Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Stop-loss pay, survivor GI Bill approved

Retroactive stop-loss payments for 185,000 service members and veterans and a new education benefit for the children of people who died on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, are part of the 2009 war supplemental funding bill approved Thursday night by congressional negotiators.

Final votes on the bill, HR 2346, are expected next week.

As approved by House and Senate negotiators, the supplemental includes $79.9 billion to pay for military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and to cover a $2.8 billion shortfall in military personnel accounts that has largely resulted because the services have been able to recruit and retain more people than planned.

Additionally, $1.8 billion of the military money will go to pay for health-related programs.

Under provisions of the bill, people who were involuntarily held on active duty under stop-loss orders that delayed their separations or retirements will receive $500 a month for each month in which they were extended for at least one day. This provision is retroactive to cover all stop-loss orders issued since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Congress approved the stop-loss allowance last year, but applied it only to people whose service was extended since Oct. 1, 2008.

Many of the people who were on stop-loss orders before that date and would be retroactively covered have since left the military. Procedures for identifying and locating people who are due the back payments are not spelled out in the bill but will be left to the Defense Department to work out, according to congressional aides. The aides said they are confident everyone will get the money they are due because the $534.4 million set aside for the payments cannot be used for anything else.

The new education benefits for the children of people who die on active duty allows them to use Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits that could have been transferred to them if their military parent had lived. Transfer rights are a key part of the new veterans’ benefit that is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who sponsored the new benefit, says he wants it to be called the Fry scholarship, named for Marine Gunnery Sgt. John David Fry, who was killed in Iraq in 2006, leaving behind three children.

“Nothing can make up for the loss of a parent, but the least we can do is ensure that the children of our fallen heroes can go to college if they choose,” Edwards said in a statement. “No one has sacrificed more than the military child who has lost a parent.”

The new Fry scholarship is slightly different than the normal family transfer option under the Post-9/11 GI Bill in that the scholarship will qualify dependents for their own full 36 months of benefits.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill allows more than one person to receive transferred benefits, but no more than 36 total months can be transferred. Additionally, a surviving child may use benefits until they reach age 33, described in the bill as 15 years from their 18th birthday. The Post-9/11 GI Bill cuts off payments to children at age 26.

And the Fry scholarship is available no matter how long the service member was on active duty before death, while the Post-9/11 GI Bill requires a minimum of 10 years of service before a child can begin using transferred benefits.