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View Full Version : Good news, COLA's automatic if bill is passed and reservist may get GI Bill



booksbenji
05-29-06, 06:28 PM
Bill would make VA COLAs automatic

By Rick Maze
Times staff writer


In a move supported by two major veterans groups, a Michigan congressman wants annual cost-of-living adjustments for veterans’ benefits to be automatic, the same as Social Security and military retired pay.

Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., says it doesn’t make sense that automatic cost-of-living adjustments, linked to the Consumer Price Index, are provided to most beneficiaries of federal entitlements while veterans disability and survivors benefits require congressional action.


“Veterans should not have to depend on Congress adjusting their disability benefits every year,” Knollenberg said. “Social Security and Medicare have automatic COLA adjustments. Our veterans deserve to have that same security.”

Knollberg has introduced a bill, HR 5444, which would make the increases automatic. It was referred to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

For years, members of the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees have believed that having to pass an annual COLA for disabled veterans gave them an opportunity to pass other benefits improvements that might be unpopular with the White House because no president, they believed, would dare to veto a veterans’ COLA bill.

In recent years, however, lawmakers have had difficulty passing comprehensive veterans’ benefits bills and have passed the annual COLA increase, which has always matched the automatic increase in Social Security.

Two major veterans groups, Disabled American Veterans and AmVets, support Knollenberg’s proposal. Joseph A. Violante, the DAV’s national legislative director, said he would like to see disability and survivors benefits and other payments, such as automobile and housing grants, burial benefits and other allowances that have eroded in value because regular increases have not been approved, also get annual COLAs.

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Filner: Open active-duty GI Bill to reservists

By Rick Maze
Times staff writer


Just one day after being named the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, a San Diego congressman has proposed opening the active-duty GI Bill program to reservists.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has joined with Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., in sponsoring a bill allowing National Guard or reserve members who serve nine consecutive months on active duty or 18 months over two years to receive the same GI Bill benefits as active-duty members.


The bill, HR 5326, was introduced Thursday.

It would be a big increase for reservists. Active-duty people who serve two years can receive $878.90 a month in Montgomery GI Bill benefits while reservists receive a maximum of $297 a month.

“It is past time for Congress to make the educational benefits of the Montgomery GI Bill more easily available to members of the National Guard and reserves,” Filner said in a statement. “Investing in them will contribute to the overall strength of our country.”

Filner was named Wednesday to temporarily be ranking Democrat on the veterans’ affairs committee because of the absence of Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., who is suffering from complications from Parkinson’s disease. Evans had been working with Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, on a bill to increase reserve GI Bill benefits and to make the benefits more flexible for Guard and reserve members, who under current law may only use the benefits while in the drilling reserve.

Buyer and Evans have faced jurisdictional problems getting the increases because reserve GI Bill benefits fall under the control of the Defense Department, not the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Filner-Emerson bill would eliminate the jurisdiction issue by shifting payments to the VA, but they also would have to increase the VA budget to pay for the added benefits.

The veterans’ funding bill for 2007 approved by the House earlier this week did not include any money for GI Bill increases.



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