Modernizing The GI Bill
Since World War II, the GI bill has provided educational benefits to millions of service members. It has been a critical tool to help veterans readjust to civilian life and to improve their economic opportunities. It has enhanced America’s competitiveness through the development of a more highly educated and productive workforce. It has been an invaluable and tangible way that we as a nation have thanked our veterans for their service.
The GI Bill was updated in 1984 to reflect changing times and the transition to an all-volunteer military. The times continue to change -- in particular, the vastly increased role of our National Guard and Reserves since September 11th, 2001 – and it is essential that the GI Bill keep pace.
I have recently joined with Senate and House colleagues to co-sponsor the Total Force GI Bill, bipartisan legislation that would recognize this increased role and ensure that National Guard and Reserve members who are serving side-by-side with their active duty counterparts receive the same benefits that all our soldiers deserve.
Their service is essential to our missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere around the world. Since 2001, more than 500,000 of these brave men and women have been called up, and more than 70,000 have pulled two or more tours of duty.
Here in our state, nearly 1,400 soldiers of the Maine Army National Guard have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, representing 70 percent of our state’s Guard force. Many have volunteered for second deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan. These Guardsmen are serving next to their active duty colleagues, carrying out many of the same missions with the same dedication and making the same sacrifices. In fact, seven members of the Maine National Guard have died in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
The 1984 update of the GI Bill did include the National Guard and Reserves in the benefits package. During the last two decades however, the value of those benefits has fallen from 47 percent to just 29 percent of Active Duty benefits. In addition, they continue to be the only benefits that National Guard and Reserve members who are activated to duty in the Global War on Terror forfeit once they separate from service.
The Total Force GI Bill is an important step in addressing this inequity for these brave men and women who serve with distinction in hostile environments. Like our National Guard and Reserves, it addresses the challenges of the 21st Century.
Our legislation would provide National Guard and Reserve members with the ability to earn proportional benefits compared to their active duty counterparts -- benefits would be earned and tied to the amount of service served by any of our military. They would earn benefits based on the time they are serving or are mobilized. If they attend one training weekend each month, they will earn benefits based on those days. If they are mobilized for 12 months, they will earn benefits based on that year.
This modernization better reflects the Total Force concept of today’s military -- the National Guard and Reserves is no longer a strategic asset to be called up in case of a global war. They have become an operational force on whom we rely constantly, in fact, too much during the current war. It is essential that we establish one Total Force GI benefits program with one set of rules for all who serve.
Currently, National Guard and Reserve members lose all of their educational benefits once they finish their service. Yet today’s training schedules and repeated deployments make it very difficult and often impossible for them to use their benefits during their active time. Our bill would also give them 10 years to use their GI benefits after separation of service, which is the same time frame allowed to active duty service members.
During General George Casey’s nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee a few weeks ago to become Army Chief of Staff, I urged him to examine and improve the benefits provided to members of the National Guard and Reserves. He assured me that he recognized a need to reevaluate the benefits provided to these brave men and women.
The changes proposed in our bill will help to more effectively support armed forces recruiting and retention, as well as the readjustment process that members go through when they return home following service. The Total Force GI bill is endorsed by the American Legion, the VFW, the Military Officers Association of America, and 45 other military, veterans, and higher education groups working together as the “Partnership for Veterans’ Education.”
Most important, our bill recognizes that, although the willingness of Americans to answer the call of duty in the defense of freedom is a constant throughout our nation’s history, the circumstances of that service constantly evolve. The Total Force GI Bill honors that timeless heritage by addressing today’s realities.
