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Senators warned away from bigger GI Bill

Lawmakers pushing for dramatic improvements in veterans’ education benefits can expect no help from the Bush administration.

While defense and veterans’ officials representing the administration acknowledge the value of having GI Bill benefits that help pay for college or vocational education, the administration does not support generous increases that would raise benefits to fully cover the cost of tuition and fees plus provide a $1,000 monthly stipend for living expenses.

Service members trying to attend college “are faced with the daunting task of taking multiple jobs to raise the money, attending a less prestigious institution, taking out student loans and/or living on mama’s couch to cut expenses,” said Patrick Campbell, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans.

But officials who testified July 31 before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee said the possibility of receiving an average of $2,400 a month — which includes the stipend plus average college costs — would be enough to cause serious harm to the military at a time when it is hard to get and keep good people.

“The potential benefits of a higher benefit level to recruiting must be carefully evaluated in light of the difficulties some of the services are experiencing in the recruiting market,” said a joint statement submitted by Tom Bush, the Defense Department’s principal director for manpower and personnel, and Curt Gilroy, its director of accession policy. “Attracting qualified recruits using large, across-the-board basic benefits incurs the risk that many who enter for the benefits will leave as soon as they can to use them,” the statement said.

Several GI Bill initiatives are pending before Congress, but the one getting the most attention is S 22, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, introduced in January by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

The bill, which has wide support among Democrats, would provide a monthly payment of the cost of in-state tuition and fees for a four-year public college or university plus the $1,000 stipend, a combination Webb said would restore benefits to the level provided when the original GI Bill was created at the end of World War II.

Payments proposed by Webb would be a significant increase over the $1,075 maximum basic benefit payment now provided to those who have served at least three years on active duty.

However, defense officials said S 22 could hurt the military. Not only would a big education benefit encourage some people to go to college rather than stay in uniform, but payments to people with critical skills would be lower under the proposal than what is available today.

Those enlisting in critically needed skills can get up to $950 more a month in benefits; about 12,000 people a year get the so-called “kickers.” Pentagon officials said the combination of the basic benefit and the kicker, used by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, is more than S 22 would provide.

Robert Norton, deputy government relations director for the Military Officers Association of America, noted the growing interest in Congress to improve veterans’ education benefits, from modest improvements to major initiatives such as S 22.

Most provisions of S 22 have long been on a list of GI Bill features sought by MOAA and other advocates, and supported by an alliance of military, veterans’ and education groups.

“This bill represents a vision ... that our nation’s warriors surely have earned,” Norton said.

Related reading

• How to cover what your benefits won’t

• Getting the most for your GI Bill dollars

• Opinion: “Time to Overhaul the GI Bill”