VA Loan Updates

Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, and presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., have introduced a new bill they claim will give veterans more money to pay for school, buy a home or start a business.

The so-called 21st Century GI Bill of Rights Act of 2007, announced by Murphy and Clinton at a press conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C., will “update and modernize” the GI Bill to reflect the rising cost of real estate and a college education, Clinton said. The original GI Bill was created in 1944 to give financial assistance to veterans returning from World War II.

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ROANOKE — Scott and Janel Ziegenhorn soon will become first-time homeowners in Roanoke, thanks to a new pilot mortgage program to assist Illinois veterans and active-duty personnel.

Scott Ziegenhorn, 28, a sergeant on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, is currently stationed in North Carolina. He and his wife were among the first to apply for a home mortgage loan under the state’s new GI Loan for Heroes program.

Officials from the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs were in Roanoke on Tuesday to launch the new program, which is expected to help up to 120 families.

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Given the growing gap between G.I. Bill benefits and rising college tuitions, and the growing sentiment that the troops need to come home sooner rather than later, it’s not surprising that Congress is considering action to welcome veterans back with better educational benefits.

“When we are talking about truly honoring service and truly taking care of the people who have served in an affirmative way, I can’t think of a better thing to do than to allow them to reach the level of their talent with the type of educational assistance that will allow them to go to any school that they can get into,” Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, said during a Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs hearing last week. “We’re not seeing that today.”

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The nation needs better education benefits for those who enlist in the war on terror.

U.S. Sen. James Webb wants better education benefits for military veterans who have seen active duty in the post-9/11 global war on terror.

He is right. A grateful nation should do more — but not as much more as Virginia’s junior senator envisions.

Webb has introduced a bill in Congress that would provide college tuition, room and board plus a $1,000 monthly stipend to veterans who have served at least two years’ active duty since the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Clearly, an increase in the GI benefit is warranted. A currently enrolled veteran eligible under the GI Bill can receive a maximum of only about $38,700 during his or her entire college career, which can extend over only four years.

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Veterans who want to take advantage of the Montgomery GI Bill but have found their eligibility has expired may soon get a second chance with new legislation introduced on Capitol Hill last week.

In an effort to extend the time veterans have to take advantage of their GI Bill benefits, Washington Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell introduced the GI Bill for Life Act that would eliminate the 10-year time limit placed on GI Bill benefits.

The GI Bill for active duty servicemembers and veterans is a “pay to play” benefit that requires each servicemember to make a $1,200 non-refundable contribution up front. In return for the contribution they can use their entitlement-up to $1,075 per month for 36 months-to help pay for education, apprenticeship, and job training.

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FAIRFAX, Va. — Veterans who are going to college these days are finding out that the GI Bill doesn’t cover what it once did.

The federal program once covered nearly the entire cost of a college education, but now it’s fallen far behind soaring tuition and fees.

The four-year maximum benefit is 38-thousand-700 dollars, but the average cost of one year’s tuition, room and board this year was almost 13-thousand dollars at four-year public colleges and more than 30-thousand at private schools.

Although states offer varying amounts of tuition assistance for Guard members, some lawmakers want to beef up the G-I Bill. Legislation in the House and Senate would make National Guard and Reserve troops eligible for the same payments as active-duty personnel.

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Veterans Find Federal Program Falls Short 

FAIRFAX, Va. — Marc Edgerly and his father, Carl, both joined the Army as young men, served during wartime and eventually decided that college, not a full-time military career, was what they wanted. But the cost they shouldered for that education is dramatically different.

The GI Bill covered all of Carl Edgerly’s college expenses in the mid-1970s. His son, however, expects that even with the maximum $1,075 in monthly GI Bill benefits, he will be saddled with $50,000 in student loans when he graduates from George Mason University.

“The total amount of the GI Bill comes nowhere close to what I actually need for college,” said Marc Edgerly, 26, who is in his second year at the suburban Washington school. “After five years of college, it is not going to work.”

As the Edgerlys prove, it’s not your father’s GI Bill anymore.

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Fall 2007 will bring the start of the Supportive Education for Returning Veteran (SERV) program at CSU to help military veterans in their transition from soldier to student.

To introduce the program on campus, Cleveland State University’s office of Undergraduate Admissions and SERV are hosting Military Day at University Center on May 19.

The SERV program is open to veterans only. Veterans already enrolled, veterans thinking about coming to CSU and veteran graduates are all invited to attend Military Day to learn more about what the SERV program has to offer them.

“The goal is to have [veterans] get a college degree, [and] at that point they get a better job,” said John Schupp, CSU SERV program director.

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Military people next Jan uary would get a 3.5 percent pay raise under a compensation package voted on Wednesday by the House armed services’ subcommittee on military personnel.

In shaping the personnel section of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, the subcommittee approved other initiatives to please health-care beneficiaries, surviving spouses and some disabled retirees forced from service short of 20 years by combat-related injuries.

The Senate will mark up its version of the 2008 defense bill later this month, no doubt approving a somewhat different set of personnel initiatives. A House-Senate conference later will smooth out these differences.

Here are details of what the House panel unanimously approved:

2008 pay raise: The 3.5 percent raise for next year would be the ninth straight set at least a half-percentage point above private sector wage growth as tracked by the government’s Employment Cost Index (ECI).

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WASHINGTON — The chairman of a House panel wants to stop hefty bonus payments to senior Veterans Affairs officials until they reduce a severe backlog of veterans waiting for disability benefits.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said Friday he was introducing legislation to place a hold on this year’s bonuses after The Associated Press reported that senior VA officials involved in a budget foul-up which jeopardized veterans’ health care received bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

Under the measure, 2007 bonuses could not be released until the VA pares down its backlog to under 100,000 cases — a feat the VA has said could take many months, if not years. Currently, the backlog of claims ranges from between 400,000 to more than 600,000, with delays averaging 177 days.

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