I had a great opportunity Monday to meet with the office of Senate Majority Leader, and my home state Senator,Mitch McConnell (R-KY). I recently learned about proposed cuts to the Post-9/11 GI Bill in Congress, including a 50 percent cut to the housing allowance for children that will have the Post-9/11 GI Bill transferred to them by their veteran parents. I wanted to ask my elected officials to keep the promises made to service members and to defend the GI Bill.

This is an important issue for me because I used my GI Bill to complete my 4 year degree in Professional Aeronautics. It allowed me to focus on school, without the added stress of figuring out how I would pay for my education. Also, I have family members who are still in the Army that plan to pass their Post 9/11 GI Bill on to their children, so I know how cutting their kids housing for college would make school harder for the kids and finances harder for the vets.

I recently saw that IAVA was fighting to defend the Post-9/11 GI Bill and is asking Congress to sign a pledge to defend the benefits promised to our military and veterans, and to oppose all attempts to use cuts to the GI Bill to pay for other programs. The NGIB is valuable and a transformative benefit that is not an ATM!

The very friendly Field Representative for Sen. McConnell I met with in his Lexington office expressed interest in knowing more about IAVA’s view of the possible cuts. I asked him to request that the Senator sign the pledge to defend the benefits promised to our military and veterans and to oppose any attempts to cut the GI Bill to pay for other programs. In addition, I also asked to see if the Senator would consider directing the Senate Chairman of Veteran’s Affairs to look elsewhere for funds instead of the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

I’m glad I got this chance to be part of the legislative process and I sincerely hope that Sen. McConnell and my other elected officials in Washington stand with veterans on this important issue.