Military News: Vets Upset at Pending Cuts to GI Bill

WASHINGTON — Some veterans are blasting plans to slash college subsidies for service members’ children.

One of the most lucrative benefits in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the subsidy covers college tuition and housing for active-duty service members, who are allowed to pass their benefits to their spouses and children.

Last month, the House chopped the housing subsidy for dependents in half. The chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, said he also backs a “common-sense” cut.

Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said it’s unfair to cut so deeply a benefit that can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per year.

“Our community is outraged this is even an issue,” he told a joint hearing of the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees this week.

However, a review of the housing benefit found that payouts, which vary by location, often exceed actual costs.

The Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission recommended eliminating the subsidy entirely. In a report to Congress, it found a monthly subsidy in New York City was $3,744 in 2014, which topped room and board at The New School university in Greenwich Village by more than $10,000 over a nine-month academic year.

A student at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, in Alva, Okla., would get $8,658 over the nine months — $4,758 more than the school charged for room and board.

Halving the stipend brings it more in line with actual housing costs.

In a voice vote, the House cut the subsidies for dependents, freeing up $900 million to reduce costs and pay for other improvements to veterans benefits over a decade. Improved benefits include increasing the time that newborns are eligible for Veterans Affairs medical care.

“We made a decision that taxpayer dollars would be better invested in expanding benefits for widows and children of deceased troops, as well as veterans’ newborn babies, than what in many cases are payments that go thousands of dollars above and beyond what the housing stipend was designed to cover,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Arizona, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, in a statement.

Isakson also noted the commission’s recommendation and the fact that children in college under the current system can collect more from the housing subsidy than their actual costs.

Shifting the money will balance various incentives meant to encourage people to remain in the armed services, he said in a statement.

Enacted in 2009, the Post-9/11 GI Bill provides education and other benefits for active-duty military and veterans with an honorable discharge with at least 90 days of service after Sept. 10, 2001. Those discharged because of a service-related disability are also eligible.

Military members who’ve served at least six years, and who agree to serve another four, can transfer their benefits.

A Congressional Budget Office report on the bill estimated that 28,000 service members will transfer education and housing benefits to their children each year.

But only about 2,000 dependents are expected to be affected by the change this year, since many won’t reach college-age for years. The number affected will rise to 40,000 in 2025.

The full bill shifting the benefits was backed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America. However, Rieckhoff said the cut violates the trust of service members who were promised the benefits.

“It’s not a piggy-bank to fund other veterans programs,” he told the veterans affairs panels on Tuesday.

“This would be a breach of trust in the military while we’re at war,” he said. “People can’t even believe this is being considered.”

Rob Frank, CEO of the Air Force Sergeants Association, said the cut does not recognize the impact on children who have a parent serving overseas.

“We’ve been at war for 14 years,” he told the panel. “Families have continued to stay home and sacrifice on behalf of service members.

“Now we’re going to turn around and cut the legs out from under them?”

Veterans groups raised concerns about other benefits, as well, including the VA’s growing backlog of appeals of denied disability claims.

Rene Campos, the Military Officers Association’s deputy director for government relations, said the backlog has dropped from 611,000 in 2013 to 81,000 as of February. But appeals can still take a decade to resolve.

She noted the number of women using the Veterans Health Administration has doubled in the past decade, and it should add female doctors and increase services for women.

Rieckhoff called on Congress to do more to improve mental health services for veterans, particularly for a growing number of women who served in the Armed Forces.

Miller, the committee chairman, said lawmakers are working on a measure to increase accountability in the VA, and a bill could be passed by Memorial Day.

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