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[Pages H4703-H4704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICANS SUPPORT THE GI BILL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, 12 days ago, the eyes of the world were
focused on the beaches of Normandy, France, to observe the 75th
anniversary of the D-day invasion. It was a solemn moment to rightly
honor the sacrifice and courage of the combined Armed Forces of the
Allied Powers, who, from that moment, launched the final, decisive
assault that eventually destroyed the Axis Powers' murderous
stranglehold on Europe and Asia.
Mr. Speaker, another 75th anniversary surrounding the epic effort to
save democracy will occur in 4 days, this Saturday, June 22. On that
day 75 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the
Servicemen's Readjustment Act, more commonly known as the GI Bill. That
landmark measure would provide both college tuition and a stipend for
returning servicemembers who, as FDR said at the time, ``have been
compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of
sacrifice than the rest of us.''
Even though the war would rage on for another year, leaders in
Washington wisely recognized that millions of young soldiers, sailors,
and airmen would soon be returning back into civilian life; and for
their sake and for the sake of a healthy postwar economy, creating this
educational pathway made tremendous sense.
In the 75 years since the GI Bill was signed into law, it is now
recognized as one of the most successful pieces of domestic legislation
ever enacted. The postwar economic boom and the blossoming of the
American middle class have both been attributed, in part, to the GI
Bill.
Many renown Americans, including Bob Dole, Johnny Carson, Harry
Belafonte, William Rehnquist, and Clint Eastwood, were beneficiaries of
the GI Bill.
Economic studies have shown that, for every dollar the government
spent on the GI Bill, our economy saw nearly $7 in return of additional
economic output in tax revenues from income growth.
Despite its stellar performance, the relative strength of the GI Bill
deteriorated in the late 20th century. By 2008, it was clear that
tuition assistance and living stipends had not kept pace with the
rising cost of a college education.
As a freshman Congressman in the House Armed Services Committee at
the time, I heard from returning Iraq and Afghan vets who were forced
to choose between dropping out of school or shouldering the burden of
daunting student loans. To fix this decline, we passed the Post-9/11 GI
Bill, which was signed into law by George Bush on June 30, 2008.
The updated law boosted tuition to match the cost of a 4-year public
university in servicemembers' home States and increased the living
stipend to keep faith with the original law. It also allowed GI
benefits to be transferred to a spouse or dependent child, a
groundbreaking change which transformed the value of military service
for families.
After the bill signing, I flew to Iraq in late 2008 for a committee
visit and vividly recall being surrounded by soldiers bursting with
questions about when and how the new law would be implemented. Since
then, it has become clear that the transferability of the GI Bill has
been an enormous morale booster and a valuable incentive to enlist and
remain in service.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Trump Department of Defense announced
a new policy last July which would arbitrarily cut off servicemembers
with more than 16 years of service from transferring their Post-9/11 GI
benefits to eligible family members. We were told at the time that the
Department viewed this as a shrewd cost-cutting measure.
However, revoking transferability breaks our commitment to our most
dedicated and seasoned servicemembers and their families. In addition,
in a tight, lean labor market, it remains
[[Page H4704]]
critically important to attract and retain the best qualified
individuals for military service.
I believe it sends exactly the wrong message to some of our most
seasoned servicemembers who may have married late in life or started
their families later, to make them ineligible for incentives, to
continue their service to our Nation.
Two weeks after the Pentagon released this policy, 83 of my
colleagues in the House joined me in a letter that I wrote to Secretary
Mattis objecting to this change and calling for its reversal. So far,
DOD has refused to budge.
Mr. Speaker, I have some good news to report today. With the cutoff
due to go into effect next month, the House Armed Services Committee
last week unanimously passed my amendment to the 2020 National Defense
Authorization Act, which would block the Secretary of Defense from
restricting GI Bill transferability based on a maximum number of years
of service.
As Congress took action 75 years ago to create the GI Bill benefit,
today it is our job to restore the hard-fought modernized GI Bill of
2008. That is even more the case today at a time of an All-Volunteer
Force. If a servicemember demonstrates that they are ready, able, and
willing to continue their service to our Nation, we should uphold our
end of the commitment.
To paraphrase President Roosevelt's words 75 years ago when he signed
the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, protecting transferability today
``gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our Armed Forces that
the American people do not intend to let them down.''
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