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More lawmakers float plans for better GI Bill
April 4, 2008 | Rick Maze, Army Times

Two key lawmakers have unveiled a compromise proposal for increasing GI Bill benefits that might be acceptable to the Defense Department, which is worried that an overly generous education benefits program would hurt readiness by encouraging troops to leave service.

For those who serve at least three years on active duty, the Veterans Education Improvement Act, introduced Wednesday, would provide basic benefits of $1,450 a month — which just happens to be the amount top Pentagon officials named in January as the maximum acceptable level before the GI Bill would become so attractive that it would hurt retention.

In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs would pay a $500 monthly stipend for those attending school at least half-time and a $250 monthly stipend for those attending less than half time.

While the proposed full-time payment is well above the current maximum payment of $1,101 per month, the $1,450 paid over nine months of schooling per year still would be slightly less than the national annual average cost of $13,589 in tuition and fees for attending a four-year public college or university. It also would be far short of the average $32,307 average cost for a four-year private school.

Stipends, not paid under the current GI Bill, would leave GI Bill users far better off than they are today.

Reps. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and John Boozman, R-Ark., are the chief sponsors of the bill, HR 5684.

Herseth Sandlin is the chairwoman and Boozman the ranking Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs economic opportunity subcommittee, which is responsible for GI Bill initiatives. That automatically gives their proposal a leg up.

Herseth Sandlin said the bill would address issues uncovered during hearings that would make GI Bill benefits more useful. It is “meant to make it easier, not harder, for veterans to access the education benefits they’ve earned following their service,” she said.

She expects the veterans’ committee to hold hearings within a month and to pass the bill within two months, and she said she’s optimistic about the full House passing it, as well.

But she was wary about predicting whether this bill, or a similar bill, would become law, only because the House and Senate leadership has yet to commit to the budgetary maneuvers needed to find the $2 billion or more per year that would be needed to provide extra benefits.

However, she said, “there is growing support for a bill that addresses necessary changes to veterans’ education benefits, and I’ll keep working toward that goal this year. I do see momentum.”

The House bill is less generous than the Senate’s major GI Bill proposal, S 22, which has been revised several times in an effort to increase support. The current version proposes GI Bill benefits that would vary by state.

Payments would be based on tuition and fees for a four-year public college or university in the state, plus a monthly stipend equal to the monthly military housing allowance of an E-5 with dependents in the area where the campus is located.

On average, veterans would get $1,777 in monthly benefits and $1,000 monthly as a living stipend under the bill. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is the chief sponsor.

The newest version of the Webb proposal also includes a way to help veterans pay for private colleges and universities by providing matching federal funds for grants offered by a school for tuition and fees that exceed the maximum basic benefit.

The House bill is more generous than the Senate’s in one major respect: It would allow up to $6,000 a year of GI Bill benefits to be used to pay off student loans, something Webb’s proposal does not include.

Herseth Sandlin said paying off student loans was one issue veterans raised in discussions with lawmakers and staff.

However, the Senate bill, which has been pending since January 2007 before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, also has some features that were left out of the new House proposal.

Webb’s measure would scrap the $1,200 enrollment fee each service member must make to enroll in the current GI bill. HR 5684 leaves the fee but allows it to be paid over a two-year period — at $50 a month — rather than the current $100 a month over the first year of service.

Both S 22 and HR 5684 would give veterans more time to use GI Bill benefits. Currently, benefits must be used within 10 years of separation or they are lost. The bills call for a 15-year limit.

The new House bill does not address a Pentagon plan to allow active-duty service members to transfer GI Bill benefits to family members as a retention bonus, an idea President Bush mentioned earlier this year in his State of the Union address.
Herseth Sandlin said she does not oppose the idea but thinks it is “not quite ripe” for approval.

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