Democratic House candidate Jim Hunt has been campaigning on the issue. A retired lieutenant colonel, Hunt said in a statement last week that he is in the race partly because of Rehberg's vote.
“I think Congressman Rehberg is playing political gamesmanship with our vets,” Hunt said in an interview Tuesday. “I think that's shown by the fact that 32 of his Republican colleagues in the House voted for it. Veterans' benefits are way too important for him to be playing politics with it.”
“This is political gamesmanship, and it's unfortunate Jim Hunt wants to put his stamp of approval on this,” said Rehberg spokesman Bridger Pierce.
Last month, Rehberg announced that he was co-sponsoring a GI Bill, calling it “long overdue.” For veterans who have served since Sept. 11, 2001, the measure would provide tuition payments to any university up to the most expensive public school in each state, which currently is Montana Tech at $13,610 a year.
It also would match each dollar for colleges providing scholarships above that amount, and provide a monthly living stipend and book allowance. That measure now has about 300 co-sponsors.
House Democratic leaders brought up the GI Bill while considering a $163 billion bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and boost some domestic spending.
The Democratic leadership split that overall legislation into three parts and brought each up for a vote. First came the war spending portion; the second portion focused on a Dec. 31, 2009, goal for withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq; and the third part contained the GI Bill along with an extension of unemployment benefits for 13 weeks beyond the normal 26 weeks and a few other provisions.
The Democrats brought up the measure that way so that anti-war lawmakers could vote against war spending but in favor of the GI Bill and unemployment benefits.
The GI Bill portion passed 256-166, with 32 Republicans voting in favor of it. That's short of the two-thirds majority needed for the GI Bill to overcome a likely veto by President Bush, who says the measure costs too much and would encourage service members to leave the military.
Pierce said if the Democratic House leaders had brought it up as a free-standing bill, it could have passed easily with a veto-proof margin.
“Instead of bringing it to the floor for a straight up or down vote, they attach it to something,” Pierce said. He also noted that the Senate removed the tax increase on wealthier people before it passed the bill.
Pierce cited a Lee Newspapers poll showing that only 11 percent of Montana voters gave Congress a positive job approval rating. The Democratic handling of the measure was “another example of these usual political games that Americans are wanting us to change and Denny is trying to change out here,” he said.
But Hunt said Rehberg should have voted for the measure. “Bills are oftentimes complicated, but this supports our troops,” he said. “It's a bill he could have and should have supported.”
Hunt noted that he commanded troops and that his father, a World War II veteran, dropped out of high school to join the military, but used the Montgomery GI Bill and went on to serve on the Montana Supreme Court.
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