WASHINGTON — When the Army honorably discharged Jason Hubbard of Fresno, Calif., last year after his two younger brothers died in the Iraq war, he lost his transitional health insurance, access to school grants under the GI Bill and his ability to participate in the veterans home loan program.

Now, the 65-year-old statutory loophole that allowed that to happen is closed.

President Bush last week signed into law the aptly-named Hubbard Act, which secures the benefits of "sole survivor" veterans who are honorably discharged following the death of a parent or sibling also serving in the military.

"From beginning to end, this has been a very rough experience," said Hubbard after Friday's signing at the White House, adding, "There will be a lot of people who will benefit from this now, and unfortunately in the future."

Under the Department of Defense's "sole survivor" policy, service members who lose all their siblings in war cannot be reassigned to combat zones and will be discharged from the military upon request. The policy was enacted after the widely publicized deaths of the five Sullivan brothers in World War II, which later inspired the movie "Saving Private Ryan."

Intended to protect families from losing all their children in war, the outdated policy also led to something of a Catch-22 in certain circumstances. Veterans who were honorably discharged as "sole survivors" before the end of their contracts were then denied significant benefits they would otherwise have been entitled to if they had completed their tours.

"After the sacrifice I made, I felt a little bit abandoned by the government," said Hubbard, a Fresno County sheriff's deputy.

Hubbard, 34, joined the Army with his brother, Nathan, in 2005 following the death of their brother Jared, a Marine lance corporal who had died in Iraq from a roadside bomb at the age of 22. About 2 1/2 years later, Hubbard watched as a Black Hawk helicopter that was carrying 21-year-old Nathan crashed during a nighttime mission in Iraq, killing his brother and the rest of the soldiers on board.

As the last surviving Hubbard son, the Army granted Hubbard an honorable discharge six months short of his three-year contract. But when he returned home to California, Hubbard found that his health insurance, which had also covered his pregnant wife and young son, had been cut and his access to other veterans benefits denied because he had left the military early.

"It was shocking, quite frankly," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who co-wrote the bill in the House after Hubbard contacted him about his situation. "I didn't believe this could actually happen."

The bipartisan bill, which sailed through the House and Senate by unanimous voice vote earlier this month, waives payback of enlistment bonuses and allows for transitional healthcare and access to the GI Bill and other veterans programs. It is effective retroactively to Sept. 11, 2001, and is intended to include veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.