Senate to add GI Bill family transfer option

Senate to add GI Bill family transfer option
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 21, 2008 5:56:33 EDT

Supporters of the GI Bill for the 21st Century said Tuesday they will amend their veterans benefits proposal to include granting service members the right to transfer benefits to family members as a re-enlistment bonus if that change will reduce Bush administration opposition to their plan.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the former Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said he will sponsor the amendment that would expand a limited test that offered GI Bill transfer rights to troops re-enlisting in critical specialties.

Warner, whose support for improving veterans education benefits has been critical in pushing the measure to the top of the congressional agenda, also said that if the Senate fails in its effort to include GI Bill legislation as an amendment to the war supplemental funding bill, he and other co-sponsors would move to attach the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., to the 2009 defense authorization bill.

White House and Pentagon officials have made GI Bill transfer rights one of their important bottom lines as they negotiate with Congress on details for improving education benefits. They say helping troops pay for the college education of their families would encourage them to stay in the military for a career and reduce their own incentive to leave service to attend college.

The amendment Warner is offering, which has the support of transferability skeptics such as Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, is not at all what the Pentagon has been seeking.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_gibill_transfer_052008w/

these benefits are for the veterans - not the families of veterans.

Improve the healthcare. Improve the ed benefits. But to fund family members seems a stretch.