VA Loan Updates

Your Tuition

You’re in the Army now.

Or the Marines, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. You also see a college education in your future. For military enlistees and veterans, financial resources for college are plentiful - and complex.

There are federal education benefits for active enlistees and those honorably discharged. There are state scholarships for veterans, their spouses and children. If you are or want to be a college student in addition to being a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or guardsman, it may be possible for up to 100% of your education to be financed; each service has its own programs and eligibility rules. Start by visiting the Veterans Administration Web site at www.gibill.va.gov.

The City University of New York, with one of the largest concentrations of armed forces students in the nation, has an Office of Veterans Affairs and is a great resource. For details of federal and state education benefits for enlisted men and women and veterans, click to www.cuny.edu/veterans or call (646) 344-7277.

The basics are:

Montgomery G.I. Bill. Provides up to 36 months of benefits to veterans for college, business, technical or vocational courses, correspondence courses, apprenticeship/job training and flight training. Funds range from $309 a month for part-time Reserve or National Guard service up to $1,075 a month for active duty during three years or more, and may be used on active duty or after honorable discharge. Bottom line: You can get up to $11,124 for serving part-time in the Reserve or National Guard and up to $38,700 for an active duty tour. The money is not free, however. To qualify, recruits agree to a $100-a-month deduction from their service pay.

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Washington, DC— A recent Defense Department policy change widens the eligibility window for some Reserve-component troops who want to use their Montgomery G.I. Bill education benefits. The DoD policy now aligns with Department of Veterans Affairs rules, which say Guard members and Reservists are eligible to receive G.I. Bill benefits for the period covering the time they were on active duty, plus four months, said Tom Bush, director for manpower and personnel within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.

After studying the matter over the past few months, DoD agreed to align its policy with the VA’s, Bush said. DoD’s previous policy, he said, only recognized the amount of active-duty time as applied to the G.I. Bill coverage period for reserve component members but still required the member to continue to serve in the Selected Reserve.

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Near the end of the Civil War, during his second inaugural address President Abraham Lincoln spoke the words that would become the motto of the Veterans’ Administration:

“[L]et us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan…”

If VA healthcare is judged at the level of services provided by the individual physicians, nurses and staff who work day to day with veterans’ at one of the Nations’ VA district facilities, then in most cases the care could be considered compassionate and commendable. It is not a coincidence that this is also the image that advocates of the Veteran’s healthcare system rush to portray when yet another veteran’s healthcare scandal brings them under the threat of public scrutiny. In fact, a University of Michigan Consumer Survey reported the following:

* VA outscored the private sector by 11% in inpatient care.

* VA outscored them in outpatient care by 11%.

* 91% of VA patients are happy with overall customer service at VA.

* VA scored 94% in “veterans loyalty” category.

The unfortunate truth for both veterans and those who actually provide their care is a much more dismal reality. It is becoming readily apparent in the recent rash of veterans’ healthcare scandals that funding, staff and facilities are hopelessly inadequate to meet the increasing numbers of wounded and disabled emerging from our latest national folly in the Middle East.  Faced with an aging Vietnam-era veteran population as well increasing numbers of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans’ healthcare has become a shell game of fiscal micromanagement, moving inadequate funding from one crisis to another as they arise. The question becomes less that of providing the absolute highest level of care and consideration for veteran “beneficiaries” and more that of an attempt to cloud public awareness regarding veteran healthcare inadequacies.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana soldiers, veterans and their families are getting a boost from state lawmakers, who’ve set aside partisan wrangling over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to help those serving the nation.

Bills have advanced that would give new tax breaks to active-duty soldiers, members of the Indiana National Guard and reservists; provide money to help military families struggling because a member has been mobilized; and allow parents, spouses and siblings of Guard members and reservists who are being deployed to take some unpaid leave from their jobs to be with their families.

“Of all the stuff we are doing right now, I’d rather see us pass something to help the kids who are busting their butts for us over there,” said Republican Sen. Thomas Wyss of Fort Wayne, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.

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The $1,200 enrollment fee for GI Bill benefits would be waived for junior enlisted members and everyone in the military would get a second chance to enroll in the education benefits program under a bill introduced by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.

Terry is not the first lawmaker to propose waiving the fee, but his proposal is slightly different because it targets only troops in paygrades E-5 and below. His second chance at enrollment also is aimed, primarily, at junior enlisted members who could take advantage of no longer having to pay for the benefits program.

His bill, HR 1969, is called the Montgomery GI Bill Improvement Act of 2007. It was referred to two House committees — armed services and veterans’ affairs — that are both looking at updating the GI Bill, with waiver of the fee one of the actions being considered.

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NORFOLK, Va. — Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., met with a small group of veterans and service members at Norfolk City Hall today, where he heard a wide array of problems with benefits and health care experienced by former members of the military.

Webb said the national system for supporting veterans faces a twofold strain as demographics shift away from a once-massive population of World War II veterans to Vietnam-era veterans now reaching retirement age and service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan today.

“The system is being stressed from two sides right now,” he said. “What it takes is aggressive, smart leadership to get the institutions turned around and focused on these things. We’re doing our best.”

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WASHINGTON – Congressman Lee Terry (R-Neb.) has introduced legislation to allow all active duty members of the military improved access to G.I. Bill education benefits.

“I am pleased to introduce legislation to show our strong support for the men and women serving selflessly in the War on Terror,” Terry said. “We need to ensure that our troops have the resources necessary to further their education without having to choose between a college degree and the immediate needs of their families. An extra $1,200 a year will mean a lot to enlisted military members and their children.”

Terry’s bill would eliminate the $1,200 annual enrollment fee required for participation in the Montgomery G.I. Bill for military families in pay grades E-5 and below. These are the military families who could most benefit from the additional financial aid for educational assistance.

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With his boyish face and soft tangle of curls, Matt Howard looks like he should have carried a fishing rod though a Norman Rockwell summer. Instead, the 26-year-old Vermonter lugged a gun through two tours in Iraq. Now, what the former Marine really wants to wield is a college diploma. But he and other returning veterans are finding it hard to collect the college benefits they expected when they enlisted in the military.

That expectation was fueled by promises from military recruiters and the soldiers’ own financial commitment. All new recruits are given a one-time, use-it-or-lose-it opportunity to buy into benefits eligibility by paying $100 a month for their first year of service. Any benefits unused 10 years after they leave the military are forever lost, including the $1,200 “kicker.” The almost 30 percent of active duty veterans who bought in and didn’t collect their educational benefits over the last decade effectively donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.

Many veterans who applied under the 1984 Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) say they faced black-hole bureaucracy and college costs that far exceeded benefits.

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WASHINGTON — A recent Defense Department policy change widens the eligibility window for some Reserve-component troops who want to use their Montgomery G.I. Bill education benefits, a senior DoD official said here April 17.

The DoD policy now aligns with Department of Veterans Affairs rules, which say National Guard members and reservists are eligible to receive Montgomery G.I. Bill education benefits for the period covering the amount of time they served on active duty, plus four months, said Tom Bush, principal director for manpower and personnel within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.

After studying the matter over the past few months, DoD agreed to align its policy with the VA’s, Bush said during a joint Pentagon Channel/American Forces Press Service interview. DoD’s previous policy, he said, only recognized the amount of active-duty time as applied to the G.I. Bill coverage period for reserve component members but still required the member to continue to serve in the Selected Reserve.

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by Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson

Anyone who ever watched a World War II movie that featured convoys of cargo ships being stalked by enemy submarines or suicide aircraft had to become an admirer of Merchant Mariners. They were the ones who manned the Liberty Ships that transported troops, ammunition, food, gas and other supplies that were necessary to win the war. These slow moving freighters were often the target of enemy forces as they moved through open waters.

More than 800 Liberty Ships were sunk and more than 9,000 Merchant Mariners were lost at sea. The casualty rate amounted to one out of every 26—the highest casualty rate of any branch of the service. Casualties were kept secret during the War to keep the enemy from learning information about the success of their attacks, and to attract and keep mariners at sea.

The Merchant Mariners of World War II were brave people who carried out their missions with great valor and served their country honorably. Yet they have been denied fair treatment all these years because they were civilians and not officially classified as a fighting force.

For more than 40 years the Merchant Mariners were denied any G.I. Bill of Rights benefits ranging from housing to health care because of their status as civilians. In 1988, Congress awarded them veterans status which included a watered down version of the G.I. Bill, but it still lacked many benefits including loans and educational benefits, and it came too late for the 125,000 who had already passed away.

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