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Bills would add job help to Post-9/11 GI Bill

Key elements of the Post-9/11 GI Bill could be modified by Congress to create benefits to help veterans find jobs.

The monthly living stipend, tied to local housing costs, makes attending college more affordable for people using the new education benefits program. A veterans’ bill passed by the House of Representatives on Nov. 2 and a bill introduced in the Senate try to use the same idea for job training.

The House-passed veterans’ training bill, HR 1168, would pay a living stipend for up to six months to veterans taking part in a Labor Department retraining program that is aimed at veterans who have been unemployed for four months or longer. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., the chief sponsor of what is being called the Veterans Retraining Act of 2009, said living stipends would range from $275 to $2,800 a month and would be based, like GI Bill living stipends, on the military’s basic allowance for housing for an E-5 without dependents.

Boozman’s bill also includes $5,000 for moving expenses, if needed, for veterans who complete the training and get a new job.

Three senators, Democrats Patty Murray of Washington and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican Mike Johanns of Nebraska, introduced a bill that would add job training and apprenticeships to the types of education covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

“When our soldiers sign up for service, there isn’t a waiting line and there shouldn’t be a waiting line when they come home and need a job,” said Klobuchar, the chief sponsor. “Not every returning soldier chooses to go to college, but they still want a job. Job training, from pipe-fitting to law enforcement, should be covered by the G.I. Bill.”

The measure, S 2769, would cover job training either in combination with a regular college curriculum or as separate programs.

Specifically, a veteran enrolled in on-the-job training or an apprenticeship program could use his GI Bill benefits to receive a monthly living stipend, plus pay for certification and testing fees, relocation and travel expenses, and tutors.

For the first six months of on-the-job training or an apprenticeship, the living stipend would be 75 percent of the basic allowance for housing for an E-5 without dependents. That would drop to 55 percent for the second six months and to 35 percent for the remainder of any training.

The Montgomery GI Bill — the predecessor of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and which remains in effect — covers vocational and on-the-job training and apprenticeships but does not pay a living stipend or the $1,200 for tutors, as the newer program does.

Murray said in a statement that the new GI Bill, which took effect Aug. 1, helps a lot of veterans, but it doesn’t help everyone: “Too many of our veterans have served our country only to come home to unemployment and financial struggles. The G.I. Bill the president signed this year opened the doors to higher education for veterans, but in these tough economic times we need to expand that opportunity to include jobs skills and work force training.”

The Labor Department reports that 18 percent of veterans who left the service in the past three years are unemployed, about twice the overall national unemployment rate.