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Senate passes Webb GI Bill

The Senate voted 75-22 for a GI Bill education benefits package that defense and service officials say would hurt the military but that veterans groups say is an overdue adjustment to make the benefit more like the World War II-era GI Bill.

The House of Representatives passed the bill last week, meaning the fate of the proposal — which would pay full tuition at a four-year public college or university plus living expenses and a book allowance — rests on whether President Bush vetoes the measure, as Pentagon officials have recommended and White House officials have threatened.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., chief sponsor of the bill, said he hoped the president would listen to veterans groups and sign it, which he said would be a boost to recruiting and a reward for those who have served in the military since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The main Pentagon objection, and there are several, is that the benefits package does not include an administration proposal that would blunt the draw of leaving the service to use GI Bill benefits by giving those who stay for six years or longer the option of transferring benefits to a spouse or children.

The benefits package, called the 21st Century GI Bill of Rights, is attached to a wartime supplemental funding bill that has been loaded with billions of dollars for nondefense proposals, including extended unemployment compensation, aid for farmers and highway construction funds — which gives President Bush a variety of reasons to veto the bill even though defense officials are begging for money for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Webb said that if the bill is vetoed, he will come back with another attempt to pass it as a freestanding measure, armed with more than 75 votes in the Senate and 256 in the House.

A key Republican senator involved in the fight over the future of veterans’ education benefits said veterans should not expect the 21st Century GI Bill to become law in its current form because of Pentagon concerns.

Instead, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an Air Force Reserve officer, senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a close confidant of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he expects negotiations on a compromise bill that will include family transfer rights will begin only after the veto.

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See how the Senators voted