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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, May 24, 2008 Revised G.I. Bill will likely be vetoed By Tom Philpott Twenty-five Republican senators broke ranks with President Bush to help Democrats approve overwhelmingly a new, more generous GI Bill plan negotiated by Sen. Jim Webb, D-W.Va, for active-duty service members, reservists and veterans who have served since the attacks of Sept. 11. Senate leadership virtually ignored an alternative backed by the Bush administration and sweetened a day earlier by prominent Republicans who support the war in Iraq. Their bill, S. 2938, would have enhanced the G.I. Bill education benefit in the hope of winning the support of more veterans groups and blocking Webb's package. The surprise 75-22 vote for the Webb plan included more than half of all Senate Republicans plus 48 Democrats and two independents. President Bush has promised to veto the bill but an override looks possible in the Senate and House, which passed the Webb bill in mid-May. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Caroline, John McCain of Arizona and Richard Burr of North Carolina agreed with Defense officials that the Webb plan would entice too many service members to leave after completing their initial service obligations, driving drown force retention rates in wartime. But most veterans groups stood by the Webb plan because it would pay full tuition and fees at the most expensive state schools, provide a new monthly stipend tied to local housing costs, and would give Reserve and Guard members who have served lengthy deployments since Sept. 11, 2001 access to the same G.I. Bill benefits. The chairmen of the armed services and the veterans' affairs committees co-sponsored the Warner amendment. To solidify support for their bill, called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, Webb and co-sponsor Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., announced May 20 that they would back a new amendment from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to allow testing of a transferability option for their new-era G.I. Bill. The next day, Graham and Burr unveiled more ambitious changes to their own bill. Graham suddenly wanted to drop the $1,200 enrollment fee and to adjust benefits each year based on rising education costs rather than inflation overall. Also, a $500 annual stipend for books would be raised to $1,000. These changes boosted the cost of Graham's bill to $38 billion over 10 years, up $4 billion from his earlier plan. He and Burr proposed paying for their bill by cutting all federal discretionary spending, except for defense programs, by up to 0.5 percent a year. The House had voted to pay for the Webb bill by raising taxes by 0.47 percent on incomes above $500,000 a year for individuals and above $1 million for couples. Graham said the flaw of this plan is that it will hammer small-business owners. Hagel, in an interview, said the trouble with Graham's reform package is that education benefits would be used as a retention tool. Instead, they should be regarded as promised benefits to a new generation of warriors, he said. "This is an argument about doing what the American people have committed to do" in every past war: "provide an earned (education) benefit for those men and women who serve their country," Hagel said. Hagel said he was "stunned" by data Webb introduced during floor debate showing that the Army loses 75 percent of soldiers during or immediately after they complete their first enlistment. Seventy percent of Marine recruits too are gone after a first tour. That suggests to Hagel and Webb that critics are exaggerating the importance of retention while they would allow most veterans to leave without proper education benefits. Today's volunteers, Hagel said, deserve "what I got coming back from Vietnam, what Warner got coming back from World War II and what (Rep.) Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), got coming back from Korea." Graham's plan to pay for his G.I. Bill revisions by cutting nondefense spending by 0.5 percent across the board is "a charade," Hagel said. "That's not going to happen; everybody knows it." Graham and colleagues, Hagel said, should accept the fact that an improved G.I. Bill is another cost of war. E-mail milupdate@aol.com.

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