Lawmakers are taking another look at updating the veterans education assistance bill, with an eye toward equality for reservists. “The Montgomery GI Bill, as good as it is, does not reflect the realities facing today’s servicemembers, especially in the Guard and Reserve,” said Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Buyer added, “We must modernize the GI bill.” At a committee budget hearing earlier this month, he cited the efforts of a group of veterans organizations, jointly called the Partnership for Veterans Education. The partnership plan—Total Force MGIB—would, among other things, consolidate active and reserve programs under the VA.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.