Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act of 2025

The Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act of 2025 (HR 983) was signed into law on December 12, 2025, and is now Public Law 119-55. It amends 38 U.S.C. § 3679 to require the Department of Veterans Affairs to disapprove courses at public institutions of higher learning that charge out-of-state tuition to individuals utilizing Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve education benefits (Chapter 1606 of Title 10), effective for academic periods beginning on or after August 1, 2026. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI-3) and passed both chambers by voice votes without recorded opposition. The legislative path was straightforward: introduced February 5, 2025, referred to the Veterans' Affairs and Armed Services Committees, passed the House on April 7, 2025, and the Senate on November 20, 2025. The bill is cost-neutral; the Congressional Budget Office would likely score this as zero net cost to the federal government because it shifts tuition costs from beneficiaries to state education systems, who must absorb the difference between in-state and out-of-state rates. There is no funding author or appropriation. The affected parties are public colleges and universities (their out-of-state tuition revenue from a specific population) and individual Reserve component members. There are no direct or indirect mechanisms by which this law affects revenues, costs, or competitive positioning for any publicly traded company. Private for-profit education companies (such as Apollo Education Group's University of Phoenix, Strategic Education's Strayer/Capella, or Perdoceo Education) are not mentioned in and are not subject to the bill's requirements, as it only applies to public institutions. Similarly, defense contractors, technology vendors, and financial institutions are unaffected. The law represents a regulatory change within state education systems with zero market footprint.