The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 is Title V of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, Pub.L. 110–252, H.R. 2642, an Act of Congress which became law on June 30, 2008. The act amended Part III of Title 38, United States Code to include a new Chapter 33, which expands the educational benefits for military veterans who have served since September 11, 2001. At various times the new education benefits have been referred to as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the 21st Century G.I. Bill of Rights, or the Webb G.I. Bill, with many current references calling it simply the new G.I. Bill. President George W. Bush signed H.R. 2642 into law on June 30, 2008.
The law is an effort to pay for veterans' college expenses to a similar extent that the original G.I. Bill did after World War II. The main provisions of the act include funding 100% of a public four-year undergraduate education to a veteran who has served three years on active duty since September 11, 2001. The act also provides the ability for the veteran to transfer benefits to a spouse or children after serving (or agreeing to serve) ten years.
The act was originally proposed by Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who introduced the original form of the bill in January 2007 as his first legislative proposal. Webb hoped that these benefits would help current veterans as much as the original G.I. Bill helped the Greatest Generation in shaping America.
The original Post-9/11 GI Bill's provisions went into effect on August 1, 2009.
Read more about Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act Of 2008: Overview, Federal Student Aid Application, Section Breakdown, Controversy, Legislative History, Bill Supporters, Bill Opponents, Presidential Candidates' Positions, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words veterans, educational, assistance and/or act:
“To the cry of “follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,” Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The educational system in large countries will always be utterly mediocre, for the same reason that the cooking in large kitchens is mediocre at best.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Each [side in this war] looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)