Lawmakers Put Coal in Vets' Stockings

The House Wednesday debated passage of a new version of the post-9/11 GI Bill that will effectively reduce housing stipends and cap tuition fees.

The Senate approved the new version this Monday. It would limit living stipends to semesters when veterans are in school, rather than providing them year-round, and would provide $17,500 a year in tuition regardless of where a veteran goes to school.

"I can't think of a worse idea than to cut a veteran benefit during the Christmas and the holiday season," Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a floor statement Wednesday.

Buyer, who will retire at the end of this session, added, "All Americans know that the month of December is already a strain on their pocketbook and to have your paycheck cut would be devastating to anyone. This provision is nothing but a lump of coal for veterans."

Tuition payments under the post-9/11 GI Bill are based on a complex formula that pays veterans the highest rate charged by a state university where they live, whether they go to a state or private school.

Buyer pointed out that the proposed, nationwide flat rate of $17,500 shortchanges veterans who attend school in states that have higher fees, such as the University of Massachusetts, which charges $20,545 a year for tuition. If veterans choose to attend private schools in Masschusetts, they would receive payments equal to the UMass tuition.

Today, a veteran attending UMass would receive reimbursement for the full $20,545, but if the new version of the post-9/11 GI Bill passes, that veteran would receive only $17,500.

Oddly, the major veterans services organizations -- including the American Legion, the VFW, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America -- support the bill.

Buyer, who no longer has to curry favor with anyone, had a message for vets who belong to these groups:

"Are your representatives in Washington really standing up for you when they endorse a bill that cuts your living stipend during the holidays? Are they really representing your views when they endorse legislation that cuts tuition payments for some veterans by thousands of dollars a year?"

Buyer held out hope this bill will not pass before the end of the year, and that the new Congress will fix the issues that make S. 3447 a piece of legislation that ill-serves those the nation sends into harm's way.