Panel adjusts education benefits in new GI Bill p1 - GI Bill Benefits - Tuition Assistance for the Military - Military Times EDGE

A Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee bill aimed at fixing problems with the new Post-9/11 GI Bill gives a little and takes a little as it adjusts education benefits for service members.

Committee chairman Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and other lawmakers still are searching for a way to fulfill a promise that the full-tuition benefits of the new education benefits program would be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2008, committee aides said.

Retroactive benefits increases were part of an agreement reached in April between Democrats and Republicans on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, but language meant to carry out that agreement “was not reflected in what was eventually signed into law,” according to a joint statement from Akaka and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., the chief sponsor of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

While making no promises about when or if the GI Bill program would be changed, Akaka and Webb said they are “working together diligently to do everything possible,” so that “our entire agreement and our commitment” are fully kept.

The big difficulty in making the benefits retroactive is the potential cost, which Akaka and Webb have not figured out how to cover.

That is not the only issue. The Department of Veterans Affairs, tasked with launching the new benefits plan by Aug. 1, is discovering details that may disappoint some people planning to use the new benefits, which could lead to additional fixes.

For example, service members who contributed extra money to the Montgomery GI Bill program through its so-called “Buy Up” plan, which gives them up to $600 a month above the basic benefits, can use them if they stay in the current GI Bill program.

But if they use the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which covers full tuition, plus offers a book allowance and living expenses, they cannot use the buy-up benefits, VA officials said. “They may only receive those increases if they stay in the benefit program in which they are currently enrolled,” according to a VA statement.

Two other issues

A technical corrections bill, S 3339, drafted by Akaka's committee in June and reported on July 23 focuses on two other issues: paying benefits to veterans attending school or receiving training outside the U.S., and preventing for-profit universities and colleges in the U.S. from participating in a program to help pay private-school tuitions that exceed the cost of a four-year public school.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill promises basic benefits that match full tuition, plus fees, up to the highest rate for undergraduate studies at a four-year public institution in the state where the veteran is enrolled. The law, signed June 30 by President George W. Bush, does not have a formula for paying tuition at foreign schools, something the technical corrections bill would remedy with a two-part plan.

For students attending an overseas branch of a U.S.-based institution, benefits would match what the institution charges for undergraduate studies in the U.S., and the monthly living allowance would be based on the basic allowance for housing for an E-5 with dependents in the ZIP code where the institution is located in the U.S.

For students attending an institution not based in the U.S., both the tuition and housing stipends would be based on the national average for four-year public colleges and universities.

Full tuition payments, the $1,000 annual book allowance and the housing allowance all take effect Aug. 1 unless a new law is approved advancing the effective date.

Excluding for-profit colleges and universities from the public-private matching grant program, called the Yellow Ribbon Program, is included in the corrections bill at the urging of VA, which does not believe veterans benefits should be used to help schools profit.

The Yellow Ribbon Program, which also would begin Aug. 1, allows VA to work out voluntary agreements with colleges and universities to help cover tuition costs when those costs exceeds the basic GI Bill benefit. VA would match, dollar-for-dollar, a contribution from the institution to cover the difference.

Yellow Ribbon benefits are expected to cover 75 percent of the excess tuition and fees, costing the VA about $4,000 per student per year, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.

About 20 percent of private institutions attended by service members and veterans are for-profit rather than nonprofit schools, according to the CBO.

Excluding for-profit schools could end up annually hurting as many as 12,000 service members and veterans who would no longer be eligible for the Yellow Ribbon benefits, according to the CBO analysis.