Bob Filner: “I have to be honest with my colleagues, Mr. Speaker. I am disappointed in this bill. I know the deep commitment that the…”

“I have to be honest with my colleagues, Mr. Speaker. I am disappointed in this bill. I know the deep commitment that the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Quinn), chairman of the Subcommittee on Benefits, have for the veterans of this Nation. I know they want to do what is best for our veterans. But the Veterans and Dependents Millennium Education Act, S. 1402, does not come even close to where we need to be for an effective educational benefit for our veterans today. If this is a bill for the millennium, it is a bill for the last millennium. The previous speakers have talked about the congressional Commission on Service Members and Veterans Transition Assistance, which reported its work to the Congress more than a year ago. That commission said that the biggest single thing we can do for our veterans in terms of benefits is to make the Montgomery GI Bill really relevant to their education and pick up the full cost of college education plus a decent stipend.”