Subcommittee Chairman Vic Snyder

Military Personnel Subcommittee Hearing

Proposed Changes to the Montgomery G.I. Bill

“It is necessary to modernize the Reserve Montgomery GI Bill to reflect a changing military.  We now have a Total Force, and the Guard and Reserve are no longer just a strategic reserve to be called up in case of a global war.  They have become an operational force on whom we rely constantly.

“Members of the Guard and Reserve components of our Armed Forces continue to make an essential contribution to support our missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world. However, although Reservists are being called to duty and mobilized for an average of 18 months, when they leave the Reserves they do not receive the same educational benefits as the Active Duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that they serve alongside.

“An additional discrepancy between Active Duty and Reserve forces that needs to be addressed is that MGIB benefits for Reserve members have not kept up with the increases in the MGIB for Active Duty. Despite our nation’s increased reliance upon our Selected Reserve, the value of their standard MGIB benefits has fallen over the last 20 years from 47 percent to 29 percent of Active Duty benefits. In addition, they continue to be the only benefits that members of the Selected Reserve who serve Active Duty in the Global War on Terror cannot access once they separate from service.”

Congressman Snyder recently filed HR 1102, the Total Force GI Bill, which would:

• Consolidate the Active Duty and Selected Reserve MGIB programs under one authority by transferring them into the jurisdiction of the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Veterans Administration.  This would provide a cleaner, simpler arrangement of MGIB benefits that would put an end to inconsistent and inequitable structuring of benefits.

• Ensure that Selected Reserve MGIB benefits would rise in proportionality with Active Duty MGIB rate increases.  This would help address the growing inequity of benefits between the two.

• Provide a 10-year portability for Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP) benefits.  Unlike Active Duty servicemen, members of the Selected Reserve must forfeit all of these benefits, which are earned on activated duty in the Global War on Terrorism, once they separate from service.

• Provide an accruable month per month Active Duty rate for mobilized members of the Selected Reserve.  Individuals can accrue Active Duty MGIB benefits up to the maximum allowable in law (36 months at $1,075 per month, currently).