A short while ago the House of Representatives passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill Improvement Act which had been passed earlier this week by the Senate. This bill extends transferability of the Post 9/11 GI Bill educational benefit to immediate family members of eligible PHS and NOAA Commissioned Corps officers. This has been COA’s number one legislative priority for the last two years and I am more than pleased to announce this long overdue holiday gift to our members and all PHS Commissioned Corps officers.
As with all good achievements, we had loads of help. COA’s Legislative and Benefits committee under the passionate leadership of CDR Jonathan Rash and COA’s Government Relations Director, Judy Rensberger, led the effort to get our members to communicate the importance of this issue to Capitol Hill. MOAA and the entire Military Coalition stood with us and helped to ensure that our issue was in the bill and stayed in the bill throughout the long legislative process. RADM Jerry Michael’s personal appeal to the Chairman of the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee, Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), and his ability to obtain to face-to-face meeting for us with Chairman Akaka got the ball rolling on this issue. And each of you who wrote, emailed, or called your Senators and Representative also had a hand in this crucial victory. You made a difference!
We still need to have the Secretary of Defense certify to the Secretary of Health and Human Services that transferability of the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefit to PHS officers is in the national security interest. COA has already communicated this to the Surgeon General and the Assistant Secretary for Health urging them to urge Secretary Sebelius to request this certification as a matter of priority. There is no cost to DHHS to authorize transferability for Corps officers. All costs will continue to be borne by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A great way to celebrate the holidays and wrap up the year!
I encourage all COA members to share this news with your fellow officers who have not yet seen the light and joined COA. They reap this benefit too; but you paid for it with your COA dues and our non-member officers should be ashamed to accept the benefit without contributing to its achievement. If any officer needs a reason to join COA, I cannot think of a better one than this.
Happy Holidays!
Jerry Farrell