38 U.S.C. § 3001
Section 3001 · Purposes
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Edwards v. Aetna Life Insurance (1982)
Most recently applied in Rudisill v. McDonough (April 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The purposes of this chapter are—
(1) to provide a new educational assistance program to assist in the readjustment of members of the Armed Forces to civilian life after their separation from military service;
(2) to extend the benefits of a higher education to qualifying men and women who might not otherwise be able to afford such an education;
(3) to provide for vocational readjustment and to restore lost educational opportunities to those service men and women who served on active duty after June 30, 1985;
(4) to promote and assist the All-Volunteer Force program and the Total Force Concept of the Armed Forces by establishing a new program of educational assistance based upon service on active duty or a combination of service on active duty and in the Selected Reserve (including the National Guard) to aid in the recruitment and retention of highly qualified personnel for both the active and reserve components of the Armed Forces;
(5) to give special emphasis to providing educational assistance benefits to aid in the retention of personnel in the Armed Forces; and
(6) to enhance our Nation's competitiveness through the development of a more highly educated and productive work force.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
Prior section 3001 was renumbered section 5101 of this title.
Amendments
1991—Pub. L. 102–83 renumbered section 1401 of this title as this section.
1987—Pars. (2) to (6). Pub. L. 100–48 added pars. (2), (3), and (6), redesignated former pars. (2) and (3) as (4) and (5), respectively, struck out “and” after “Forces;” in par. (4), and substituted “Forces; and” for “Forces.” in par. (5).