Senate approves GI Bill reform

Nevada senators back measure to end 15-year use-it-or-lose-it clause

WASHINGTON — In one of its last acts before the August recess, the Senate passed a sweeping reform of the GI Bill with bipartisan support — part of a legislative package for veterans that Republicans and Democrats were able to agree on.

The bill will improve education benefits for veterans, fixing flaws in the law passed in 2008 to address needs of veterans who served following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Sens. Dean Heller, R-nev., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., were co-sponsors of the legislation and joined colleagues in a voice vote late Thursday to pass the Harry W. Colmery Veteran Education Assistance Act of 2017, known as the Forever GI Bill.

“This is yet another positive development for Nevada’s veterans,” said Heller, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Cortez Masto said the reform legislation creates “opportunities for veterans to pursue higher education, regardless of when they choose to do so in their careers.”

Indeed, a key provision of the bill eliminates the 15-year use-it-orlose-it clause in the original GI Bill, passed in 1944.

There are more than 225,000 veterans living in Nevada, of which 21,000 are women and nearly half, or 120,000 veterans, are under age 65, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill approved by the Senate was passed by the House with overwhelming, bipartisan support and is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature.

Heller added several amendments to the bill in the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to include expanded coverage for reservists and guardsmen, create a pilot program for computer programming and specifically address benefits lost by the closure of ITT Technical Institute and other for-profit schools.

ITT Tech closed campuses in North Las Vegas and Henderson in 2016.

Cortez Masto, meanwhile, has co-sponsored legislation still before the Senate that would protect veterans and service members who are noncitizens from being deported.

Contact Gary Martin at 202-6627390 or gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.