By Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark.
Member, House Armed Services Committee
After serving 21 1/2 months in the Marine Corps, 13 of them in Vietnam, my two-year military enlistment and brief career ended.
I went back to college, and America rewarded my service with 45 months of schooling through the GI Bill.
The GI Bill helped me pay for two years of college and my first three years of medical school to become a family doctor. |
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Serving: Rep. Vic Snyder, right, with 1st Lt. Devon Cockrell in Iraq. Cockrell serves on Snyder’s Arkansas staff as an aide to military personnel and veterans. | After medical school, I moved to Little Rock for a medical residency, settled there and eventually ran for Congress.The GI Bill, along with the Marine Corps, helped get me where I am today.Active duty military personnel today continue to take advantage of the GI Bill, now known as the Montgomery GI Bill, while in and after they leave the service though benefits, when adjusted for inflation and the cost of higher education, are less now than what I received.Thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have used this program to pursue a higher education or receive more specialized training as they transitioned to a civilian life.In addition to rewarding these former military personnel for their service, the program has helped to ensure that America has an educated work force necessary to keep the country and the economy running.Contrast these benefits for active duty military with the GI Bill benefits available for one of my current congressional staff who spent a year in Iraq with the Army Reserve and earned a Purple Heart.When he came home from Iraq, he left the Army Reserve and is eligible for exactly nothing under the Reserve Montgomery GI Bill.Similarly, the Arkansas 39th Brigade, a National Guard unit, recently returned to the state after one year in Iraq.While many members of the brigade stayed in the guard, some did not; and they are not eligible for any educational benefits even though they served in the Iraq war.This is terribly unfair.After all, many soldiers leave the military after returning home from a deployment. Why is the one who served a year in combat but was in an active component rewarded more than one who served a year in combat but was in a reserve component? The Department of Defense claims that this imbalance exists to encourage members of the guard and reserve to stay in the service, but that argument makes little sense.It seems unlikely that offering educational benefits will keep people in the service who do not wish to deploy again.And, if they are sent back to Iraq, where are they going to use these benefits? Baghdad University? I encouraged a recent joint committee hearing to highlight this dilemma faced by members of the reserve components.The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, of which I am ranking minority member, and the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, which is chaired by Rep. John Boozman, also of Arkansas, heard that although reservists can earn benefits under the Reserve Montgomery GI Bill or, if they are activated and deployed in response to a war or national emergency, the Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP), those benefits disappear if they leave the guard or reserve unless they are mobilized for 24 consecutive months.It is necessary to modernize the Reserve Montgomery GI Bill to reflect a changing military.We now have a “Total Force,” and the guard and reserve are no longer just a strategic reserve to be called up in case of a global war; they have become an operational force on whom we rely constantly.I recently introduced legislation that would correct this inequity in educational benefits between active duty and reserve forces.H.R. 6250 would allow members of the guard and reserve to use their benefits after they leave the service, just like their active duty counterparts.This provision reflects an amendment that Sen. Blanche Lincoln, also of Arkansas, attached to the Senate version of the Defense Authorization Act, but was unfortunately not included in the final version of the bill that passed in October.H.R. 6250 would also legally tie the Montgomery GI Bill and the Reserve Montgomery GI Bill together for the first time.This move makes clear that these are two parts of one program and ensures that when Congress improves benefits in one, it is reflected in the other. Unfortunately, the disparity between the benefit levels of these programs has been increasing for years.I introduced H.R. 6250 knowing that it is not a perfect piece of legislation and can use substantial refinement and improvement.I am hopeful that the new Congress that convenes in January will look at this bill, and I hope that outside groups, military personnel and experts will too, and suggest improvements.This bill is a starting point to begin a discussion on righting the inequitable situation many guard and reserve troops find themselves in now.(Editor’s note: Rep. Vic Snyder, a former marine and Vietnam Veteran, serves on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. He is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.)
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