New Webb-shaped GI Bill moves to House

WASHINGTON

A week after a rally on the Capitol steps brought it a pledge of support from congressional Democratic leaders, a plan to provide billions of dollars in new college aid to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is set for debate in the House of Representatives.

The new GI Bill, which apparently tracks legislation championed by U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, is included in a supplemental war appropriations bill scheduled for consideration Thursday. The legislation also would require the government in Iraq to begin assuming more of the cost of rebuilding its war-ravaged country.

Webb introduced the GI Bill on his first day in the Senate in January 2007. He has enlisted dozens of veterans groups and a bipartisan collection of his colleagues - including fellow Virginia Sen. John Warner and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News - as supporters.

The proposal has gained momentum in recent weeks with the launch of a national lobbying effort, the Campaign for a new GI Bill, funded by billionaire investor Jerome Kohlberg.

Kohlberg's group organized a Capitol rally last week that featured veterans from as far away as California who described how they've taken multiple jobs and borrowed thousands of dollars to pay their college expenses.

The campaign is advertising on both liberal- and conservative-leaning Web sites to urge veterans, their friends and families to pepper Congress with letters and e-mails supporting Webb's proposal.

Kohlberg also has pledged $8 million to a private "Fund for Veterans Education" that aims to put 1,000 vets through college over the next three years.

A Navy veteran of World War II, Kohlberg earned a bachelor's and two Ivy League graduate degrees with the original GI Bill. "It just made me very angry" to learn that those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are not getting the same kind of help, he said last week.

"This is part of the cost of war," he said. "We owe these people. We've been sitting here on our duffs... and in the meantime, they've been protecting us."

Under today's Montgomery GI Bill, troops must put as much as $1,800 of their pay into the GI Bill program to qualify for benefits. They can receive aid totaling just under $40,000, less than 70 percent of the average cost of a four-year public college and less than half of the average cost of a degree from a private school.

One of Kohlberg's employees, Matthew Boulay, discovered the limitations when he enrolled in graduate school after his 2003 deployment to Iraq as a Marine Corps reservist. He told his boss the benefits didn't begin to cover his costs.

The Bush administration has argued that Webb's plan is too expensive. An administration official last year put the 10-year cost at $75 billion; Webb says the real cost is closer to $2 billion annually. The legislation to be considered Thursday would provide $790 million to launch the program in 2009.

Kohlberg dismissed the objections as "a lot of bunk."

Webb said Kohlberg is among a number of private citizens with no direct interest in the bill who have volunteered to help shape and push it forward. "I'm certainly grateful to him," the senator said.

Another of those backers, Dartmouth College president James Wright, helped rework a provision for vets who want to attend private colleges.

Generally, the bill caps aid at the level of public school tuitions. But it provides extra help to those who want to go to more expensive private schools if the schools agree to match the aid with tuition reductions.

Kohlberg, who's now retired but active as a philanthropist, is No. 317 on Forbes magazine's most recent list of the 400 richest Americans. The Mount Kisco, N.Y., resident has a fortune estimated at $1.5 billion.

Boulay, now the campaign's director, said Kohlberg's commitment to the group is in the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars and is focused on "grass-roots action" to show lawmakers the depth of public support for a comprehensive veterans educational benefit.

While the public is deeply divided over the war in Iraq, Boulay said, "in my experience, everyone really does support the troops."

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com