Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.
Congress seems destined to approve, as it should, an expanded education benefit for veterans who enlisted after Sept. 11, 2001.
Veterans groups and other organizations have long pushed for an expanded GI Bill and early last year legislation to make it happen was introduced by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Marine veteran of Vietnam and a former secretary of the Navy.
Late last week the House passed its version of the bill on a 256-166 vote, with 32 Republicans joining the majority.
The House bill would impose a surcharge on the incomes of the wealthiest Americans. Money raised by the 0.47 percent surcharge would allow an eligible veteran — one who had honorably served on active duty for at least three years — to attend any in-state public university on full scholarship and to receive a monthly housing stipend.
Although this new education benefit passed, the overall legislation it was attached to — a new war-funding measure — was blocked by Democrats who oppose the Iraq war and by Republicans who object to items in the bill that weren’t related to the war, including money for rebuilding Louisiana’s levees.
This blockage was mostly symbolic, however, as the House will get another chance to act on the bill once the Senate votes on it, presumably this week.
We hope the Senate, whose leaders have expressed a preference to add the cost of a new GI Bill to the $600-billion-plus deficit being rung up by the Iraq war, will warm up to the House version.
The surcharge, which would apply to individuals with incomes of $500,000 or more a year and couples with incomes of $1 million or more, would at last require a little sacrifice from civilians after so much sacrifice by members of the military.
Although we like the House bill as it is, we expect some compromises, such as lowering the income threshold for the surcharge or requiring six years of active service instead of three.
But we would not expect Congress to simply drop the proposal for a new GI Bill. Our troops have earned it.
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