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Include GI Bill in war funding, veterans urge

With a critical vote coming as early as Thursday on whether to include GI Bill improvements in a war funding bill, a new veterans’ group is targeting seven lawmakers who could hold the key to whether the so-called GI Bill for the 21st Century becomes law.

Derek Blumke, president of Student Veterans of America, said in a message to his membership that a group of fiscally conservative Democrats is worried about how to pay for the $58 billion benefits package and needs to be persuaded that there is nothing wrong with paying for better educational opportunities for veterans as a cost of war.

The targeted representatives, all Democrats, are Marion Berry and Mike Ross of Arkansas, Allen Boyd of Florida, Dennis Cardoza of California, Dennis Moore of Kansas, John Tanner of Tennessee and Gene Taylor of Mississippi.

All seven are part of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats who unified years ago to battle excessive spending. Boyd, Ross and Moore are all coalition officers.

Blue Dogs succeeded earlier this year in forcing House Democratic leaders to propose a surtax on wealthy taxpayers in order to pay for the full tuition plus a stipend that would be provided if the GI Bill improvements took effect.

The surtax was rejected by the Senate, leaving lawmakers to either consider the cost of better college benefits for veterans an off-budget emergency, which is how combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have been funded, or to find another way to offset the costs.

“Now is the time to make phone calls to your U.S. representatives and senators and tell them you want them to vote yes on the 21st Century GI Bill,” Blumke said in a message to members of Student Veterans of America, a group formed last year that has representatives on college and university campuses throughout the U.S. “Be sure to tell them it is a cost of war and if they are voting yes on the war supplemental, you want them voting yes on the GI Bill.”

The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on another version of the war supplemental that will include the GI Bill improvements without any offsets to cover the cost.

Without support from Blue Dogs, Democratic leaders are not certain they will have enough votes to pass the measure. Few Republicans are expected to vote for the package because the White House opposes adding anything to the bill that is not directly related to Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

Funding for GI Bill benefits is not the only controversial item in the supplemental. Democratic leaders also are intent on including an extension of unemployment benefits to the bill, which has drawn a veto threat from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.