jan 1, 1944 - servicemen's readjustment act

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Popularly known as the GI Bill, 1944 legislation authorizing the government to provide World War II veterans with funds for education, housing, and health care, as well as loans to start businesses and buy homes.


In his 1944 State of the Union address, FDR called for a second Bill of Rights, one that would guarantee all Americans access to education and work, adequate food and clothing, and decent housing and medical care. It would be, the president said, “a new basis of security and prosperity” guaranteed to “all regardless of station, race, or creed.” Like his Four Freedoms speech of 1941, this was a call to extend the New Deal’s broadening of individual rights guaranteed by government. The answer to his call, however, would have to wait for the war’s conclusion. Congress authorized new government benefits only for veterans (known as GIs, short for “government issue”). The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, an extraordinarily influential program popularly dubbed the “GI Bill of Rights,” provided education, job training, medical care, pensions, and home loans for men and women who had served in the armed forces.

The president’s call for a second Bill of Rights sought to reinvigorate the New Deal political coalition. In the election of 1944, Roosevelt again headed the Democratic ticket for a fourth time. But party leaders, conscious of FDR’s declining health and fearing that Vice President Henry Wallace’s outspoken support for labor and civil rights would alienate moderates, dropped Wallace from the ticket. In his place, they chose Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, a plain-spoken — some thought him drab — politician with little national experience. The Republicans nominated Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. Dewey, who accepted the general principles of welfare-state liberalism domestically and internationalism in foreign affairs, did draw off some of Roosevelt’s supporters. But a majority of voters preferred political continuity, and Roosevelt was reelected with 53.5 percent of the nationwide vote. The Democratic coalition retained its hold on government power, and the Republican political dominance of 1896–1932 slipped further into the past.

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