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Bill would create corps of vets helping vets

A new national service program in which veterans would help other veterans was approved by the House of Representatives this week after an amendment was approved ensuring that volunteers earn extra education benefits — without risking GI Bill benefits already earned — for their additional service.

The Veterans’ Corps is part of a larger national service bill, the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, or GIVE Act, which passed the House on Wednesday by a 321-105 vote. The bill, HR 1388, now goes to the Senate, where there is also interest in creating a special national service program for veterans.

Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., who pushed for inclusion of the Veterans’ Corps, said he envisions a program similar to AmeriCorps in which people leaving the service volunteer to serve in a program that helps other veterans, collaborating with veterans service organization and with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide job training, mentoring and other assistance.

This isn’t an original idea, Hare said, noting that President Barack Obama spoke of the concept during the presidential campaign.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a freshman congressman and Marine veteran, was responsible for an amendment that guarantees full GI Bill Benefits and full national service benefits for participants.

Hunter said that without his change, veterans could end up receiving less for participating in national service programs than nonveterans.

“At some low-cost institutions, educational benefits provided to veterans through the GI bill either significantly reduce the national service award or deny access to this benefit altogether,” he said. With the change, he expects more veterans would be interested in volunteering.

Only about 2 percent of AmeriCorps participants today are veterans, he said. “That is due, in large part, to the fact that current law discourages this type of service among America’s veteran population.”

Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., a cosponsor of the Veterans’ Corps legislation included in the larger bill, said he thinks the program will help with two problems.

First, it will provide jobs. “The unemployment rate for returning veterans is as high as 18 percent,” he said.

Second, it will create a group of people dedicated to helping veterans and their families. “We have an opportunity to serve them and they, in turn, can serve the broader communities and serve other military families and other veterans,” Sarbanes said.

Under provisions of the bill, the Veterans’ Corps would create community-based programs to help military families while a service member is deployed or when the member returns; help veterans receive professional certification or other education; provide mentoring for economically disadvantaged students; and develop projects to help disabled, unemployed and older veterans.

Participants in the national service program earn a stipend of about $4,800 for each year of service that can be used to pay for college education, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee that oversees AmeriCorps.

The GIVE Act creates about 175,000 new national service jobs, with the Veterans’ Corps being just one of several new opportunities. National service programs would have about 250,000 participants by 2014 under the bill.

The bill does not specify how many of those positions would be in the Veterans’ Corps.

Miller said there is precedent for getting veterans involved. One existing program, the Survivor Corps, is headed by retired Army Maj. Scott Quilty, who lost both legs and one arm in Iraq. The program he heads helps people around the world who have been victims of conflict. The Veterans’ Corps would be different, aimed solely at U.S. veterans.

Not everyone is a fan of the bill. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, a retired Air Force pilot, noted the GIVE Act has a $1 billion price tag and said he would rather see some of the money spent on current service members and wounded combat veterans.

“Let’s redirect just a small portion of that money to the real volunteers, those who voluntarily service in the armed forces,” he said.