On Senate Floor, Senator Carper Commemorates the 80th Anniversary of the G.I. Bill

The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 – better known as the G.I. Bill – provided generations of veterans, including Senator Carper, with key benefits

Today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), a 23-year Navy veteran and the last Vietnam veteran serving in the U.S. Senate, commemorated the 80^th anniversary of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 – better known as the G.I. Bill. In his speech, Senator Carper highlighted the four key reasons why the original G.I. Bill is often called the “greatest legislation” ever enacted, including the ways in which it provided generations of veterans, like Senator Carper, with key benefits to help them transition back to civilian life. Senator Carper also called attention to a recent bipartisan resolution he led with Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.) commemorating the 80^th anniversary of the G.I. Bill, which occurred on June 22, 2024.

Read Senator Carper’s remarks as delivered below or watch the speech in full at the link here.

Last month marked 80 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 – better known as the G.I. Bill – into law.

In the eight decades since the G.I. Bill was enacted, it has helped millions of veterans, including myself, to pursue an education, become homeowners, and live the full American dream. The G.I. Bill truly transformed not only our economy, but a lot more than that.

I was glad to recently lead a bipartisan resolution recognizing the importance of this legislation with Senators Jerry Moran, Jon Tester, and John Boozman.

As I’ve shared here many times before, the G.I. Bill is often called the “greatest legislation” ever enacted in the history of the United States.

There are four core reasons why this moniker holds true, even today.

First, the G.I. Bill successfully enabled millions of servicemembers – including myself – to transition back to civilian life after serving our country at home and abroad. Second, it uplifted millions of American families and reinvigorated our economy. Third, it allowed for benefits awarded to our veterans to be passed on to their family members. And fourth, it has paved the way for subsequent critical legislation that serves those who served our country, in times of war and times of peace.

The effects of all four of these achievements are felt to this day, and I’d like to take a few minutes at this time to elaborate on the impact of each one of them.

First and foremost, the G.I. Bill helped my parents’ generation return to civilian life following World War II. This generation was well-acquainted with hard times. Many of these folks had been raised during the previous World War, and were just starting to rebuild their lives when the Great Depression ravaged the American economy, and left one in every four Americans jobless.

But despite hardship at home, these brave Americans answered the call to action to serve our nation in World War II. One of those brave Americans was my father.

My father had been a chief petty officer in the Navy, a high school graduate [in a] West Virginia coal mining town, and he and his brother and his brothers-in-law all served in World War II – several of them chief petty officers in the Navy, others as sergeants in the Army or Marine Corps.

But when war was over, my dad came back to West Virginia, and used the G.I.  Bill to learn how to fix wrecked cars. Most people don’t think of the G.I. Bill [as a way] to fix wrecked cars, but he did, and that turned into a job for him in a place in Beckley, West Virginia, a coal mining town, at Burleson Oldsmobile.

One day he was working in Burleson Oldsmobile (having learned how to fix wrecked cars and do body work through the G.I. Bill) and he was visited by a claims adjuster from Nationwide Insurance. Nationwide it turned out had insured that wrecked car that my dad was working on that day at Burleson Oldsmobile.

And the fellow from Nationwide Insurance engaged my father in conversation about how the progress was coming along in terms of repairing the wrecked car. And they talked for a bit, and at the end of the conversation the guy from Nationwide said to my dad, he said ‘You know, you seem to have a lot on the ball for guy who’s fixing wrecked cars here at Burleson Oldsmobile.’

My dad went on to explain how he’d been a chief petty officer in the Navy. For those of you who know the military, the top noncommissioned officer in the Navy is the chief petty officer, and that’s what my dad was and several of my uncles as well.

That conversation with the claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance that day actually led to a job where my dad became a claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance. And years later, my dad helped to run the national training program for claims adjusters for Nationwide Insurance.

[My dad was] a guy with a high school degree, who had a chance to serve in World War II,  benefit from the G.I. Bill, have a great career and be able to provide for his family along with literally hundreds of thousands of veterans.

My dad is just one example of the millions of Americans that this legislation helped set on a path to success.

But my dad also illustrates the second reason why the G.I. Bill is among the greatest pieces of legislation ever passed: it uplifted millions of hard-working Americans and helped build the middle class as we know it today.

With the stroke of a pen, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law one of America’s most ambitious investments in our workforce in our nation’s history – and it paid dividends for decades to come, generations past and future. Among other things, the original G.I. Bill provided a college education to add 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 122,000 dentists, 91,000 scientists, and 67,000 doctors to our American workforce. And just like my father, countless others used their G.I. Bill benefits to learn a trade or a skill, enabling them to lift themselves and their families firmly into the middle class.

It was clear then, as it is now, that the G.I. Bill is perhaps one of the most worthwhile economic investments in our nation’s history. According to a 1988 report from the Joint Economic Committee, it was estimated that for every dollar that the United States invested in our veterans through the G.I. Bill, roughly seven dollars were returned in economic growth for our nation.  Almost never do we see legislation have the power to single-handedly transform our economy and continue to do so for decades. The G.I. Bill has exceeded and continues to exceed all expectations.

As many of my colleagues know, I have personally benefited from the opportunities provided by the G.I. Bill. I would not be standing where I am, in this place today, without the benefits provided to me as a Vietnam veteran, coming back from my third tour in Southeast Asia, eventually moving to Delaware and enrolling in business school at the University of Delaware. And that education – along with my time as a Navy ROTC Midshipman at Ohio State earlier in my life – has enabled me to serve Delaware as their treasurer, as their congressman, as their governor, and now for the last 23 years, as their United States senator.

The third reason why the G.I. Bill is truly extraordinary is that this legislation – and subsequent legislation like the current Post-9/11 G.I. Bill – allows for benefits to be passed on to the family members of veterans who do not use or need the benefits themselves.

My generation, when we came back from Southeast Asia, if we took advantage of the G.I. Bill, that was fine. I did. But if we had a spouse, our spouse could not take advantage. If we had children, they could not take advantage of the G.I. Bill. That’s all changed.

And for a G.I. who doesn’t use their G.I. Bill benefits today, if they have a spouse, their spouse can use it. And if they have children, their children can use the G.I. Bill. What a benefit for not just the G.I., but also for the spouse and family members.

Todays’ G.I. Bill allows countless veterans across our country to take advantage of these generous educational benefits, or pass them down to their families. Moreover, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill includes a program called the Fry Scholarship that ensures surviving spouses and children of fallen servicemembers have access to the hard-earned benefits of their family member who served and made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

We’ve seen the impact of this legislation firsthand in my home state of Delaware, with families like those of the late Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman. A native Delawarean, Staff Sgt. Slutman bravely served as a New York firefighter and as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan. However, five years ago, he was tragically killed in combat, leaving behind his wife and three daughters, McKenna, Kenley and Weslynn.

Thanks to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which extended the benefits of the G.I. Bill to veterans who served after September 11, 2001, Staff Sgt. Slutman was entitled to a wide range of educational benefits. And after his tragic passing, Staff Sgt. Slutman’s G.I. Bill benefits were ultimately allowed to be passed down to his three daughters thanks to the Fry Scholarship, which was one of the provisions I was proud to support in the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill.

Last, but certainly not least, the G.I. Bill is among the “greatest legislation” ever enacted because it has served as an excellent model for how we can continue to provide resources for our nation’s veterans.

Throughout my years in the Senate, I have worked to advance critical legislation that delivers on the promise to serve those who served our country. In addition to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and the Forever G.I. Bill, I was proud to lead passage of a bipartisan amendment that finally closed something called the 90/10 loophole. For those who may not know, this loophole allowed bad actors in the for-profit college sector to take advantage of our veterans’ hard-earned G.I. benefits.

One veteran misled or mistreated is one too many, and I was proud that my Senate colleagues came together unanimously to pass the amendment that Senator Moran and I authored to close this loophole – and we did.

We must always be on guard to root out the bad actors who try to take advantage of our veterans. That’s why just this week, I co-hosted my annual Veteran’s Summit in Delaware with Senator Chris Coons, Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, as well as the Secretary of the VA, Denis McDonough, to raise awareness of the deceptive marketing tactics deployed by those we know as “claim sharks.”

“Claim sharks” are unaccredited lawyers and consultants who try to take advantage of vulnerable veterans by offering to help them file claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration, and then go on to take a significant percentage of the benefits that the veteran should have received.

At the summit, we spoke with dozens of veterans about the free resources available to them through the VA to help them avoid falling for scams, and ensure they know about the full range of benefits to which they are entitled. And more recently I co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to impose penalties on these “sharks” so that we can further protect our veterans. After all, our commitment to care for veterans – including safeguarding their hard-earned benefits – is a sacred obligation, and one that I have worked hard with many of my colleagues – Democrats and Republicans – to fulfill.

In closing, it’s clear that without the foundation of the original G.I. Bill, our ambition to craft and pass generations of subsequent legislation to help our veterans might not have been possible.

For all of these reasons, the lasting legacy of the G.I. Bill leaves no doubt that it truly is the “greatest legislation” ever passed in the history of our country. From my family and me, to the veterans of today in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and all of our branches, I’m honored to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original G.I. Bill.

Here’s to another 80 years, and hopefully many more.

I’ll close with one thing: if you give a person a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach a person to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. […] It’s the idea that we have an obligation to help the teach a person nutrition, so they can feed themselves and their families. […] We have an obligation to help people, not just to give people something. But if they’re hungry, they need help, you know, we have an obligation. But the real obligation, we have to make sure that ultimately, they can help themselves, that we can help them, help themselves.

And one of the great things about the G.I. Bill is that it enables our servicemen and women to help themselves as they go forward in the future with their lives, and to help their families. Its a great piece of legislation. And we celebrate it here today for the 80th year since it’s original enactment in this chamber.

Thank you, and I yield the floor.

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