A "final historic step" towards 21st century GI Bill

By: Lowell
Published On: 6/27/2008 5:32:39 AM

This is great news, and a major achievement for Jim Webb:

-The Senate last night approved new educational benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a $162 billion emergency war funding bill.

The vote capped an 18-month fight for a new GI bill that Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., introduced his first day in office in 2007.

The Bush administration endorsed the bill (HR 2642) last week after being assured service members could transfer their education benefits to spouses or children. The Senate voted 92-6 last night to pass the bill and send it to Bush.

This truly is, as Jim Webb says, a "final historic step toward a modern and fair educational benefit for the men and women who have served honorably since 9/11."  Sen. Webb's full statement is on the "flip."

SENATOR WEBB ON PASSAGE OF 21ST CENTURY GI BILL

Washington, DC - Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) issued the following statement on the Senate passage of the 21st Century GI Bill in the war supplemental spending measure:

"Today, the Senate took a final historic step toward a modern and fair educational benefit for the men and women who have served honorably since 9/11. This bill properly responds to the needs of those who answered the call of duty to our country-those who moved toward the sound of the guns-often at great sacrifice.

"Eighteen months ago, we began with the simple concept that those who have been serving since 9/11 should have the same opportunity for a first class educational future as those who served during World War II. Today, we have accomplished that goal.

"I would like to emphasize that this is not simply an expansion of veterans' educational benefits. This is a new program, a deserved program. It has now been nearly seven years since 9/11 -- seven years since those who have been serving in our military began earning the right for a proper wartime GI Bill.

"We have delivered this new, robust GI Bill with a great deal of collaboration and cooperation among members of the Senate, members of the House, and with the guidance and support of all of our nation's leading veterans' groups.

"There are no politics here.  This is about taking care of the people who have taken care of us.  I am looking forward to the President living up to his word, and signing this legislation at his earliest opportunity."

To download an audio clip of Senator Webb at today's GI Bill press conference, please go to: http://demradio.senate.gov/act...

Comments



Am I the only one who thinks he looks better with glasses? (Silence Dogood - 6/27/2008 10:35:14 AM)


I think he looks better with glasses too. Makes him look like like the brilliant scholar he is. (Tom Counts - 6/27/2008 6:34:27 PM)


This is a historic moment (Jack Landers - 6/27/2008 12:00:20 PM)
I think that if Jim Webb's career ended tomorrow for some reason, he would still have accomplished more during his 2 years in the Senate through this bill than most people do after spending entire careers in that body.

This is a Really Big Deal. In the last 8 years, including the time since we took control of the House and Senate in 2006, this is the first piece of really significant legislation that the Democratic Party will have turned proposed and turned into law.

Somewhere along the line, Jim Webb went from 'uncontrollable maverick' to becoming a giant of the Senate.

Wow.



Perhaps... (Lowell - 6/27/2008 12:03:50 PM)
...he was never the "uncontrollable maverick" of corporate media caricature?