The G.I. Bill
The G.I. Bill
On July 28, 1943, in his Fireside Chat 25, President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid out what he believed returning servicemen were entitled to when they came home from World War II. His conditions became the basis for the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, known informally as the G.I. Bill, which Congress passed in 1944. The bill gave benefits to returning veterans that stimulated the postwar economy. Honorally-discharged veterans could receive unemployment compensation for up to a year, attend college or vocational school, and receive loans to start their own businesses or buy homes. The G.I. Bill has been amended and expanded and is still in existence today.
Click here to read and listen to Roosevelt's full Fireside Chat 25.→
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, 1933-1945.
Biographical sketch from American President.
Harry W. Colmery, World War I veteran and past National Commander of the American Legion, wrote a first draft of the G.I. Bill.
Biographical sketch from the Kansas Historical Society .
Ernest McFarland, Democratic Senator from Arizona, is considered a "Father of the G.I. Bill."
Biographical sketch from the United States Senate .
Warren Atherton, National Commander of the American Legion, is also considered a "Father of the G.I. Bill."
Biographical sketch from the Online Archive of California, University of the Pacific.
Edith Nourse Rogers, Republican Congresswoman from Massachusetts’s 5th district, helped to draft and co-sponsored the G.I. Bill
Biographical sketch from Women in Congress.
Informational video about G.I. Bill of Rights, Army-Navy Screen Magazine #43, Produced by Army Information Branch, Army Pictorial Services, Air Forces, and the Navy Department.
The GI Bill of Rights by Milton Greenberg, U.S. Department of State publication, Historians on America.
G.I. Bill brought influx of former soldiers to IU in mid-'40s by Rose McIlveen, Indiana University.
Women Veterans and the G.I. Bill of Rights by Judith Bellafaire, Women's Memorial Foundation.
The G.I. Bill, World War II, and the Education of Black Americans by Les Picker, the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Soldiers to Citizens: The GI Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation," Miller Center Forum.
Between Citizens and the State: World War II, Education, and the GI Bill of Rights," Miller Center Colloquium.
G.I. Bill of Rights, Tennessee 4 Me, Teacher’s Section