During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) spoke about the G.I. Bill.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to speak for up to 15 minutes
00:07and that Senator Young be recognized to speak after that for up to 5 minutes prior to the
00:13scheduled vote.
00:14I also ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, that the privileges of the floor be granted
00:21to a following guest member of our staff, my staff, Kelly Powers, during the pendency
00:26of today, July 25th, 2024, and sign Thomas R. Carper.
00:33That would be me.
00:34And I would like to send this up to you, Mr. President.
00:37Without objection.
00:38Thanks very much.
00:40Mr. President.
00:41Good morning.
00:42Last month, as some of us will require, marked the 80th year since Franklin, the President
00:56of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of
01:011944, better known as the GI Bill, into law, 80 years.
01:09In the eight decades since the GI Bill was enacted, it has helped millions of veterans,
01:15including myself, to pursue an education, to become homeowners, and to live the full
01:22American dream.
01:24The GI Bill truly transformed not only our economy, but a lot more than that.
01:29I was glad to recently lead a bipartisan resolution recognizing the importance of this legislation
01:35with Senators Jerry Moran, Senator Jon Tester, and Senator John Bozeman.
01:41As I've shared here many times before, the GI Bill is often called the greatest legislation
01:49ever enacted in the history of the United States, including here in this chamber.
01:54First, the GI Bill successfully enabled millions of service members, including myself, to transition
02:00back to civilian life after serving our country at home, and in many cases abroad.
02:05Second, it uplifted millions of American families, and it reinvigorated our economy.
02:12Third, it allowed for benefit awards to our veterans to be passed on to their family members.
02:22And fourth, it has paved the way for subsequent critical legislation that serves those who
02:28served our country in times of war, in times of peace.
02:34The effects of all four of these achievements are felt to this day, and I'd like to take
02:39a few minutes, if I may, at this time to elaborate on the impact of each of those four.
02:46First and foremost, the GI Bill helped my parents' generation return to civilian life
02:51following World War II.
02:54This generation was well-acquainted with hard times.
02:57Many of these folks had been raised during the previous World War, and were just starting
03:02to rebuild their lives when the Great Depression ravaged the American economy, leaving one
03:08of every four Americans jobless.
03:11But despite hardship at home, these brave Americans answered the call to serve our nation
03:16in World War II, and one of those brave Americans was my father.
03:23My father had been a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, high school graduate, West Virginia,
03:29coal mining town, and he and his brother, and his brothers-in-law, all served in World
03:36War II, several of them as Chief Petty Officers in the Navy, others as Sergeants in the Army
03:40or Marine Corps.
03:42But when the war was over, my dad came back to West Virginia, and used the GI Bill to
03:52learn how to fix wrecked cars.
03:55Most people don't think of the GI Bill as something you use to fix wrecked cars, but
03:58he did, and that turned into a job for him at a place in Beckley, West Virginia, coal
04:03mining town, where he fixed wrecked cars at Burleson Oldsmobile.
04:09And one day he was working in Burleson Oldsmobile, having learned how to fix wrecked cars and
04:15do body work through the GI Bill, he was visited by a claims adjuster from Nationwide Insurance.
04:23And Nationwide, it turned out, had insured the wrecked car that my dad was working on
04:29that day at Burleson Oldsmobile.
04:31And the fellow from Burleson Oldsmobile, the fellow from Nationwide Insurance, engaged
04:37my father in a conversation about how was the progress coming along in terms of repairing
04:41the wrecked car.
04:43And they talked for a bit, and at the end of the conversation, the fellow from Nationwide
04:47said to my dad, he said, you know, you seem to have a lot on the ball for a guy who's
04:51fixing wrecked cars here at Burleson Oldsmobile.
04:54My dad went on to explain how he'd been a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, for those
04:57of you who know the military, the top non-commissioned officer in the Navy is a Chief Petty Officer,
05:04and that's what my dad was, and several of my uncles as well.
05:09That conversation with the claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance that day actually
05:14led to a job where my dad became a claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance.
05:20And years later, my dad helped to run the national training program for claims adjusters
05:26for Nationwide Insurance.
05:27He was a guy with a high school degree who had a chance to serve in World War II and
05:32to benefit from the GI Bill, to have a great career and to be able to provide for his family,
05:38along with literally hundreds of thousands of other veterans.
05:44But my dad is just one example of millions of Americans that this legislation helped
05:50to set on a path to success.
05:54My dad also illustrates the second reason why the GI Bill is among the greatest pieces
05:59of legislation ever passed, and that is it lifted up millions of hardworking Americans
06:06and helped build a middle class as we know it in this country today.
06:10With the stroke of a pen, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law one of America's
06:15most ambitious investments in our workforce and our nation's history, and it paid dividends,
06:21it has paid dividends for decades to come, generations past and future.
06:28Among other things, the original GI Bill provided a college education to, listen to this, 450,000
06:34engineers, 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 122,000 dentists, 91,000
06:46scientists, 67,000 doctors, and one or two folks who could fix wrecked cars at places
06:55like Rose and Oldsmobile in Beckley, West Virginia.
06:59Just like my dad, countless others used their GI Bill benefits to learn a trade or to learn
07:05a skill, and enable them to lift themselves and their families up firmly into the middle
07:11class.
07:12It was clear then, as it is now, that the GI Bill is perhaps one of the most worthwhile
07:17economic investments in our nation's history.
07:21According to a 1988 report from Joint Economic Committee, it was estimated that for every
07:28dollar that the United States has invested in our veterans through the GI Bill over the
07:33years, roughly $7 has been returned in economic growth for our nation.
07:41How much never do we see legislation have the power to single-handedly transform our
07:48economy and continue to do so, not just for a couple of years, but for decades.
07:53The GI Bill exceeded and continues to exceed all expectations.
07:58As many of my colleagues know, I personally benefited from the opportunities provided
08:02by the GI Bill.
08:03I would not be standing here today in this place, speaking on this floor, without the
08:08benefits provided to me as a Vietnam veteran, coming back from my third tour in Southeast
08:15Asia, eventually moving to Delaware and enrolling in business school at the University of Delaware.
08:23That education, along with my time as a Navy Rotsamen shipment at Ohio State earlier in
08:29time, has enabled me to serve Delaware as their treasurer, as their congressman, at
08:37a large congressman, as their governor, and now for the last 23 years, as their United
08:41States Senator.
08:44Third reason why the GI Bill is truly extraordinary is that this legislation, and subsequent legislation
08:49like the current post-911 GI Bill, allows for benefits to be passed on to family members
08:56of veterans who do not use or need the benefit themselves.
08:59My generation, when we came back from Southeast Asian or Vietnam War, if we took advantage
09:05of the GI Bill, that was fine, I did, but if we had a spouse, our spouse could not take
09:11advantage of it.
09:12We had children, dependent children, they could not take advantage of the GI Bill.
09:16That's all changed.
09:18And for a GI who doesn't use the GI Bill benefit today, if they have a spouse, their spouse
09:23can use it.
09:24If the spouse doesn't use it, they have children, their children can use the GI Bill.
09:29What a benefit, what a benefit for not just the GI, but also for the spouse and family
09:36members.
09:37Today's GI Bill allows countless veterans across our country to take advantage of these
09:42generous educational benefits, or pass them down to their families.
09:48Moreover, the post-911 GI Bill includes a program called the Fry Scholarship, Fry spelled
09:55F-R-Y, scholarship that ensures surviving spouses and children of fallen service members
10:00have access to hard-earned benefits of their family member who served and made the ultimate
10:06sacrifice for our country.
10:09We've seen the impact of this legislation firsthand in my home state of Delaware with
10:13families like those of the late Staff Sergeant Christopher Slutman, Marine veteran.
10:19A native Delawarean, Staff Sergeant Slutman bravely served as a New York firefighter and
10:25as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan.
10:27However, five years ago, he was tragically killed in combat, leaving behind his wife
10:32and their three daughters, McKenna, Kenley, and Weslyn.
10:39Thanks to the post-911 GI Bill, which extended the benefits of the GI Bill to veterans who
10:43served after September 11th, 2001, Staff Sergeant Slutman was entitled to a wide range
10:49of educational benefits.
10:51And after his tragic passing, Staff Sergeant Slutman's GI Bill benefits were ultimately
10:56allowed to be passed down to his three daughters, thanks to the Fry Scholarship, which was one
11:02of the provisions I was proud to support in the post-911 GI Bill.
11:07Last but certainly not least, the GI Bill is among the greatest legislation ever enacted
11:13because it has served as an excellent model for how we can continue to provide resources
11:19for our nation's veterans.
11:21Throughout my years in the Senate, and it's been quite a few years, almost 24, I've worked
11:26to advance a critical legislation that delivers on the promise to serve those who have served
11:31our nation.
11:32In addition to the post-911 GI Bill and the forever GI Bill, I was proud to leave passage
11:37of a bipartisan amendment that finally closed something called the 910 loophole.
11:42For those who may not know, this loophole allowed bad actors in the for-profit college
11:51sector to take advantage of our veterans' hard-earned GI benefits.
11:55One veteran misled or mistreated is one too many, and I was proud that my Senate colleagues
11:59and I came together unanimously to pass the amendment that Senator Moran and I authored
12:04to close this loophole.
12:06And we did.
12:08We must also be on guard to root out the bad actors who try to take advantage of our veterans.
12:13That's why just this week I co-hosted our annual Veterans Summit in Delaware with Senator
12:17Chris Coons, Representative of Rochester, joined by our Secretary of the VA, Dennis
12:22McDonough, to raise awareness of a deceptive marketing tactic deployed by those we know
12:27as claims sharks.
12:30Claim sharks are unaccredited lawyers and consultants who try to take advantage of vulnerable
12:35veterans by offering to help them file claims with the Veterans Benefit Administration and
12:39then go on to take a significant percentage of the benefit that the veteran should have
12:44received.
12:45At our summit a week ago, we spoke with dozens of veterans about the free resources, free
12:49resources, provided them, available to them through the VA to help them avoid filing for
12:55scams and ensure that they know about the full range of benefits they are entitled to.
13:01And more recently, I co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to impose penalties on these sharks
13:06so that we can further protect our veterans.
13:10After all, our commitment to care for our veterans, including safeguarding their hard-earned
13:15benefits, is a sacred obligation and one that I worked hard with many of our colleagues,
13:20Democrat and Republican, to fulfill.
13:23In closing, it's clear that without the foundation of the original GI Bill, our ambition to craft
13:29and pass generations of subsequent legislation to help our veterans might not have been possible.
13:35For all these reasons, the lasting legacy of the GI Bill leaves no doubt that it's truly
13:39the greatest legislation ever passed in this chamber and in this Congress in the history
13:45of our nation.
13:46For my family and me, to the veterans of today and the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps,
13:52Coast Guard, and all of our branches, I'm honored to lead this celebration of the 80th
13:58anniversary of the original GI Bill.
14:00Here's to another 80 years, and hopefully many beyond.
14:03I'll close with one thing.
14:06I used to think it was in the Bible, Mr. President, that if you give a person a fish, you feed
14:14him for a day.
14:15If you teach a person to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
14:18As it turns out, that's not in the Bible.
14:19It's not in the script.
14:20For years, I said it was.
14:21And I finally used that line in a speech back in Delaware.
14:25I said at the end of my speech that the – talking about how our obligation is to try to make
14:34sure that people have the ability to feed themselves and their families.
14:39And as it turned out, there was a preacher in the audience when I said those words.
14:44He spoke to me after my speech and after the program was over, and he said, those words
14:47are not in the scripture.
14:49Those words are not in the scripture.
14:50The idea that we have an obligation to help teach a person to fish so they can feed themselves
14:57and their families and all.
14:58He said that's really not in the Bible.
15:00And I said, well, it ought to be.
15:07We do have – we have an obligation to help people, not just to give people something.
15:15But if they're hungry, they need help, we have an obligation to help them.
15:17But the real obligation we have is to make sure that ultimately they can help themselves,
15:21that we can help themselves.
15:22And one of the great things about the GI Bill is it enables our servicemen and women to
15:30help themselves as they go forward in the future with their lives and to help their
15:35families.
15:36It's a great piece of legislation, and we celebrate it here today for the 80th year
15:42since it's an original act in this chamber.
15:45And with that, Mr. President, I'm going to yield the floor.
15:48Thanks so much.