Your NRA has been engaged in getting this passed (S 22) through the Partnership for VETERANS Education
Senate Sends War Supplemental Bill to President, Including Domestic Spending; By Josh Rogin, CQ Staff
The Senate cleared the long-awaited war supplemental spending bill Thursday night, finally sending the measure to President Bush's desk just before adjourning for the July Fourth recess.
By a vote of 92-6, the Senate adopted the House's version of the domestic spending portion of the supplemental, which was an amendment to the base measure (HR2642). The Senate did not vote on the military funding section of the bill, because the House had already concurred June 19 with the Senate's version of that amendment.
By agreeing to the House version of the domestic spending amendment, the Senate allowed the bill to be sent to Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.
The bill "provides our troops the resources they need, does not micromanage our military commanders, and stays within the President's reasonable discretionary spending limits" for fiscal 2008 and 2009, the White House's Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy.
Just before clearing the bill, the Senate voted, 77-21, to waive the Budget Act with respect to the supplemental, in order to dispose of an objection raised by Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Coburn raised a point of order against the bill to complain about overall handling of the census, which is due to receive some funding in the supplemental.
The final clearance of the bill comes after weeks of shuffling sections of the legislation back and forth between the House and the Senate, as Democrats in both chambers argued over its contents. The final action comes only days before the Army was set to run out of funds for operations and personnel.
By using the leftover fiscal 2008 Military Construction-VA appropriations bill as a shell and adding the supplemental funding as amendments, Democrats were able to keep Republicans out of the process of crafting the bill.
Also, by splitting the military and domestic funds into two separate pieces, the Democratic leadership allowed its members to vote against the war money but in favor of domestic programs.
The military funding section of the bill would provide $165.4 billion to support ongoing operations related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $99.5 billion of which would be for the remainder of fiscal 2008 and $65.9 billion for fiscal 2009, funding operations through next June.
The bill would provide $21.1 billion for a host of domestic programs, including $2.7 billion for Midwest flood relief and $5.8 billion in fiscal 2009 funds to rebuild levees destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
The bill includes $4.6 billion in military construction funding and $10.1 billion over two years for the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and international food aid.
The bill also would bar permanent bases in Iraq and would require the Iraqi government to match funds in the bill designated for Iraqi reconstruction on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Modernization of GI Bill
It would also provide a major expansion of veterans' education benefits, a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits and a delay of six Medicaid regulations proposed by the administration that seek to shift some costs to the states.
The bill represents a major victory for supporters of the new veterans' education benefit, based on a bill (S 22) by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. The benefit is a major update to the 1944 GI Bill of Rights (PL 78-346).
Under the new benefit, veterans who have served since Sept. 11, 2001, would be entitled to full tuition for four years at any public university in their home state, plus a housing stipend, after 36 months of active-duty service.
"Today's new veterans will know that we honor the contributions they have made in service to this nation," Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, said in a floor speech. "We understand the sacrifices they make, the hardships they endure, and the toll that is taken on their lives and the lives of their families."