation and, when these veterans have to return to a VA hospital for treatment of old or new complications from their wounds, other volunteer veterans would help them keep up with their studies so they don't lose entire semesters.

"We are talking about young people who have sacrificed so much in service to our country," Gebhardt said. "They need an education; they need to be with people their own age; they need to begin easing back into society and finding a future for themselves."

Such a facility would cost an estimated $30 million for the purchase of the land and construction. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, a local Republican, is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea and is going to bat for the money in Washington.

The student veterans community at the two schools here is also working with a committee headed by a retired Army lieutenant general, John LeMoyne, who dropped out of college in 1964, fought in Vietnam, went back to school and earned his degree, then returned to a distinguished military career that spanned four decades.

The group wants to create a scholarship fund to make up for the shameful bureaucratic bungling that keeps young combat veterans who enter college under the Montgomery GI Bill waiting 60 to 90 days for their first benefit checks. The fund is intended to help those who can't afford to support themselves for that long ?- and those who have to wait longer than 90 days for their VA benefits.

"Landlords don't wait six months for your rent, and college bursars don't wait six months for your tuition payment," said veteran Dan Wojcik, who attends the University of Florida. "Some vets are forced out of school before they even get started because the Veterans Administration can't get its act together and start paying them the monthly stipend they earned the hard way in a timely fashion."

No one wanted to say how shameful it is that a community must raise money to compensate yet again for the federal government's failure to do right by the waves of new veterans who are coming home from war and trying to get a new start in life.

There you have it. These young veterans, like all the veterans of all our wars, must do their own creative thinking about how to get their brothers and sisters out of nursing homes and hospital wards and into college ?- and then find the money to tide them over for half a year while all those billion dollar computer systems grind and whir and finally spit out miserly little checks to help them pay for college.

Veterans in this country have had to build their own memorials to their dead in Washington, D.C. They've always had to struggle with the bureaucrats in our capital for what little help they get, even when they've been disabled in service to our country.

We've always asked too much of them and given too little in return, except for the lip-service of politicians on Memorial Day and Veterans Day and the yellow ribbon "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers that are as faded as the promise itself.

No Funds in Bush Budget For Troop-Benefits Plan
The LIAR Bush is at it again. He has a habit of proposing legislation to benefit those the public wants to support---but then he doesn't fund the program. Reminds me of the male line of "if you have sex with me I will still respect you in the morning." Trouble is Bush doesn't respect us in the morning or any time. ---BBB

No Funds in Bush Budget For Troop-Benefits Plan
He Made Proposal in January Speech
By Michael Abramowitz and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 9, 2008; A01

President Bush drew great applause during his State of the Union address last month when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. "Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them," he said.

A week later, however, when Bush submitted his $3.1 trillion federal budget to Congress, he included no funding for such an initiative, which government analysts calculate could cost $1 billion to $2 billion annually.

Bush's proposal was added to the speech late in the process, administration officials said, after the president decided that he wanted to announce a program that would favor military families. That left little time to vet the idea, develop formal cost estimates or gauge how many people might take advantage of such a program. Some administration officials said the proposal surprised them, and they voiced concerns about how to fund it.

Some critics in Congress cite the episode as a case study of what they consider the slapdash way Bush has put together the legislative program for his final year in office. Still, the idea is generating bipartisan interest from members of Congress who are eager to assist military families coping with long-term absences of loved ones deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have drawn up legislation that would remove restrictions that currently prevent most troops from transferring education benefits to family members.

"It has some merit to it. I don't have any idea what it costs -- that's been one of the problems in the past," said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.), chairman of the House Budget Committee. "That's not the only inconsistency or contradiction in his budget by any means. The budget overstates revenues and understates expenditures in a big way."

A senior White House official said the proposal was suggested to the president by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who got the idea from a military spouse who told him that the Army has a limited program to transfer education benefits. The spouse told Gates, " 'Army spouses get this benefit, other branches should, too.' He brought it to the president and said, 'I think this is a valid point,' " the official said.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Bush liked Gates's suggestion, which eventually became one sentence in the president's 53-minute State of the Union speech. "It is a good idea, and we are trying to determine the cost and put together a proposal," the official said.

Under the current GI Bill, service members are eligible for nearly $40,000 in education benefits, such as college tuition or employment training, after they complete three years of active duty. Nearly 70 percent of active-duty U.S. troops and veterans use at least part of these benefits, which cover three-quarters of the cost of tuition, room, board and fees in a four-year state university, according to Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Pentagon spokesman. U.S. officials concede that the cost would probably soar, with most families making full use of the benefits.

The GI Bill education benefits cost nearly $2 billion in fiscal 2006. Pentagon officials said they are unable to provide a figure for the potential cost of the new proposal, or for other initiatives for military families that Bush proposed in his State of the Union speech.

The president also called for expanded access to child -- care for military families and for new preferences for military spouses competing for positions in the federal government. Pentagon officials are working on those proposals as well. They said Bush envisions expanding child care for at least 58,000 military children ages 1 to 12 year-round. The Pentagon already provides care facilities for about 200,000 children.

A third component of the Bush initiative involves opening up more government employment opportunities for military spouses and providing money for training or professional certification so they can more easily find jobs when they move from state to state. A pilot program now provides up to $6,000 over two years to help spouses create such "portable" careers.

The Pentagon is still working out the potential costs, but it reports that about 77 percent of the 675,000 spouses of active-duty troops say they want or need to work and that they might take advantage of such a program.

The Army has a limited program that allows soldiers to transfer some of their education benefits to spouses or children, but it has several restrictions. For instance, only soldiers reenlisting in certain critical skill areas are eligible, and they are allowed to transfer only about half their benefits.

Retired Col. Robert Norton, deputy director for government relations at the Military Officers Association of America, said military families have been "clamoring" for an expansion of the GI Bill in recent years as a critical incentive for troops to stay in the service. He noted that the families endure much hardship and stress while following their spouses around the world or being separated for great lengths of time.

Most U.S. troops who use the GI program use only about half the education benefits, Norton said, and only a tiny percentage use all of their money, so the cost of allowing family members to participate in the program would probably be high. "There is likely to be a pretty hefty price tag," Norton said. "We think it's a good thing for military families. We would like to see the details."

The idea of allowing more troops to extend education benefits to family members has been percolating on Capitol Hill for some time. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) has been pushing it for years and introduced a bill after Bush's surprise endorsement. His measure would drop the restrictions on how many benefits can be transferred and would allow members of the reserves and National Guard to participate.

In the Senate, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) has introduced similar legislation. In an interview, she said that she hopes the White House will back her plan. "We ought to be able to get it pretty quickly through," she said. "It was their idea, and they ought to get credit for it."

The idea has bipartisan support. "It was a very pleasant surprise coming from an administration that has tried to balance its budgets on the backs of military families," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who is co-sponsoring Bartlett's bill. "I don't know where they got the idea, but I am not going to quibble."

What's behind the battle over the new G.I. Bill?
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Wed, May. 21, 2008

What's behind the battle over the new G.I. Bill?
Barbara Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON ?- The GI Bill touted by recruiting posters and the Pentagon often falls short for more than a million troops returning from war, paying just over half the national average cost of a public college education.

The program, which provides college benefits for veterans, doesn't pay for books and housing, causing many students to work.

"They use it to live off of," said Henry Johnson, a financial aid officer who works with veterans at Durham Technical Community College, where nearly 200 veterans attend school. "They need the money for their food, for their rent, for their transportation."

The Senate is poised to vote as soon as today on a new GI Bill tucked inside a massive funding measure. It could affect 1.4 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

The Bush administration opposes the legislation. Department of Defense officials said this spring that the richer benefits could tempt soldiers to leave the military. And President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation if it includes anything beyond his funding request.

The new GI Bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, would cover the cost of attending the most expensive, in-state public institution in a veteran's home state, along with a monthly housing stipend. It would cost about $50 billion over 10 years.

For private schools, the bill would match any assistance from the colleges. The bill, with more than 300 co-sponsors, passed the House last week as part of the war spending package.

"With the new bill, they're about to give them everything but the kitchen sink. That's great," said Chuck Sanchez, veteran services coordinator for Fayetteville Technical Community College, which has more than 700 veterans enrolled.

For months, members of Congress have been hearing from troops who say they can only afford one semester a year, or that they can only afford local community colleges -- not major universities.

"Basically, recruiters say, 'Hey, you sign up for the military, we'll pay for your school,' " said Eric Hilleman, deputy director of the national legislative office for Veterans of Foreign Wars. "They're not saying, 'Hey, we'll pay for a little bit of your school.' "

Sen. Richard Burr, the top Republican on the Senate Veteran Affairs committee, has his own plan for the GI Bill, ideas that align more closely with the Pentagon's concerns about retention.

Burr's proposal, written with GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, would raise monthly payments from $1,100 to $1,500 for active-duty troops and to $1,200 for Guard and Reserve troops. Guard and Reservists now often receive just a few hundred dollars a month.

His bill also allows troops to give their education dollars to relatives after 12 years in the military, a provision to improve retention that earned Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's support as a co-sponsor.

Many veterans have been frustrated that six years after Sept. 11, a new GI Bill still hasn't emerged.

"It's a crime that this Congress and Senate haven't gotten their act together to go ahead and just lay down their swords and be bipartisan and put this through," said Raymond Yamrus, national legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars in North Carolina.

The first GI Bill passed during World War II, allowing a generation of fighters to return home and attend for free any college they could get into -- including Harvard.

Over the decades the bill has evolved. But the payments were linked to the consumer price index, and education costs have skyrocketed at a much higher pace.

Sanchez, who counsels veterans at Fayetteville State, hears the tales of cash-strapped veterans struggling to adjust.

Students switch focus, putting them behind.

Some can't afford to pay tuition up-front, but the government check arrives too late, so they miss a semester.

They have to pay their mortgages, their car payments and for their groceries, and so the education money seeps into other bill payments.

"This new bill would allow them, as long as they were responsible about their life, they could go back to school in many cases without having to look for a job," Sanchez said. "It creates more access to a four-year school from the beginning."

Republican opposition

Still, the GI Bill faces opposition both in Congress and the White House.

Webb's $50 billion bill would increase benefits over time as higher-education costs rise.

The Burr/Graham/McCain bill would cost $34 billion over the same 10 years, but its cost rises only as quickly as the consumer price index.

In five years, that bill will pay for only 58 percent of the cost of education at a public school, said Patrick Campbell, legislative director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "We will be in the same situation."

Yamrus, with the VFW in North Carolina, said he met Burr in a Capitol Hill hallway a few weeks ago during a lobbying trip. He suspects Burr is trying to "destroy" Webb's bill with his own version.

"He was so proud and sticking out his chest and flapping his wings about it," Yamrus recalled. "And I told him we don't like it."

Pete Hegseth, chairman of Vets for Freedom, a group that supports the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he believes the two bills could be merged. He likes that Webb's would increase funding as higher-education costs go up, but he thinks Burr's bill could start working more quickly.

"We certainly need an upgrade," Hegseth said.