Democrats Quash GOP Move to Adopt McCain’s GI Bill Alternative

Graham argued that his legislation would in many ways complement Webb’s bill.

Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass., said he hoped the Senate would now proceed to pass the collective bargaining bill “without any more games.”

Republicans, including Gregg, complained that Democrats were refusing to give them a chance to amend Webb’s proposal.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said he would discuss options with Republicans but would not commit to allowing them a vote on Graham’s amendment as part of the supplemental debate.

Sudden Impasse

The Senate ground to a halt for several hours Wednesday. The underlying bill (HR 980) would extending collective bargaining rights to firefighters, police officers and other public safety employees nationwide.

Gregg said the spat over the GI Bill had not done any lasting harm to the bill, which he has supported, and insisted it was important to protest the Democratic chokehold on the amendment process.

Reid had said he had spoken May 9 with Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in hopes of avoiding any need to block amendments on the floor by filling the amendment tree.

“I wanted to see if we could work on good faith for once without the Republicans playing petty politics,” Reid said. “Obviously we can’t do that.”

A McConnell spokesman said the move to invoke cloture on Graham’s amendment should not have derailed the bill, even temporarily.

“Why is Reid objecting to people moving forward with amendments?” the aide asked.

Key Differences

Webb told the Senate that despite the dust-up, he did not want the issue to be seen as partisan. He said that his bill has 56 cosponsors, including 10 Republicans.

Democrats Quash GOP Move to Adopt McCain’s GI Bill Alternative

The Webb and Graham bills take different approaches to updating the 1944 GI Bill of Rights (PL 78-346).

“There’s a philosophical difference in how the bills are structured,” said an aide to Webb.

One of the main departures is over how each bill deals with the ability of soldiers to transfer benefits to family members. The Graham bill removes restrictions on transferability limiting that option to specific military specialties and expands the option to National Guard and Reserve members.

The Webb bill is silent on the issue of transferability, although Democratic aides point out that the fiscal 2002 defense authorization act gave the Pentagon the liberty to allow soldiers to transfer unused GI Bill benefits to family members.

In a March 20 letter to Sen. Daniel K. Akaka , D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Pentagon reported that only 296 out of 17,000 eligible soldiers took advantage of transferability in 2007 under an Army pilot program.

Secretary Gates wrote to leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee April 29 to argue for transferability and to oppose the Webb bill. Gates also said any benefits expansion should be directed towards career-oriented personnel who have served at least six years in the military.

“We’re trying to balance the benefit to the veterans also with maintaining an all- volunteer force and having as experienced a force as we can,” Gates said May 8.

Under the Webb bill, veterans would receive maximum educational benefits after 36 months of service and those benefits would be tied to the full cost of public school tuition and expenses in the veteran’s home state.

The Graham bill would require 12 years of service to garner a maximum benefit of $2000 per month, with increases in that figure tied to the consumer price index. Critics point out that the CPI has been steadily outpaced by tuition increases.

Several veterans groups expressed a preference for the Webb bill in a May 7 veterans committee hearing, and criticized the Graham bill because it may not cover full tuition costs.

“[The Graham bill] does not reflect the real costs of education, and would cover far less of the real costs with each passing year,” testified Eric Hilleman, Deputy Director for National Legislative Service at Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Josh Rogin contributed to this story.