- Target:
- President of the United States of America
- Region:
- United States of America
Issue: Military Veterans retiring between, and including, December 10, 2001 and July 31, 2009 never had an opportunity to make a transfer of Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to a spouse and/or dependent children.
Background: When Congress wrote the Post 9/11 GI Bill transfer-of-benefits rules, they stated that to make a transfer request, a military member had to be "serving on or after August 1, 2009" - the date when the Post 9/11 GI Bill started.
However, eligibility for the Post 9/11 GI Bill went back to September 10, 2001. So those retiring before the August 1, 2009 date were fully eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, to include the transfer option, but never had an opportunity to pass on those benefits to family members - because they were not currently serving on or after the August 1, 2009 date. They had already retired - some one day before the August 1st date.
There are really two groups of veterans in question. Group one are active duty veterans retiring between, and including, September 11, 2004 and July 31, 2009.
Group two are Selected Reservists, namely National Guard and Reservists from all the military branches, who retired between December 10, 2001 and July 31, 2009.
Group one met the 20-year "retirement eligible" requirement and served three years after September 10, 2001, so they are at the 100% Post 9/11 GI Bill tier - a requirement for active-year retirement eligible to be able to pass on benefits to family members.
Group two also met the 20-year requirement and served for at least 90 days on a Title 10 order in support of a contingency operation, which makes them eligible for the minimum 40% Post 9/11 GI Bill tier and eligible to pass on their Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to a family member.
We ask the veterans in both groups be allowed a one-time opportunity to pass on unused Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to spouses or dependent family members - family members as defined in the Post 9/11 GI Bill rules.
Veterans in these groups already have Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits - they just want the same opportunity to pass on those benefits that those currently serving "on or after August 1, 2009" have had.
We, the undersigned, call on President Obama to initiate a Post 9/11 GI Bill Transfer-of-Benefits equality and fairness to 20+ year retired Military Veterans in both groups, as defined in the Preamble, retiring between, and including, December 10, 2001 to July 31, 2009, by allowing them a one-time opportunity to pass on unused Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to dependent family members.
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The GI Bill Fairness to Veterans Retiring Before August 1, 2009 petition to President of the United States of America was written by Ronald Kness and is in the category Government at GoPetition.