Congress and the president have now passed two bill packages aimed at minimizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student veterans.
Legislation that would prevent GI Bill benefits from being cut as schools shut down and classes moved online already passed into law, but this bill package, the Student Veteran Coronavirus Response Act, aims to do more, lawmakers said.
This week, President Donald Trump signed the second GI Bill fix legislation into law.
“We cannot let any student veterans lose their work-study payments, have their housing cut off, exhaust their disaster housing stipend continuation payments, or lose their benefits due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif.
“I know firsthand how important the GI Bill is since I relied on it to put food on the table for my family after I got out of the Army,” said House Veterans Affairs ranking member Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn. “With so many veterans struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never been more important than it is now to make sure the GI Bill is there for them, just like it was there for me. The bill that the House passed today builds on the work we have already done to ensure that GI Bill benefits remain protected for the duration of this crisis. By including further protections to preserve work study and vocational rehabilitation and employment programs and allowing students to maintain their GI Bill eligibility next semester if their school was forced to close, we are sending a message to the hundreds of thousands of student veterans and their families that they are not alone in their time of need."
The House passed the legislation late last month. Earlier this month., the Senate also voted to pass it. Now, with the president's signature, it becomes law.
“As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forces more schools and programs to shut their doors, we’ve got to ensure that our student veterans don’t fall behind,” said Senate Veterans Affairs Ranking Member Jon Tester, D-Mont. “This legislative solution does just that—it builds on our recent bipartisan effort to provide veterans relying on their education benefits with the financial assistance they’ve earned, especially when their lives have been interrupted by the national health emergency. I urge President Trump to sign our commonsense solution quickly into law, to support veterans working towards an education during this unprecedented time.”
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VA is a last line of defense in the US against national medical emergencies like pandemics