Use of the Post-9/11 GI Bill by the National Guard and Reserves

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

The report analyzes how the reserve component uses Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits in 2016 and compares both participation levels and government costs. It explains the program’s eligibility rules, timing for partial benefits after 90 days of active duty, and the benefit components including tuition, fees, housing allowances, and reimbursements. CBO findings highlight similar usage patterns between reserve and other veterans, while costs differ due to benefit levels and time on active duty.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Summary

Scope of This Report

CBO’s Findings

The National Guard and Reserves

Overview of Benefits

December 2019 Use of the Post-9/11 GI Billby the National Guard and Reserves Summary The Post-9/11 GI bill provides educational benefits to service members and veterans who served on active duty on or after September 11, 2001. This GI bill (officially the Post-9/11 Veterans educational Assistance Act of 2008), which covers tuition, fees, housing, and related educational expenses, is managed by the Veterans benefits Administration (VbA), part of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Partial benefits are available after 90 days of active-duty service, and many members of the National Guard and reserves have met that threshold because they have been activated for extended periods in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those with longer active-duty service receive greater benefits. Scope of This Report This report focuses on the reserve component’s use of Post-9/11 GI bill benefits in 2016 and the cost of those benefits. (Throughout this report,“reserve component”refers collectively to the non-active-duty part of the U.S. military, which encompasses the National Guard and reserves.) In 2016, about 78,500 members of thereserve component used the program, and the total cost to VbA for those benefits was about $1 billon. About half of that amount was for tuition and fees; most of the remainder was for housing allowances. The cost of providing education benefits to the reserve component under the Post-9/11 GI bill is higher than it was under earlier laws. Whereas the montgomery GI bill–Selected reserve program and the reserve educational Assistance Program (reAP) have been available only to members of thereserve component, the Post-9/11 GI bill may be used by both the reserve and regular components. The report compares the way members of the reserve and regular components use their benefits.1 CBO’s Findings Overall, there were few variations in how members of the reserve component and other veterans used their benefits, but there was a difference in how much those benefits cost. • Spending on veterans from the regular component was higher on average, mainly because most of them were eligible for full benefits, whereas members from the reserve component were more likely to qualify for 1. In an earlier report, the congressional budget Office examined use of Post-9/11 GI bill benefits by all veterans (including members of the reserve component) and their eligible dependents. See congressional budget Office, The Post-9/11 GI Bill: Beneficiaries, Choices, and Cost (may 2019), [www.cbo.gov/](www.cbo.gov/)[ ](www.cbo.gov/)[publication/55179](publication/55179.)[.](publication/55179.) Notes: All years referred to in this report are federal fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30 and are designated by the calendar year in which they end. Unless otherwise specified, all dollar values are expressed in 2018 dollars; to remove the effects of inflation, the congressional budget Office adjusted the dollar values with the bureau of economic Analysis’s gross domestic product price index. This report uses the terms “spending” and “payments” to refer to outlays, which are payments by the federal government to meet a legal obligation. Outlays may be made for obligations incurred in a prior fiscal year or in the current year. Numbers in the text and tables may not add up to totals because of rounding. a lower benefit level because they tend to have less time on active duty. • The congressional budget Office found that the average annual spending per person in the reserve component was $12,500 in 2016 (measured in 2018 dollars) . • by comparison, average annual spending per person for beneficiaries from the regular component was $18,800 . There was little distinction between the ways members of the National Guard and members of the reserves used their Post-9/11 GI bill benefits. The National Guard and Reserves The National Guard and reserves supplement the military’s regular (active-duty)

FAQs

What educational expenses are covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill in this report?

The Post-9/11 GI Bill covers tuition, fees, housing, and related educational expenses, along with reimbursements for items such as books and test fees.

Why is average spending per person lower for the reserve component than for the regular component?

The reserve component more often qualifies for a lower benefit level because members generally have less time on active duty compared with the regular component.

What size of the reserve component is compared with the regular component?

In 2018, the report states the reserve component had 803,000 service members, compared with 1,317,000 in the regular component.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob