VFW VETERANS’ EDUCATION BILL PASSES SENATE
Pending the House's final approval, the bill moves on to the White House
December 20, 2012
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is applauding yesterday’s Senate
passage of H.R. 4057, the Improving Transparency in Education for
Veterans Act, a bill designed to improve consumer protections for
student-veterans who use their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The bill must now go
back to the House for final approval before heading to the White House for the
president’s signature.
“The
VFW has worked diligently over the past year to build consensus among other
veterans’ groups and education advocates to ensure we provide student-veterans
with quality consumer information and consumer protections when they seek to
use their earned GI Bill benefits,” said VFW National Commander John Hamilton,
a combat wounded Vietnam veteran.
“We’re
proud the Senate took this issue seriously by passing the Improving
Transparency in Education for Veterans Act, and we thank Senate VA Committee
Chairman Patty Murray and Ranking Member Richard Burr for their leadership, as
well as their colleagues in the House, Chairman Jeff Miller and Ranking Member
Bob Filner, for making sure this could get done before the end of the year.”
H.R.
4057 was amended in the House to include several other VFW-supported provisions
to improve veterans’ benefits, such as the HIRE at HOME Act (H.R. 4115), which
would ensure states considered military training for professional licenses in
certain technical fields, and the open air burn pit registry. The additional
bills, however, were stripped from the Senate version because they had been
included in other legislation already passed. This procedural issue means that
the clean version of H.R. 4057 must be again approved by the House before it
can be signed into law. The VFW anticipates that the House will take it up
before the end of the week.
H.R.
4057 was inspired by VFW action earlier this year, when VFW authored a letter, signed by a broad coalition of education experts
and veterans' advocates and organizations — to include Student Veterans of
America — to call for improved consumer information and consumer protections
for veterans. To learn more about the bill, click
here.
Over
the summer, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., who introduced the bill, spoke on the
House floor to champion the merits of H.R. 4057, which passed the House with
overwhelming bipartisan support. This fall, VFW advocates stormed Capitol Hill,
asking Congress to “Finish Strong For Veterans” by passing the education
package. After a slew of meetings and hard-pressed advocacy, the VFW was able
to muster overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle to ensure H.R. 4057
could pass in the Senate.
Your
VFW now encourages the House to quickly pass the final version of H.R. 4057 and
send it on for the president’s signature to help ensure a quality education for
our veterans in the coming year. Check back regularly with the VFW’s Capitol
Hill blog, www.thevfw.blogspot.com,
for details.
CONTACT: VFW Deputy Legislative Director
Ryan Gallucci, 202-608-8341, rgallucci@vfw.org
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