Honoring Our Military Spouses
Statement
Dear Neighbors,
This weekend we take time to celebrate Memorial Day. It is a day dedicated to our loved ones who served our country and did not make it home. We can never fully repay the debt owed to the brave men and women who laid down their lives for our country, but we can honor their courage by upholding our duty to support our Veterans, members of the military and their families.
To ensure our military families are cared for, I recently introduced The Military Spouses' Achieving College Education for Survivors (ACES) Act. By introducing this legislation we are ensuring that the promise we made to these important families is kept.
The Fry Scholarship is an educational benefit given to children of our fallen troops. In August of 2014, Congress voted to extend this benefit to surviving spouses. Currently, public law cuts off Fry Scholarship Eligibility 15 years from the date of Service member's death. Unfortunately, this means that spouses who lost their loved one shortly after 9/11 only have a possible 12 or 24 months of eligibility to use an educational benefit that is good for 36 months of enrollment and is normally used over the course of 4 years. Additionally, surviving spouses using these educational benefits may only learn about this inadequacy once it is too late to select an alternative education benefit available to them..
This is a disservice to our Veterans and their loved ones. The ACES act will allow surviving spouses whose eligibility will cease before the full use of their benefit under the Fry Scholarship to complete their education and never have to worry about losing the benefit halfway through their educational pursuits. They should not suffer simply because their hero was among the first to lay down their life for our nation after 9/11.
How a nation treats military families after they have made the ultimate sacrifice is the true measure of all of us. Whether it's healthcare, education or employment, we have a covenant to keep with our Veterans. I hope you will join me in supporting this crucial piece of legislation.
Sincerely,
Congresswoman Duckworth
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