Richard Burr: “Should it be their decision to decide whether a spouse or family member, who has sacrificed so much, is going to be the…”

“Should it be their decision to decide whether a spouse or family member, who has sacrificed so much, is going to be the recipient of a benefit or whether they are going to let it expire because they have the education they need? Well, not having the debate, we are not going to have an option to sell to our colleagues, to sell to veterans, to sell to the American people why veterans deserve more than what the Webb bill offers. We have only valued it on dollars, not on benefit. From a policy standpoint, this creates a tremendous inequity between States because the benefit is actually determined by where a veteran actually chooses to go to school, not by where they live or where they came from. It is not equal for every veteran. Some will get more, some will get less, and the unintended consequences are that States will look at that subsidized higher education today and say: Why should we subsidize it in the future, we get cheated when the Government pays us. We know who will pay for that: All the kids who go to school. All the kids in the future who are not connected to the military, when they go in to make their tuition payment, are going to be the ones who pay the brunt of this situation. There is only one way to stop this, and that is to make sure we uphold the President's veto.”