WASHINGTON — For Sen. Jim Webb, it's a question of fairness: Why don't veterans of today's armed services get the same benefits the GI Bill provided "the greatest generation" after World War II?

But the Virginia Democrat's effort to remedy the perceived slight, which has gained support in Congress, runs afoul of how officials at the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs want to manage the all-volunteer military. Besides being too expensive and more administratively complex than the present GI Bill, they say it would make it more difficult to retain experienced troops beyond their first hitch.

Webb and other supporters also have to get the bill through the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs committees.

Sen. Dan Akaka, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, has so far been noncommittal about Webb's bill.

Akaka, a World War II veteran who attended the University of Hawai'i on the GI Bill, said questions have been raised about whether the GI Bill now pays enough for service members to attend school, given rising education costs.

Akaka, who held two hearings on an earlier version of Webb's bill, also said the World War II GI Bill largely was designed to help the 16 million returning veterans readjust to civilian life, but the current bill also serves as a tool to recruit and retain today's all-volunteer military. About 7.8 million World War II veterans took advantage of the education benefits.

"Any changes to the GI Bill must be reviewed for its impact on military recruitment and retention, as well as veterans' readjustment," Akaka said. "Senator Webb recently put a new ... version of his proposal forward, and I believe further discussion on this bill may be in order."

The new bill, now backed by 51 senators of both parties as well as most veterans' organizations, would boost the education benefit for service members who have been on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, including those in the National Guard and Reserves.

"I see the educational benefits in this bill as crucial to a service member's readjustment to civilian life and as a cost of war that should receive the same priority that funding the war has received the last five years," Webb said.

The benefit would cover tuition and fees for the most expensive public university in any state where the veteran lives and pay an allowance for books and housing.

It also would let veterans use the benefit to help pay tuition at more expensive private institutions. If the private school were willing to help the veteran with tuition cost, the government would match it dollar for dollar.

A House version of the GI Bill proposal has about 111 supporters, including Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i.

The original GI Bill, passed in 1944, offered $500 a year for tuition, books, fees and other costs in a decade when Harvard University's tuition was $450 a year and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's was $500. The bill also provided $50 to $75 a month as an allowance to single veterans and more to veterans with dependents.

That was enough to allow World War II veterans such as Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., attend universities they might not have gone to otherwise.

"I am not sure that I would have had the means within our family structure to go on and receive higher education without the GI Bill," said Warner, a sponsor of Webb's bill who attended Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia.

Lautenberg, also a sponsor, said he came from a "poor, working-class family" and the GI Bill allowed him to go to Columbia University, which otherwise was "way out of reach."

Another sponsor, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, used the World War II GI Bill to attend UH and George Washington University Law School.

But the current GI Bill, which provides $1,101 a month for 36 months of school, covers only about 73 percent of the cost of attending public universities for a nine-month academic year and less than 31 percent at private institutions, according to the Congressional Research Service. Veterans receive their monthly benefits only when they are actually in school.

And the cost of higher education is climbing faster than inflation, with the average cost at a public four-year university reaching $13,600 for tuition, fees, room and board this academic year — an increase of 278 percent during the past 20 years, according to the research service.

A College Board report shows UH raised its average tuition and fees alone 19 percent to $5,021 for this academic year. Nationally, the average cost of tuition and fees at public four-year universities increased to $6,185 this academic year from $5,804 in the previous academic year — a 6.6 percent increase.

"There is a total disincentive for the American fighting man or woman to go to school full time on the current education benefit," said Eric Hilleman, deputy national legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "It's a real challenge."

Webb estimates the cost of his bill as about $2 billion more than present spending, which was about $2.8 billion last year.

But the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that the earlier version of Webb's bill would cost as much as $75 billion over the next 10 years, much higher than Webb's projections.

Lawmakers supporting the bill still have to overcome objections from Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs officials.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who used the GI Bill to get his doctorate at Georgetown University, has indicated that the Pentagon's door isn't closed completely to the bill.

At a recent Senate hearing, Gates said he was willing to "take a close look at the bill," which the Pentagon is analyzing.

Defense officials have said raising education benefits too much would provide an incentive for service members to leave the military for school at the end of their first tour.

"Attracting qualified recruits using large, across-the-board basic benefits incurs the risk that many who enter for the benefits will leave as soon as they can use them," said Thomas L. Bush, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense.

That could reduce the number of experienced noncommissioned officers and petty officers and put more pressure on recruiting to replace those that leave, Bush said.

Bush also said the present GI Bill for active duty is "basically sound, and serves its purpose."

"The department finds no need for the kind of sweeping and expensive changes offered," he said.

The VA also criticized the bill for its administrative complexity.

"The anticipated high benefit cost ... and the anticipated administrative burden associated with this bill are all problematic," said Keith M. Wilson, director of the VA's education service.

Webb argues the expanded benefit is needed so the military can attract a broader range of young recruits — those needing help to advance their education.

"It would actually expand recruiting because you have so many people in this country who may not want to make the military a career, but who ... might want to serve if they could see some other incentive," he said. "And this is a great incentive."