...for as long as it takes
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Military recruiting would continue to decline unless the Montgomery GI Bill were enhanced, the man who gave his name to the program testified Wednesday before the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Benefits.
G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery (D-MS), former chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs urged support for legislation to upgrade the GI Bill. He was followed by former Assistant Secretary of the Army B. Kim Wincup, and field recruiters and recruiting command chiefs of all military branches, who echoed Montgomery in proclaiming the importance of the Montgomery GI Bill as an inducement to military service.
Montgomery praised both H.R. 1182, the Servicemembers Educational Opportunity Act of 1999, introduced principally by Committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-AZ) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-SC), and H.R. 1071, the Montgomery GI Bill Improvement Act, introduced principally by the Committee's Ranking Democratic Member Lane Evans (D-IL).
"The costs of education have soared since 1985," Montgomery said, "but the GI Bill benefit level has not increased accordingly. If this program isn't improved, the GI Bill will become a hollow program with little value as a readjustment benefit or recruitment tool."
"When high school students consider their post-high school plans," Chairman Stump wrote in a statement submitted to the Subcommittee. "We want them to consider military service as their first option for academic advancement, not their last. Most college-bound youth and their parents see a tour of military service as a detour from their college plans, not as a way to achieve that goal. We want to reverse that thinking."
Stump wrote that H.R. 1182 was inspired by a proposal included in the Anthony Principi-led Congressional Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance report to the Committee three months ago. The measure would repeal the current $1,200 reduction-in-pay to be eligible for the benefit for those who completed four-year enlistments or re-enlistments, and also pay:
Benefits Subcommittee Chairman Jack Quinn (R-NY) remarked that Congress should enhance a GI Bill in a way that "would allow a young person to be able to afford any educational institution in America to which that individual could competitively gain admittance."
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