Domenici Backs Bill to Extend GI Bill Education Benefits to Military Spouses and Children

Press Release

U.S. Senator Pete Domenici today signed as an original cosponsor to legislation to allow U.S. military personnel to share their federal GI Bill education benefits with their family.

The GI Bill Assistance Transferability Act of 2008 (S.2575), authored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), follows the veterans' benefits initiative announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address earlier this week.

The bill would allow men and women in uniform to transfer unused GI Bill educational funds to their spouses or children. The measure would strike restrictions in current law that limit the ability of service members to transfer unused portions of this benefit.

"The GI Bill has been a positive tool for our military for almost 64 years. This bill amounts to a broad directive to all maximum use of GI Bill benefits by our service personnel and their families," Domenici said. "The GI Bill is used to help improve the lives of those who serve our nation. Service members aren't the only ones who sacrifice in service to our country. Their families also sacrifice, so allowing them to benefit from this program makes sense."

The Hutchison legislation will allow any service member, who has honorably served six years and signed up for another four years, to transfer earned GI Bill educational assistance funds to their spouse or children.

The Montgomery GI Bill provides up to 36 months of education benefits. This benefit, valued at almost $40,000, may be used for degree and certificate programs, flight training, apprenticeship/on-the-job training and correspondence courses. In general, benefits are payable for 10 years following a service member's release from active duty. Under current law, the GI Bill funds can only be transferred if a service member has a critical skill. (www.gibill.va.gov)

Today, 97 percent of eligible service members enroll in the GI Bill education program, but only about 70 percent actually use the benefit. Domenici, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted that Congress provided $2.1 billion for the program in FY2008.

The GI Bill was originally signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1944 as part of the Servicemembers' Readjustment Act, more commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights Act.

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