Attorney General Jay Jones Takes Action to Defend Virginia Veterans’ GI Bill Benefits

Attorney General Jay Jones Takes Action to Defend Virginia Veterans’ GI Bill Benefits
Action follows court rulings after years of Trump-era VA policies denying full education benefits to long-serving veterans

Richmond, VA - Attorney General Jay Jones filed a brief to defend the education benefits earned by Virginia veterans after years of unlawful denials by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“Virginia’s veterans have kept their promise to this country through years of service, sacrifice, and deployments around the world. The federal government had a duty to keep its promise to them,” said Attorney General Jones. “Instead, the Trump administration and Secretary Doug Collins defended rules that cheated some of the longest-serving veterans in America out of the education benefits they earned. We will fight to ensure every eligible veteran receives the education benefits Congress has guaranteed and the courts have now confirmed.”

The action follows years of litigation over the federal government’s interpretation of education benefits available to veterans who qualify for both the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill. For roughly fifteen years, rules adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs operated to deny veterans the full benefits Congress intended through the GI Bills.

In April 2024, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Rudisill v. McDonough that veterans eligible under both programs may use up to 48 months of combined education benefits.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the VA advanced a new interpretation requiring veterans to have a break in service in order to receive their full benefits. Under that interpretation, veterans who served continuously for fifteen, twenty, or even thirty years were limited to 36 months of education benefits, while veterans who served two separate periods of service that totaled at least five or six years could receive the full 48 months.

In May 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims struck down the VA’s limited interpretation in Perkins v. Collins. The Court held that, under the decision in Rudisill, continuously serving veterans were entitled to their full benefits. The VA, however, continued to apply its rejected interpretation and deny benefits to veterans.

The Commonwealth of Virginia joined individual veterans and national veterans’ organizations, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in federal litigation challenging those unlawful rules and seeking to end the systematic denial of benefits.

Attorneys general across the country have repeatedly argued, and won, on the issue that the Department of Veterans Affairs lacks statutory authority to deny these educational benefits to the nation’s longest-serving veterans. The VA estimates that up to 2.2 million veterans nationwide could be affected by the rulings in Rudisill and Perkins.

Recently, the VA announced it would no longer deny certain continuously serving veterans the benefits that Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Veterans Court have made clear they are entitled to receive. The announcement, however, does not apply to all benefits and does not remedy the other deficiencies that are the subject of the current lawsuit.

Attorney General Jones emphasized that while the VA’s recent announcement represents an important step forward, additional work remains to ensure that all eligible veterans receive the full education benefits Congress intended.

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