Latest GI Bill fight could sideline a host of planned reforms

[nitpicker]

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/gi-bill-fight-pay-in-expansions-sidelined

Latest GI Bill fight could sideline a host of planned reforms

By: Leo Shane III, April 27, 2017

WASHINGTON — Plans for GI Bill reforms this year are all but dead after a high-profile, emotional fight among veterans advocates in recent days over proposed dramatic changes to the popular benefit. The conflict comes after months of behind-the-scenes work testing the idea of charging future active-duty troops for an improved veterans education benefit, a proposal that proved more controversial when it became public sooner than supporters had anticipated. But a casualty of the fight may be a series of less sensational changes to veterans education benefits that a host of advocacy groups had hoped to push through Congress this year.

Now, the legislative appetite for those moves appears gone. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Phil Roe, R-Tenn., called the strong negative response from some groups to the pay-in idea “a giant step backwards” for GI Bill debate on Capitol Hill this year. “We’ve got plenty of other issues before us already,” he said. “We have to fix the (VA) Choice program. There are big IT issues to fix at VA. We can’t let one issue suck up all the oxygen in the room.”

Veterans groups on both sides of the fight say they’re hopeful they can change Roe’s mind. Still, his comments are a stark change from the multiple GI Bill roundtables held by the committee since January, where a host of veterans groups offered ideas on possible improvements to the education benefits.
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