Webb's Proposed GI Bill Held Up Amid Squabbling

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
May 9, 2008 By Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot
WASHINGTON--Partisan wrangling kept Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's plan to expand veterans' education benefits off the House floor Thursday, but Democratic leaders said they still intend to act on the proposed "GI Bill" this month.
The legislation, which would give veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aid to cover the cost of tuition at a public, in-state college, plus a monthly cost-of-living allowance, is tied to a hotly contested war appropriations bill.
Democrats want to bring the war spending proposal to the floor without the usual hearings in the House Appropriations Committee. That has sparked a Republican revolt, with GOP members using a variety of parliamentary tactics to delay action on other legislation on the House floor this week.
President Bush and Pentagon leaders say the spending bill must reach Bush's desk by mid-June or the military will run short of vital operating and training funds.
In a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenged suggestions that the Bush administration believes Webb's GI Bill plan is too generous to veterans.
He said the Pentagon wants to require that service members stay in uniform for six years before qualifying for college aid, twice as long as Webb's bill would require. With a volunteer force, "our desire is to keep soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines in the military as long as possible," he said.
The administration appears supportive of an alternative and more economical proposal advanced by Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Arizona's John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
That bill has the six-year requirement plus provisions that would allow service members to transfer at least part of their tuition benefit to a spouse or child.
 
Back
Top