By NEIL H. SIMON, Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON—Promising to “leave no veteran behind,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she hopes the House will take up a new GI bill “in the next couple of weeks.”
Pelosi’s comment was the clearest indication yet that Congress will vote this year on Sen. Jim Webb’s bill to expand educational benefits for recent war veterans.
“For all the people who have been saying this is the new greatest generation, this is the easiest way for all of us to prove that,” said Webb, a Virginia Democrat.
About 140 war veterans rallied with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the steps of the Capitol, calling on Congress to modernize the World War II-era benefit.
Webb’s bill has support from a majority of House members and senators.
But Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona are preparing a competing bill that would place more emphasis on benefits for active service members. The Pentagon has said Webb’s bill would make military retention difficult.
Webb said today the Graham bill had “no traction.”
The current GI Bill pays an average of about $6,000 a year per veteran, an amount that covers about half the annual cost of a public college education, Webb said.
Webb’s bill would give veterans vouchers to cover tuition at any public or private university in the country up to an amount equal to in-state tuition at a public university in the same state. The average tuition in Virginia is $7,083, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
John McClelland of Chesapeake, Va., one of the veterans attending the rally, says a bigger benefit would help. McClelland, an Army medic who did his special operations medical training at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia before serving five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said some of his Army friends chose to work for defense contractors in Iraq to save for college, rather than rely on the GI benefit.
“It isn’t anything more than pocket change anymore,” said McClelland, now a student at Columbia University in New York. His tuition and room and board cost about $3,300 a month. His monthly GI benefit is $1,200.
The current GI Bill costs about $2.2 billion a year. Lawmakers say Webb’s bill, which could cost $4 billion a year, likely will be considered as part of the supplemental war funding bill the House plans to take up in May. President Bush has requested $108 billion in extra war funding.
“It’s a cost of war,” said Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., who supports including the new educational benefits in the war spending bill.
Pelosi’s comment was the clearest indication yet that Congress will vote this year on Sen. Jim Webb’s bill to expand educational benefits for recent war veterans.
“For all the people who have been saying this is the new greatest generation, this is the easiest way for all of us to prove that,” said Webb, a Virginia Democrat.
About 140 war veterans rallied with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the steps of the Capitol, calling on Congress to modernize the World War II-era benefit.
Webb’s bill has support from a majority of House members and senators.
But Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona are preparing a competing bill that would place more emphasis on benefits for active service members. The Pentagon has said Webb’s bill would make military retention difficult.
Webb said today the Graham bill had “no traction.”
The current GI Bill pays an average of about $6,000 a year per veteran, an amount that covers about half the annual cost of a public college education, Webb said.
Webb’s bill would give veterans vouchers to cover tuition at any public or private university in the country up to an amount equal to in-state tuition at a public university in the same state. The average tuition in Virginia is $7,083, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
John McClelland of Chesapeake, Va., one of the veterans attending the rally, says a bigger benefit would help. McClelland, an Army medic who did his special operations medical training at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia before serving five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said some of his Army friends chose to work for defense contractors in Iraq to save for college, rather than rely on the GI benefit.
“It isn’t anything more than pocket change anymore,” said McClelland, now a student at Columbia University in New York. His tuition and room and board cost about $3,300 a month. His monthly GI benefit is $1,200.
The current GI Bill costs about $2.2 billion a year. Lawmakers say Webb’s bill, which could cost $4 billion a year, likely will be considered as part of the supplemental war funding bill the House plans to take up in May. President Bush has requested $108 billion in extra war funding.
“It’s a cost of war,” said Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., who supports including the new educational benefits in the war spending bill.