I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1725
To amend title 38, United States Code, to extend to Black veterans of
World War II, and surviving spouses and certain direct descendants
of such veterans, eligibility for certain housing loans and educational
assistance administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. M
OULTON(for himself and Mr. CLYBURN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to extend to Black
veterans of World War II, and surviving spouses and
certain direct descendants of such veterans, eligibility
for certain housing loans and educational assistance ad-
ministered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sgt. Isaac Woodard, 4
Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act 5
of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) African Americans played a pivotal role in 3
the war effort during World War II, with more than 4
1,200,000 African Americans serving in the Armed 5
Forces, and, by 1945, approximately 1.9 percent of 6
all officers in the Armed Forces were African Ameri-7
cans. 8
(2) Following World War II, the Servicemen’s 9
Readjustment Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 284, commonly 10
known as the ‘‘GI Bill’’) offered substantial material 11
benefits to 16,000,000 veterans to assist them in re-12
integrating into civil society. 13
(3) The GI Bill offered a range of economic and 14
educational benefits administered by the Federal 15
Government through the Secretary of the Veterans 16
Administration, including monetary assistance to ac-17
cess higher education, government guarantees for 18
housing loans, unemployment allowances, and civil-19
ian workforce reentry assistance. 20
(4) Though the legislative text of the GI Bill 21
was race neutral, the administration of benefits 22
through national, State, and local Veterans Adminis-23
tration offices resulted in a pattern of discrimination 24
against racial minorities, especially African Ameri-25
cans. 26
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(5) Veterans Administration benefits counselors 1
denied African Americans access to educational ben-2
efits at certain universities and funneled applicants 3
into industrial and vocational schools rather than 4
higher education opportunities, with just 6 percent 5
of African-American veterans of World War II earn-6
ing a college degree, compared to 19 percent of 7
White veterans of World War II. 8
(6) In administering its housing guaranty pro-9
gram, the Veterans Administration adopted the Fed-10
eral Housing Administration’s racial exclusion pro-11
grams, also known as redlining, which excluded a 12
significant number of African Americans from tak-13
ing full advantage of the housing guaranty program. 14
(7) The GI Bill created substantial economic 15
growth and wealth accumulation for those who could 16
benefit, but discriminatory administration of the 17
program prevented many African-American veterans 18
of World War II from enjoying the full economic 19
prosperity of the post-war period. 20
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SEC. 3. HOUSING LOANS GUARANTEED BY THE SECRETARY 1
OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FOR BLACK VET-2
ERANS OF WORLD WAR II AND SURVIVORS 3
AND CERTAIN DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF 4
SUCH VETERANS. 5
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Chapter 37 of title 38, 6
United States Code, is amended as follows: 7
(1) D
EFINITION.—Section 3701(b) of such title 8
is amended by adding at the end the following new 9
paragraphs: 10
‘‘(8) The term ‘veteran’ also includes, for pur-11
poses of housing loans, an individual who— 12
‘‘(A) is Black; 13
‘‘(B) served on active duty as a member of 14
the Armed Forces during World War II; and 15
‘‘(C) certifies to the Secretary that such 16
individual was denied a specific benefit under 17
the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (58 18
Stat. 284) on the basis of race. 19
‘‘(9) The term ‘veteran’ also includes, for pur-20
poses of housing loans, an individual who— 21
‘‘(A) is the surviving spouse, child, grand-22
child, or other direct descendant of a veteran 23
described in paragraph (8); 24
‘‘(B) certifies to the Secretary that such 25
veteran described in paragraph (8) was denied 26
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a specific benefit under the Servicemen’s Read-1
justment Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 284) on the 2
basis of race; and 3
‘‘(C) is living on the date of the enactment 4
of the Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph 5
H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act of 2025.’’. 6
(2) B
ASIC ENTITLEMENT .—Section 7
3702(a)(2)(E) of such title is amended by adding at 8
the end the following new subparagraph: 9
‘‘(H) Each individual— 10
‘‘(i) described in paragraph (8) or (9) of 11
section 3701(b) of this title; and 12
‘‘(ii) who applies for a housing loan during 13
the five-year period beginning on the date of 14
the enactment of the Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. 15
and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration 16
Act of 2025.’’. 17
(b) D
EADLINE.—The Secretary shall carry out the 18
amendment made by this section not later than 90 days 19
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 20
(c) R
EGULATIONS.—The Secretary of Veterans Af-21
fairs shall prescribe regulations to carry out the amend-22
ments made by this section. 23
(d) GAO R
EPORT.—Not later than one year after the 24
deadline under subsection (b), the Comptroller General of 25
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the United States shall submit to Congress a report re-1
garding— 2
(1) the number of individuals who received 3
housing loan benefits pursuant to the amendments 4
made by this section; and 5
(2) the total value of housing loan benefits ad-6
ministered by the Secretary pursuant to the amend-7
ments made by this section. 8
SEC. 4. EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE FOR SURVIVORS AND 9
CERTAIN DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF BLACK 10
VETERANS OF WORLD WAR II. 11
(a) E
NTITLEMENT.—Subsection (b) of section 3311 12
of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at 13
the end the following new paragraph: 14
‘‘(12) An individual— 15
‘‘(A) described in section 3701(b)(9) of 16
this title; and 17
‘‘(B) who applies for educational assistance 18
under this chapter during the five-year period 19
beginning on the date of the enactment of the 20
Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. 21
Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act of 2025.’’. 22
(b) D
EADLINE.—The Secretary shall carry out the 23
amendment made by this section not later than 90 days 24
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 25
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(c) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary of Veterans Af-1
fairs shall prescribe regulations to carry out the amend-2
ment made by this section. 3
(d) GAO R
EPORT.—Not later than one year after the 4
deadline under subsection (b), the Comptroller General of 5
the United States shall submit to Congress a report re-6
garding— 7
(1) the number of individuals who received edu-8
cational assistance pursuant to the amendment 9
made by this section; and 10
(2) the total amount of educational assistance 11
paid by the Secretary pursuant to the amendment 12
made by this section. 13
SEC. 5. BLUE RIBBON PANEL ON BENEFITS AND ASSIST-14
ANCE FOR FEMALE AND MINORITY VET-15
ERANS. 16
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 30 days after 17
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 18
Veterans Affairs shall, pursuant to the Federal Advisory 19
Committee Act (Public Law 92–463; 5 U.S.C. App.), ap-20
point a panel of independent experts on— 21
(1) inequities in the distribution of benefits and 22
assistance administered by the Secretary; and 23
(2) military service by female and minority 24
members of the Armed Forces. 25
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(b) DUTIES.—The panel shall develop recommenda-1
tions regarding additional benefits and assistance for indi-2
viduals described in subsection (a)(2), and related legisla-3
tion. 4
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 5
of the enactment of this Act, the panel shall submit to 6
Congress and the President a report containing the rec-7
ommendations developed under this section. 8
Æ
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