Clarification: Housing stipend cuts would affect only dependent children not currently receiving benefits. Spouses’ stipends would not be affected. Editor’s note: Story updated to add comments from the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Military dependent children using transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits would see their housing stipends cut in half under legislation being considered Tuesday by the House of Representatives.
That stipend is one of the most valuable parts of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, calculated in most cases based on the Basic Allowance for Housing, or BAH, that active-duty service members would receive if stationed where the school is located.
Depending on where and how GI Bill users attend class, it can put as much money in their pockets for housing costs as it puts in university coffers for tuition costs.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has expressed strong opposition to the proposal, which is included in a bill that also has other provisions on veterans education, health care, jobs and transition out of the military.
In letters to the leaders of veterans committees in both the House and Senate, dated Feb. 5, IAVA Chief Policy Officer Matt Miller asked the lawmakers to “stand with our members in opposing any cuts to, or reduction of benefits in, the Post-9/11 GI Bill now or in the future.”
“These cuts will negatively impact our country’s ability to attract and retain the military personnel required to maintain our national security,” the letter said. “Such cuts will also be counter to the benefits communicated to the many who began their military service following the establishment of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.”
A spokesman for the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said the cuts were necessary to offset, or pay for, other aspects of the bill. He also noted that the cuts were “scaled back” from a recommendation from the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission to entirely cut the housing stipend for both dependent spouses and children.
“A very small handful of Democrats on the committee objected to the bill’s offset, and the committee tried to address their concerns. But since the members in question offered no suggestions for replacing the offset, we are moving forward with the bill in its current form,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The measure would not affect the stipends of veterans using Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits they earned themselves. Children who have already been transferred benefits — or who receive transferred benefits within 180 days of the bill going into law — would be exempt from the cuts, the spokesman said.
Also included in the bill is a provision restricting the use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill for flight training, which has generated additional opposition.
Chris Neiweem, a lobbyist who worked previously for IAVA and now represents an aviation school, said the restriction would not be necessary with proper cost control measures from the Veterans Affairs Department.
“This would be a fairly significant rollback of the GI Bill benefit,” said Neiweem, vice president of the firm SRB Strategic.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee spokesman said that characterizing the restriction as a rollback “is completely ludicrous,” adding that the GI Bill’s coverage of flight training costs without the cap on tuition costs that apply to other education programs has been a costly loophole. He quoted a previous statement by Rep. Jeff Miller, the Florida Republican who chairs the committee:
“The GI Bill flight school loophole is so big you could fly a 747 through it. For years, some schools have exploited this loophole, gouging taxpayers with exorbitant tuition expenses of up to more than $500,000 for a single student.”
The bill, HR 3016, is already through the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and is expected to come up for a vote Tuesday in the full House.
