Webb-sponsored G.I. Bill clears first big hurdle

WASHINGTON

Despite promises of a presidential veto, the House of Representatives backed a historic increase Thursday in college aid for military veterans and delivered a major political victory to Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia.

The GI Bill championed by Webb, a freshman Democrat, passed 256-166. It would pay college tuition plus a cost-of-living allowance to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The majority included 32 Republicans, bolstering Webb's claim that, despite opposition from the Bush administration, the bill has bipartisan support. The vote total was far short of the two-thirds of House members needed to override a veto, however.

The vote "places veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars one step closer to realizing the first-class future that they are due," Webb said in a statement released by his office.

The benefit is designed to match the GI Bill provided to World War II veterans. It would be capped at the level of the most expensive public college in the veteran's home state. Additional aid would be available to veterans attending more expensive private colleges if those colleges agreed to match the assistance with tuition grants and reductions.

Veterans under the current GI Bill generally get up to $1,100 a month to pay their college expenses, an amount that often is less than half of their costs.

The GI Bill vote came as the House narrowly - and surprisingly - rejected Bush administration calls for a $163 billion appropriation to continue military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An unlikely combination of pro-war Republicans and anti-war Democrats defeated the war funding, with 132 GOP lawmakers abstaining to protest the way the majority Democrats brought it to a vote. The defections left the bill with 141 supporters and 149 opponents.

The war appropriation is almost certain to be revived in the Senate next week, however.

While voting down the war funding, the House agreed, 227-196, to set December 2009 as the target date for completion of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. That measure also would set new "dwell time" requirements for American forces, designed to lengthen the time troops spend at their home bases between deployments overseas, and write into law Army guidelines for questioning suspected terrorists.

President Bush has promised to veto any Iraq funding bill that sets a withdrawal deadline or limits the administration's flexibility in setting deployment schedules. And in a policy statement delivered to lawmakers Thursday, the administration said the interrogation limits would deprive the intelligence community of information needed to block future terrorist attacks.

The administration also has opposed Webb's GI Bill. The policy statement delivered Thursday reiterated warnings that the plan would have the unwanted side effect of encouraging needed troops to leave the military. The administration prefers a less generous alternative that would increase benefits for those who agree to repeated re-enlistments.

Bush and some House Republicans also objected Thursday to the House's plan to cover the estimated 10-year, $51 billion cost for Webb's GI Bill with a surtax to be imposed on those earning more than $500,000 annually.

"If the bill presented to the president contains a tax increase," the White House said in a statement, "he will veto it."

The Webb proposal is expected to get a Senate vote next week as part of another measure providing appropriations to cover the cost of U.S. operations in Iraq. The proposal has 58 co-sponsors in the Senate.

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