Who is affected and how:

• Directly affected: service members who were separated from the Armed Forces between August 24, 2021 and January 10, 2023 solely for refusing a COVID‑19 vaccine. These individuals are newly eligible to transfer their VA education entitlement to a dependent if they apply within the 90‑day window after enactment.

• Dependents (especially children) of those service members: may receive a transferred education benefit, but a child may only use the transferred entitlement after the transferring member has completed six years of service. This can delay benefit use for younger dependents.

• Department of Veterans Affairs: must set up and run a short, time‑limited application and verification process. VA will need to confirm separation dates and the stated reason for separation, process approvals, and record transfers within the 90‑day period. That creates a modest administrative workload concentrated in a short timeframe.

• Department of Defense: minimal direct impact; the change does not reinstate service, change discharge characterizations, or alter DoD policy — it only provides a limited VA benefit transfer for a narrowly defined group.

Likely fiscal and program effects:

• The change is narrowly targeted and is unlikely to create large aggregate cost increases, though there could be incremental cost to VA from additional transferred entitlements being used in the future. No appropriations or funding details are included, so VA would absorb administrative costs within existing resources unless Congress provides additional funding.

Potential implementation issues:

• Verifying the specific reason for each separation could require records review and adjudication, which may create appeals or disputes in some cases.
• The 90‑day window and the date range for eligible separations make the change time‑sensitive and narrowly bounded; outreach will be necessary to ensure eligible people know to apply promptly.

Policy considerations:

• The change restores a specific education‑transfer option for a defined set of separated service members without altering broader benefit rules. It may raise questions about parity with other separated service members and administrative feasibility for timely processing.