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House lawmaker favors Senate GI Bill proposal

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman has taken the unusual position of favoring a Senate bill that would improve GI Bill education benefits over a bill prepared by members of his own committee.

On Thursday, one day after the committee’s economic opportunity panel approved a bipartisan GI Bill improvement package, HR 5684, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the full committee, issued a statement praising the Senate GI Bill plan as “the best blueprint for a new system.”

The House bill would increase GI Bill payments to cover the average cost of attending a four-year public college; create a monthly stipend of up to $500; and expand eligibility and the period of time veterans have to use their benefits.

The subcommittee approved HR 5684 by voice vote, with no controversy. Its chief sponsors are Reps. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., chairwoman of the subcommittee, and John Boozman, R-Ark., the ranking minority party member.

As chairman, Filner has the power to decide when and if measures come to a vote before his full committee. It plans to pass several veterans’ benefits bills next week, but HR 5684 is not among them, according to committee aides.

Herseth Sandlin said Wednesday that she had hoped for quick passage of the bill and was working with Boozman on a second measure that would improve reserve education benefits not covered by HR 5684.

Filner said in an interview that he is not trying to undermine his own committee members, but liked the other bill more because it calls for bigger increases and appears to have a better chance of becoming law.

“I think it is the vehicle that has the best opportunity to go the right way,” he said.

He also faulted HR 5684 for omitting increases in reserve education benefits that are part of the Senate bill. Reserve programs were left out because the Armed Services Committee, not the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has jurisdiction over the reserve benefits plan.

Herseth Sandlin was not immediately available for additional comment.

The Senate bill backed by Filner is S 22, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. It would offer more generous benefits than the House bill, but has drawn strong opposition from the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Webb’s bill promises to pay full tuition plus a larger stipend that would vary by state.

There are other differences, too. HR 5684 would allow GI Bill benefits to be used to pay off existing student loans, a provision missing from S 22.

However, HR 5684 retains the $1,200 fee to enroll in the GI Bill; S 22 would eliminate that fee.

S 22 has been tied up in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee since January 2007, when it was first introduced. Webb has collected 57 co-sponsors in hopes of getting the bill passed by the Senate as an attachment to some other legislation, such as the wartime supplemental funding bill that the Senate is expected to consider in May.

A House version of S 22, HR 5740, was referred to Filner’s committee but was set aside in favor of the bipartisan bill that the subcommittee approved Wednesday.

Filner’s statement recognizes the many GI Bill proposals in play, but indicates his preference for S 22, while still holding out hope of improving veterans’ home loan programs as part of the measure.

While Filner’s support of S 22 undercuts the compromise bill passed by his committee’s economic opportunity panel, Filner’s support for S 22 puts him in league with Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman who recently signed on as a co-sponsor of Webb’s bill.

Filner said he would work with Webb and Akaka to get the bill passed.