G.I. Bill

A lot of veterans like me used the G.I. Bill to attend college and obtain our degrees. The G.I. Bill, for me, provided some money so I could at least pay the rent while I went to school. During my time, I received about $400 a month from the G.I. Bill.

Now, there’s a new G.I. Bill making its way through Congress. It made its way through the U.S. Senate due to the leadership of Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). Both of our Senators finally supported it. Good for them. It’s now in the House and it has full support from Congressman Denny Rehberg. “The men and women who have defended our country in the wake of 9/11 have earned this,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Increased educational benefits will ensure America’s veterans have full access to the knowledge needed to go into the career of their choice. This legislation is long overdue.”

Of course, it did not take long for Montana Democrats to use veterans, once again, as a political tool. They sent out a “Demo Digest” e-mail telling folks that Rehberg did not support the bill “last year.” According to Senator Webb’s website, the bill in the House, H.R.5740, was only introduced in the House on April 9, 2008. Rehberg signed on as a co-sponsor April 24. Also, according to Senator Jim Webb’s website, the same bill in the senate, S-22, introduced on 01/04/07 was not co-sponsored by Senator Baucus until June 12, 2007, and by Senator Tester until March 22, 2007. So, it took Rehberg only 15 days to sign on as a co-sponsor of the bill, where it took Tester about 77 days and Baucus about 159 days.

So, it seems Tester and Baucus were the ones checking the prevailing political wind to see where it would take them before THEY signed on.

No matter what, this is a good bill that needs to pass.

SHAD

Another great thing for veterans is a bill (H.R. 5954) introduced by Congressman Rehberg and Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) to help “veterans who were unknowingly subjected to biological and chemical weapons tests conducted in the 1960s and 70s.”

I blogged about Project SHAD before back in February. At that time I wrote, “Being a veteran myself, I’ve heard a few stories about Project Shad and met a few people who were involved. It’s the right thing to do to correct this injustice and Rehberg and Thompson appear to be trying to get to the bottom of this issue. Let’s hope other politicians will join them until there’s a full accounting of the harm the DOD caused these patriots.”

Hopefully Montana’s Senators will jump on board and support this legislation.