PL 346 - the GI Bill (1944)
ON THIS DAY - JUNE 22, 1944
Servicemen's Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill)
First Page
June 22, 1944
Seventy-eighth Congress of the United States of America
At the Second Session
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the tenth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and forty-four
An Act
To provide Federal Government aid for the readjustment in civilian life of returning World War II veterans.
Be It enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this act may be cited as the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944."
TITLE I
Chapter 1 - Hospitalization, Claims, and Procedures
SEC 100. The Veterans' Administration is hereby declared to be an essential war agency and entitled, second only to the War and Navy Departments, to priorities in personnel, equipment, supplies, and material under any laws, Executive orders, and regulations pertaining to priorities , and in appointments of personnel from civil-service registers the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby granted the same authority and discretion as the War and Navy Departments and the United States Public Health Service: Provided, That the provisions of this section as to priorities for materials shall apply to any State institution to be built for the care or hospitalization of veterans.
SEC. 101. The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs and the Federal Board of Hospitalization are hereby authorized and directed to expedite and complete the construction of additional hospital facilities for war veterans, and to enter into agreements and contracts for the use by or transfer to the Veterans' Administration of suitable Army and Navy hospitals after termination of hostilities in the present war or after such institutions are no longer needed by the armed services; and the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized and directed to establish necessary regional offices, sub-offices, branch offices, contact units, or other subordinate offices in centers of population where there is no Veterans' Administration facility, or where such a facility is not readily available or accessible: Provided , That there is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $500,000,000 for the construction of additional hospital facilities.
SEC. 102. The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs and the Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy are hereby granted authority to enter into agreements and contracts for the mutual use or exchange
Franklin Roosevelt's Statement on Signing the G.I. Bill, June 22, 1944
This bill, which I have signed today, substantially carries out most of the recommendations made by me in a speech on July 28, 1943, and more specifically in messages to the Congress dated October 27, 1943, and November 23, 1943:
1. It gives servicemen and women the opportunity of resuming their education or technical training after discharge, or of taking a refresher or retrainer course, not only without tuition charge up to $
500 per school year, but with the right to receive a monthly living allowance while pursuing their studies.2. It makes provision for the guarantee by the Federal Government of not to exceed 50 percent of certain loans made to veterans for the purchase or construction of homes, farms, and business properties.
3. It provides for reasonable unemployment allowances payable each week up to a maximum period of one year, to those veterans who are unable to find a job.
4. It establishes improved machinery for effective job counseling for veterans and for finding jobs for returning soldiers and sailors.
5. It authorizes the construction of all necessary additional hospital facilities.
6. It strengthens the authority of the Veterans Administration to enable it to discharge its existing and added responsibilities with promptness and efficiency.
With the signing of this bill a well-rounded program of special veterans' benefits is nearly completed. It gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.
By prior legislation, the Federal Government has already provided for the armed forces of this war: adequate dependency allowances; mustering-out pay; generous hospitalization, medical care, and vocational rehabilitation and training; liberal pensions in case of death or disability in military service; substantial war risk life insurance, and guaranty of premiums on commercial policies during service; protection of civil rights and suspension of enforcement of certain civil liabilities during service; emergency maternal care for wives of enlisted men; and reemployment rights for returning veterans.
This bill therefore and the former legislation provide the special benefits which are due to the members of our armed forces -- for they "have been compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than the rest of us, and are entitled to definite action to help take care of their special problems." While further study and experience may suggest some changes and improvements, the Congress is to be congratulated on the prompt action it has taken.
There still remains one recommendation which I made on November 23, 1943, which I trust that the Congress will soon adopt -- the extension of social security credits under the Federal Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance Law to all servicemen and women for the period of their service.
I trust that the Congress will also soon provide similar opportunities for postwar education and unemployment insurance to the members of the merchant marine, who have risked their lives time and again during this war for the welfare of their country.
But apart from these special benefits which fulfill the special needs of veterans, there is still much to be done.
As I stated in my message to the Congress of November 23, 1943,
"What our servicemen and women want, more than anything else, is the assurance of satisfactory employment upon their return to civil life. The first task after the war is to provide employment for them and for our demobilized workers .... The goal after the war should be the maximum utilization of our human and material resources."
As a related problem the Congress has had under consideration the serious problem of economic reconversion and readjustment after the war, so that private industry will be able to provide jobs for the largest possible number. This time we have wisely begun to make plans in advance of the day of peace, in full confidence that our war workers will remain at their essential war jobs as long as necessary until the fighting is over.
The executive branch of the Government has taken, and is taking, whatever steps it can, until legislation is enacted. I am glad to learn that the Congress has agreed on a bill to facilitate the prompt settlement of terminated contracts. I hope that the Congress will also take prompt action, when it reconvenes, on necessary legislation which is now pending to facilitate the development of unified programs for the demobilization of civilian war workers, for their reemployment in peacetime pursuits, and for provision, in cooperation with the States, of appropriate unemployment benefits during the transition from war to peace. I hope also that the Congress, upon its return, will take prompt action on the pending legislation to facilitate the orderly disposition of surplus property.
A sound postwar economy is a major present responsibility.
Comments (64 year later) by CBS, June 22, 2008
PL 346 was the Congressional designation of a landmark bill signed into law 64 years ago today - legislation designed to smooth the transition to civilian life for millions of World War II servicemen. In the process it changed America for ALL of us. Congress is very close to approving expanded benefits for service men and women of today's Iraq War era. Our Cover Story is reported now by Thalia Assuras.
They returned to a hero's welcome - sixteen million men and women who had served their country during World War II, one out of every nine Americans.
Yet, along with all the smiles and the tears of joy, there were fresh worries: Would returning vets be able to find jobs? A place to live? What was next?
"There was a near certainty that after the war - assuming the allies were victorious - that a depression would follow, just as happened after World War I - that the economy would tank," said author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Humes.
In his book "Over Here," Humes tracks the fate of those returning GIs.
"You had an economy that had been totally retooled to manufacture arms," he said of wartime America. "You had women entering the workforce in record numbers to take the jobs that the men had to leave to go fight. And so suddenly saying, 'Okay, back to normal,' it was gonna hit us like an explosion."
But it didn't.
In a display of foresight not often seen in Washington, long before victory was assured, President Franklin Roosevelt put into motion a plan to ease vets back into the fragile economy.
As told in one period newsreel, "When a man gets out of the Army or Navy or Marines he's worried most about a job, an education and a home. And that's why Congress, led by the president, passed a law: The Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights."
Signed into law 64 years ago today, the bill promised every GI Joe and GI Jane the building blocks of what would become the American dream: low-cost loans to buy a home and, perhaps most important, a free college education.
It was largely the brainchild of the American Legion, a group representing veterans of previous wars.
Peter Gaytan is director of veteran's affairs for the American Legion. He says the bill's humble origins on a sheet of hotel stationery belie its radical premise:
"We didn't wanna just create legislation that would write a monthly check to a veteran who returned from combat. We recognized that they needed a transition into a life, not a payment for service. What the GI Bill originally did was allow them to go to school, to purchase their home, to become part of the work force when they took the uniform off."
Up to that time, America had a lousy track record when it came to taking care of its veterans. Even after the Revolutionary War, vets had to storm Independence Hall in Philadelphia to demand payment they'd been promised.
In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, World War I vets marched on the Capitol demanding compensation owed to them. Government troops were called in to disperse them by force.
It was a bleak chapter in American history - and the GI Bill was intended to make sure it would not be repeated.
Jerome Kohlberg, who enrolled in the Navy when he was 17, knew the value of the GI Bill: "I got three different degrees on it.
"I certainly had a lot of friends who never have gone to college and for whom the GI Bill was the difference in life and death, really."
Now 82, Kohlberg is a billionaire businessman, and he's giving away millions to help today's veterans pursue their educations - a way of paying back the investment the country once made in him.
"The GIs were appreciated, and more than that, the country realized that education was important to the country," Kohlberg said. "And that education paid for itself ten-fold, if not more."
The GI Bill's authors predicted a few hundred thousand vets would take advantage of its education benefits. Instead, nearly eight million did.
"It was phenomenal," Humes said. "There was also this feeling that these veterans, these ordinary, mostly blue-collar guys, aren't really college material. The president of the University of Chicago, [Robert] Hutchins, who was an innovative educator, he said, 'You know, this benefit is gonna turn our campuses into hobo jungles.'"
The veterans proved everyone wrong.
In fact, many of the country's post-war leaders got their education on the GI Bill: presidents (George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford), senators (Daniuel Inouye, Bob Dole, John Warner), even Supreme Court justices (William Rhenquist, John Paul Stevens, Byron White).
Famous actors, writers and even an astronaut reached new heights thanks to the GI Bill.
"Really, the cold warriors were educated on the GI Bill," Humes said. "They used different weapons. They had the drafting table instead of the draft board. They used their new skills to later on take us to the moon. GI Bill guys were behind that. Same with the Internet, with the invention of computers. You can trace back much of what's good in America today, to the skills and the prosperity that the GI Bill brought to this generation."
… which brings us to the present. GI Bill benefits are still available to returning veterans. But, while the cost of a college education has exploded in recent decades, government assistance has failed to keep pace.
For Todd Bowers it wasn't just a tough decision to just stop going to school: "It was embarrassing."
The 28-year old Marine reservist was almost killed by a sniper while serving in Iraq. The bullet is still lodged in his rifle scope.
Back home, Bowers re-enrolled for classes at George Washington University but had to drop out. Despite his savings and part-time jobs, his benefits simply didn't go far enough.
"I was as surprised as I think all of America is," Bowers said. "I hear from a lot of my friends who have not served and even family and they say, 'Well, you served in the military, your college is paid for.'"
For more than a year, Vietnam veteran and Democratic senator James Webb has been pushing for a new GI Bill comparable to the original. It would guarantee funding to cover a four-year state university tuition, plus living expenses. It also extends benefits to reservists and National Guard troops.
"When you look at today's military, even though people say this is a volunteer military, they forget that the majority of the people who go into the military get out on or before the end of their first enlistment," Webb said. "And they deserve the same opportunity to readjust into civilian life and a first-class shot at the future."
But the Pentagon was initially lukewarm about Senator Webb's proposal.
Cost wasn't the issue: The estimated price-tag for an expanded benefits program, $4 billion a year, is the equivalent of about one week of combat costs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still, until this past Thursday, the Bush administration and the Pentagon were balking because of concerns the new bill could encourage forces to leave the military.
"We in the department want to be careful that any changes to benefits don't undercut retention," said Undersecretary of Defense for manpower issues David Chu. "In other words, if you are very generous about post-service education, you're creating a draw away from continued military service, which we would need to counter-act."
But confronted with evidence that Senator Webb's proposal was gaining bipartisan support, on Thursday President Bush withdrew his opposition.
Hoping to encourage skilled forces to stay in the ranks, the compromise version of the bill will allow education funds to be transferred to military family members as well.
"We'll help you while you're in service," Chu said. "Here's our tuition assistance program. You can take this gift from the American public and you can give it to your spouse, your kids, whatever. I think it's a very powerful draw."
Humes believes the new GI Bill proposal is true to the spirit of the original legislation.
"The intent of the GI Bill, as it was written originally, was strictly to benefit the veterans, to help the servicemen readjust," he said. "It's about helping veterans take their place in society and become educated, become professionals. It's about investing in the future of America. That's what the GI Bill has always been about."
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