[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS STATUS
REPORT ON POST-9/11 GI BILL
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
of the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 15, 2009
__________
Serial No. 111-51
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
BOB FILNER, California, Chairman
CORRINE BROWN, Florida STEVE BUYER, Indiana, Ranking
VIC SNYDER, Arkansas CLIFF STEARNS, Florida
MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine JERRY MORAN, Kansas
STEPHANIE HERSETH SANDLIN, South HENRY E. BROWN, Jr., South
Dakota Carolina
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona JEFF MILLER, Florida
JOHN J. HALL, New York JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
DEBORAH L. HALVORSON, Illinois BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
THOMAS S.P. PERRIELLO, Virginia DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado
HARRY TEAGUE, New Mexico GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ, Texas VERN BUCHANAN, Florida
JOE DONNELLY, Indiana DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee
JERRY McNERNEY, California
ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio
TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
JOHN H. ADLER, New Jersey
ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
GLENN C. NYE, Virginia
Malcom A. Shorter, Staff Director
______
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
STEPHANIE HERSETH SANDLIN, South Dakota, Chairwoman
THOMAS S.P. PERRIELLO, Virginia JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas, Ranking
JOHN H. ADLER, New Jersey JERRY MORAN, Kansas
ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
HARRY TEAGUE, New Mexico
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
__________
October 15, 2009
Page
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Status Report on Post-9/11 GI
Bill........................................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin............................. 1
Prepared statement of Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin............. 20
Hon. John Boozman, Ranking Republican Member, prepared statement
of............................................................. 21
WITNESSES
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Keith M. Wilson, Director,
Office of Education Service, Veterans Benefits Administration.. 21
Prepared statement of Mr. Wilson............................. 2
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Patrick Campbell, Chief
Legislative Counsel, statement................................. 24
Klein, Hon. Ron, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Florida, statement............................................. 28
Pennsylvania Association of Private School Administrators,
statement...................................................... 29
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Post-Hearing Questions and Responses for the Record:
Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on
Economic Opportunities, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to
Keith M. Wilson, Director, Office of Education Service,
Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, letter dated October 19, 2009, and VA responses....... 30
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS STATUS
REPORT ON POST-9/11 GI BILL
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:02 p.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Stephanie Herseth
Sandlin [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Herseth Sandlin, Perriello, Adler,
Kirkpatrick, Teague, Boozman, Moran, and Bilirakis.
Also Present: Representatives Mitchell and Snyder.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRWOMAN HERSETH SANDLIN
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
The Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity Oversight Hearing on the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs' (VA's) Status Report on the Post-9/11 GI Bill
will come to order.
I would like to state that the Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America (IAVA) and Congressman Ron Klein of Florida
have asked to submit written statements for the hearing record.
I ask for unanimous consent that their statements be entered
for the record.
Hearing no objection, so ordered.
[The prepared statements of IAVA and Congressman Klein
appear on p. 24 and p. 28.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and that written statements be made part of the record.
Hearing no objection, so ordered.
Joining us today at the dais is Representative Harry
Mitchell of Arizona, who chairs the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and also
joining us may be Congressman Vic Snyder of Arkansas who chairs
the Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations. Both distinguished gentlemen are Members of the
full Committee. I ask for unanimous consent that they be
allowed to participate in today's Subcommittee hearing.
Mr. Mitchell is here, and hearing no objection, so ordered.
Mr. Snyder will join us at the dais when he arrives, and I
know that the Chairman of the full Committee may be joining us
at some point, as well.
Today, we seek to administer our oversight jurisdiction on
the VA's implementation efforts of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. I
expect this hearing will provide the VA the opportunity to
update us on recent actions taken to address delays in the
distribution of education benefits, and its plan moving forward
to ensure the same mistakes do not occur in the future.
To date, our main focus has been to ensure VA has the
resources to upgrade its information technology (IT) to support
the unique demands of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Furthermore, we
have actively requested that VA appropriately alert us of any
shortfalls in resources to successfully complete its mission,
to include legislative changes that must be made by this
Subcommittee.
Today we are seeking assurances that the VA has sufficient
resources to meet all its goals and demands placed upon it by
Public Law 110-252. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have shed
some light on the shortcomings facing the VA and how it must
improve the way it processes education claims.
Yesterday we had the pleasure of welcoming Secretary Eric
Shinseki to the full Committee so that he could highlight VA's
accomplishments and some of the unmet goals. I appreciate the
Secretary's sincere commitment to provide our Nation's veterans
with the best resources in a timely manner.
I share this strong commitment and applaud actions taken by
the VA to address the current backlogs in the distribution of
education benefits. While this is commendable, more forethought
should have been given to the emergency check solution to
address any potential problems.
I know that the Ranking Member is in another hearing and
hopes to join us soon. When he does, we will recognize him for
his opening remarks. But at this point, we will just make them
a part of the hearing record and I would ask for any other
Member of the Subcommittee or our guests joining us on the
dais, to submit any opening remarks they may have for the
record. That way we can hear directly from Mr. Wilson and get
straight to all of the questions that I know we will have for
Mr. Wilson today.
[The prepared statement of Congressman Boozman appears on
p. 21.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Keith, for appearing before
the Subcommittee once again. Mr. Keith Wilson is the Director
of the Office of the Education Service, Veterans Benefits
Administration (VBA) of the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs.
You have taken time to brief me prior to this hearing and
staff as well, and we look forward to hearing from you. You are
now recognized, Mr. Wilson.
STATEMENT OF KEITH M. WILSON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF EDUCATION
SERVICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS
Mr. Wilson. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Herseth-
Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, and other Members of the
Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss the status of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
implementation. My testimony will address the challenges we
face, the current status of education claims, workload trends,
and countermeasures we are taking to alleviate delays in
processing.
Enactment of the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act on
June 30, 2008, gave VA approximately 14 months to develop a
new, highly complex system to ensure eligibility and payments
are made for hundreds of thousands of claimants who would be
eligible to receive benefits under the new program beginning
August 1st of 2009.
To meet this challenge VA began accepting applications to
determine eligibility to the benefit on May 1st of 2009. On
July 6, 2009, we started accepting enrollment certifications
from schools and began processing claims for payment. The first
payments were disbursed by the U.S. Treasury on August 3, 2009.
Since May 1st of 2009, approximately 275,000 individuals
have applied for eligibility under the Post-9/11 GI Bill;
213,000 individuals have been deemed eligible and provided a
certificate of eligibility. Of the estimated 82,500 enrolled
students, approximately 52,500 have received payments under the
Post-9/11 GI Bill.
During the same time, VA has paid benefits to over 160,000
additional veterans under other VA education programs.
Additionally, VA has paid 52,000 veterans under its newly
implemented Advanced Payment Process.
Veterans have experienced both good service and poor. We
believe our efforts to implement this program and our responses
to the challenges we have experienced will ensure that the
Post-9/11 GI Bill will live up to its full promise.
Post-9/11 GI Bill claims currently require manual
processing using four separate IT systems that do not interface
with each other. When an application or enrollment
certification is received, the documents are captured into The
Image Management System, TIMS. The documents are routed
electronically to a claims examiner for processing. The claims
examiner reviews the documents and determines the student's
eligibility, entitlement, and benefit rate by manually entering
information into the Front End Tool, the FET.
The FET is used to calculate the additional information
needed to determine payments for students. However, the FET has
limited capability for processing multiple scenarios
encountered in determining eligibility and entitlement under
the new program. As a result, VBA, in conjunction with MITRE
Corporation, developed multiple job aids, or out-of-system
tools and spreadsheets, to augment claims processing.
Once the benefit rate and payment amounts are determined,
the claims examiner manually enters the payment information
into the Back End Tool (BET) separately for each payment type
required. The BET utilizes the existing Benefits Delivery
Network to issue payments. A payment cannot be processed until
at least two individuals approve the award and payment amount.
Evidence to support the award action taken by the claims
examiner and a senior claims examiner is captured for record
purposes in TIMS. This payment authorization process is
completely separated for the housing allowance, the tuition and
fees payment, and the books and supplies payments.
When all action is complete, the claims examiner manually
transcribes most information into an award letter that is sent
to the student, providing them important information about
their benefit.
Due to lack of integration among the systems, the time to
process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims is significantly longer than
processing time for other education benefits. Currently, it
takes approximately 1\1/2\ hours to process one original claim
under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Phase three of the interim solution will provide increased
functionality for processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. It was
originally scheduled for deployment in September 2009. Due to
the complexity involved in processing both amended awards and
overlapping terms, phase three is now scheduled for deployment
in early November of 2009.
Claims processing under our education programs increased by
180,000 claims over the same period last year due to, in
significant part, to the large number of requests for
Certificates of Eligibility under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The
net increase in students is approximately 70,000.
VA anticipated the majority of students would transfer from
the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) and Reserve Educational
Assistance Program (REAP) to the Post-9/11 GI Bill during the
beginning of the Fall 2009 enrollment period. However, that has
not happened.
Instead, we have seen a slight decrease in the number of
students receiving benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill and
REAP, compared to the same period last year.
We also expected the majority of veterans applying for the
Certificate of Eligibility for the Post-9/11 GI Bill over the
summer would start school during the fall enrollment period.
Instead, many may have applied for the new program to receive
an eligibility determination, but will enroll in school at some
point in the future.
In order to meet the challenge, VA, since May, has hired an
additional 230 staff, implemented a mandatory overtime policy,
redirected over 70 staff from non-claims processing work
directly into claims processing work, as well as other
initiatives as outlined in my written testimony.
Regardless, we are not serving veterans timely in all
cases. In response, the Secretary authorized issuance of
advance payment to students enrolled in school who have not
received their benefits.
On October 2nd, 2009, VA began issuing advance payments to
students in the amount of up to $3,000 per individual. In the
first week, VA made advance payments to over 41,000 students,
totaling approximately $120 million.
VA looks forward to engaging in a dialog with Congress and
our stakeholders to improve administration of the Post-9/11 GI
Bill. Thank you, this Committee, as well as all of Congress,
for the continued support you have provided throughout this
effort.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I would be
pleased to answer any questions that you or other Members of
the Subcommittee may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wilson appears on p. 21.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Wilson.
In news reports there have been a lot of statements and
quotes with regard to hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting
for benefits. You went through the numbers in the beginning of
your testimony in terms of those who sought Certificates of
Eligibility starting at the May 1st timeline and then those
that ultimately enrolled where the VA was getting back once the
Certificate of Eligibility was sent. What is the difference in
the numbers of those that have actually enrolled?
Can you address this concern that hundreds of thousands of
veterans may be awaiting benefits?
Mr. Wilson. This is one thing that we have been challenged
with from a communication perspective for a while now. We, I
think, incorrectly continued to communicate the way we
traditionally have concerning claims processed, what type of
claims they are and we did not do a good job of focusing on the
student, the number of individuals that we are paying benefits
to.
And unfortunately, we did not do a good job of educating
people on what the differences are. A claim does not equal a
student. On average, one claim or one student will generate
about two and a half to three claims a year based on their
training time, how many periods they enroll, whether they
change training, et cetera.
Additionally, the number of Certificates of Eligibility
that we have provided represent individuals that are interested
in knowing that they are eligible, and at that point have just
simply indicated that they plan to use the benefit at some
point in the future.
The number of individuals that we have actually paid, which
as you have rightly pointed out, is significantly different
from that number, are the people that are actually enrolled in
school right now.
The delta between the two, the difference between the two,
is in excess of 100,000. That's not necessarily indicative of a
problem, but it is different than the behavior that we have
seen in our student population previously.
Normally, individuals will come in and apply for the
benefit at the point that they are ready to begin using it. And
based on the student enrollment versus the number of people
that have applied for eligibility, that doesn't seem to be
occurring currently.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Has the VA heard of any veteran having
problems, understanding the explanation you just provided, in
terms of getting benefits? There was a Certificate of
Eligibility that was applied for that didn't necessarily
translate for every veteran or individual who is deemed
eligible for the benefits, such as dependents to whom they can
transfer those benefits.
Have you heard any complaints that veterans have actually
been denied permission to attend courses for which they have
enrolled because benefits haven't been paid?
Mr. Wilson. We have not. In fact, we began an effort early
on to contact schools directly, and that is one of the
questions that we specifically asked in addition to the
outreach that we had been doing with the schools from the
beginning on this.
We are aware of no schools where students are being
disenrolled due to that process.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Let us talk about that outreach to the
schools. I appreciate that you reached out to the schools as it
related to this particular anticipated issue in terms of the
delay in which some States were determining tuition rates. Then
there is the issue of getting to the VA and VA being able to
get the tuition out and the differences in terms of getting
that information to schools, whether it is right away in
enrollment, add/drop, after add/drop period, et cetera.
The issue of outreach prior to the fall semester starting,
we have repeatedly heard from veterans believing that their
housing allowance would be issued to them at the beginning of
the month, or that this would be paid ``up front.'' What is
creating this disconnect?
Mr. Wilson. We have heard that as well. First, let me
clarify in terms of how it is paid. The monthly housing benefit
is paid in the same manner as VA education benefits are paid
under the other existing programs in that it is paid in
arrears, at the end of the month, following the month of
attendance.
And this is quite honestly speculation, the tuition payment
is paid to the school at the beginning of the semester, a
housing allowance. I'm sorry, the book and supply stipend is
paid to the student at the beginning of the semester.
I think it would be logical for some individuals to make a
connection between the manner in which those payments are made
and the manner in which they would presume that the housing
allowance would be paid.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Before recognizing other Members, and
we will have another round of questions for everybody,
yesterday at our full Committee hearing when Secretary Shinseki
was testifying, we heard from several Members that were
proposing legislative fixes to make your job easier in the
future. You described it in your written and oral testimony
today that you are laying the groundwork for the long-term IT
solution. You are also dealing with legacy systems and we had
the recession affecting States and their decisions, and so,
some factors and variables which, in a perfect world, we would
have anticipated and had you prepared for absolutely every
possible scenario.
But we do know that many Members are interested in
streamlining the administration of all of the education
benefits. I don't know if you are prepared to say which
legislative fixes you would endorse today or if you are
starting to give those thought, but any suggestions?
Mr. Wilson. We are giving that a lot of thought. Clearly,
there are issues that have been discussed that conceptually are
very appealing, paying housing allowances in advance has been
talked about as a possibility, delinking the tuition payment to
the schools with the need to get the housing allowance payment
out as quickly as possible to students, et cetera.
And I would agree that those are appealing from a
conceptual perspective. The challenge, I believe, will be
making sure that any legislative fixes are immediately
implementable, taking into account the issues that you rightly
brought up concerning the legacy systems that we have in place,
the limitations in our short-term initiative that we are
currently, essentially locked into to process claims.
One thing we absolutely don't want to do is make the
situation worse.
[The VA subsequently provided additional information in the
answer to Question #10 of the Post-Hearing Questions and
Responses for the Record, which appears on p. 32.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Mr. Teague?
Mr. Teague. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for having
this hearing and for letting me ask a few questions. I did have
some concerns. Are there things in place or in the works to
where we tie these systems together? We are not going to
continually have four IT systems that don't communicate with
each other, are we?
Mr. Wilson. No, we are not. We have pursued two past
concurrently as we have implemented this program, knowing we
didn't have the time to implement a fully automated system. We
stood up an effort to put in place the minimal that we needed
to get checks out the door.
Concurrently with that, though, we have had a process going
from the beginning to develop a fully automated rules-based
system that will have full deployment currently scheduled for
December of 2010.
Now, the first scheduled deployment of that long-term
solution is scheduled for March/April timeframe of 2010. That
will essentially replace what is currently being called the
Front-End Tool and the job aids. So there's not a huge amount
of additional functionality, but it will make the claims
examiners' lives a lot easier by consolidating everything into
a more friendly user interface Web-based tool. But ultimately,
we do have that initiative to go to an automated mechanism to
process this work.
Mr. Teague. We have had a problem with some contradictory
information coming out. When the checks didn't go out the first
of the month, well, then you issued a press release that they
would be cut on Friday the 2nd. And then, there was also some
announcements sent out that if--you know, in places like New
Mexico where it is 325 miles to the only hospital and the only
facility in the State, that the VA would be going to some of
the larger universities and handing the checks out. That didn't
happen.
At the same time, there was a Web site up where veterans
could go to, but we didn't get that information to people, so I
was just wondering if we are streamlining our communications
within our office there so that we don't continually jerk the
veterans around and have some of them misinformed.
Mr. Wilson. I understand your concerns, Congressman, and we
have, I believe, we have a better process in place to make sure
that we are communicating more effectively on that.
The issues that we were dealing with was trying to get,
make sure we had something out the gate and informed our
student population prior to October 1, around the October 1
timeframe. The October 1 was important because most folks were
at that point where they would do their first full housing
allowance payments. We thought it was important to get
something up as soon as possible.
We were dealing, and continued to deal, at the time of that
press release, with some technical issues concerning how we get
to the other locations beyond our 57 regional offices. We very
early on wanted to spread this out as much as possible. We felt
that the most effective manner of doing that was leveraging
technology, taking into account that we have students at
thousands of locations across the country. We felt the most
effective way of getting those folks touched, that weren't
within driving distance of a regional office, was to allow
technology, so that was the driver for our decision on the
follow-up.
Mr. Teague. Yes, and I agree with that, and I think that
the Web page is working well. It is just that during that week
prior to that when I was at New Mexico State University, they
were expecting someone to be there with the checks and then on
Friday when no one was there, that is when we found out about
the Web page.
Mr. Wilson. I understand.
Mr. Teague. Another thing, I guess it is a misunderstanding
on their part and I was wondering where the information came
from that so many of the veterans thought that they were going
to be paid in advance, both for tuition and housing.
Mr. Wilson. The advance payment issue has been troubling.
We have had in our outreach material, going back to the winter
period or early spring, winter period, information providing
the student experience, in other words, what would the student
experience, and we have worked very hard to make sure
individuals understand when they would be paid.
The examples that we use were for the individual who would
be having their first day of class toward the end of August.
Come September 1st, they were only eligible for a partial
housing allowance for those couple of days of attendance in
August, followed by the first full housing allowance payment on
October 1st.
For whatever reason, and again I would be speculating, that
didn't seem to be fully understood. Largely, it did because
most of our current participants are transferees from the
Montgomery GI Bill and this benefit is paid in the same manner.
But we didn't get that word out to everybody and there were
pockets of communication and we need to continue to work hard
on that issue.
Mr. Teague. You know, and you brought up another thing
there with the transferring from the Montgomery GI Bill to the
Post- 9/11 GI Bill, and sometimes before they understand
the full benefits of both programs, people have committed to
the Post-9/11 GI Bill and then found out that it really didn't
have as many benefits for them, individually, as the Montgomery
GI Bill, but they can't switch back. Is there anything that we
can do there, whether they can reconsider it, if through
oversight on their part or misinformation, they want to go back
to the Montgomery Bill?
Mr. Wilson. The structure of the Post-9/11 GI Bill calls
for an irrevocable decision, so currently that is a statutory
requirement. There is no mechanism within the statute that
would allow a person to unrevoke the irrevocable election.
Our mechanism by which we have been educating people on
that is making sure that they can understand the questions that
need to be answered. The answers to the questions themselves
are going to be unique to each individual person. So you are
absolutely right for raising this concern. Individuals do have
to be well armed. They have to know what questions to ask and
our efforts have been designed toward ensuring they can answer
those questions, both monetarily and non-monetarily.
There are non-monetary issues that are very important here
too, such as the difference in the delimiting date between the
two benefits. So that has been our direction, but I understand
your concern. It is a statutory irrevocable decision.
Mr. Teague. And then the burden is on us to be sure that
our people and our staff understands well so that they explain
well so that we don't mislead people and cause them to make the
wrong decision.
But, once again, thank you for answering the questions.
Thank you for being here and, Madam Chairwoman, thank you.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you very much, Mr. Teague.
Dr. Snyder.
Mr. Snyder. Mr. Mitchell is here. I apologize.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. I had heard you were here, you know,
an hour early, so.
Mr. Snyder. I don't think that counts.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. Mr. Mitchell, you are
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell. Thank you for allowing me to be here today
and thank you both for the strong leadership on this issue.
Mr. Wilson, before I get into my question, I would like to
go on record with a message to the VA. I have held two
oversight hearings on improper bonuses within the VA.
Additionally, Congress and the American people did not look
kindly on banks that received bailout funds that gave major
bonuses to their executives.
Regardless, if you work on Wall Street or Main Street or
for the Department of Veterans Affairs, bonuses should follow
performance. My understanding is that the Fiscal Year 2009
bonuses have not been awarded by the VA yet, and I think that
the VA must think long and hard about giving out plush bonuses
for Fiscal Year 2009, while so many veterans are still waiting
for the benefits they've earned and scrambling to make sure
they have the money to pay for schools, books and housing.
Mr. Wilson, this is not your first appearance before this
Subcommittee. You have appeared before it several times since
the GI Bill was signed into law. To keep the Committee Members
apprised of the VA's efforts to implement the GI Bill and you
offered assurances that the VA would be ready by August 1st.
You even brought in a detailed timeline to show us how the VA
would be ready by August 1st.
In February, Mr. Adler of this Committee asked if the VA
needed more tools to accomplish the goal of program
implementation. You responded by stating, ``This legislation
itself came with funding.'' This funding is, at this point, has
adequately provided us with what we need for implementing
payments on August 1st, 2009.
If this legislation provided to you is what you needed
then, why did you go to the VA--or, then, where did you or the
VA go wrong in meeting the implementation goal?
So I would like to ask two questions. How are we supposed
to believe that the assurances you are offering today and, two,
knowing how interested Congress is in implementing the GI Bill,
once you knew you were running into problems, why didn't you
let us know? Why do we have to first hear about it from
veterans and read about it in the Army Times?
Mr. Wilson. You rightly call us out in terms of not
providing timely service to all veterans. We acknowledge that
and we are working as hard as humanly possible to make sure
that we are meeting those goals.
The timeline that we provided to the Subcommittee, I
believe, was largely met, in terms of our ability to generate
payments on the date that they we were required to deliver the
first checks. First payments did go out August 3rd.
There were a couple of significant challenges that we have
not anticipated. One was the volume of work created by the
increase in applications for eligibility determinations that
did not translate into student population, dropping off other
programs, so we had significantly more work in our existing
programs than we would have expected to have to maintain going
into the fall enrollment.
One of the other primary challenges that we have responded
to is when we began our ability to use the tools that were
developed to implement the program in a short term. May 1st is
when we began using those tools and it was very clear to us
from the get-go that even accounting for our understanding that
they weren't perfect, we under-estimated the complexity and the
labor-intensive nature of what needed to be done.
We responded by hiring 230 additional people to account for
that.
Mr. Mitchell. I read all that in your testimony. My point
is, once you knew you were running into problems, why didn't
you come back to us? We heard it first by veterans and through
the Army Times that you were having problems.
Mr. Wilson. It has been our desire from the get-go to make
sure that the Subcommittee has been informed all along. If we
did not meet those expectations, then we need to be held
accountable for that.
We provided information that we had at each of the
hearings, and we have had a longstanding mechanism by which we
have provided updates to staff on a regular basis. We did
notify the Subcommittee at the time of the hiring of the 230
additional people.
Mr. Mitchell. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Dr. Snyder. And if you prefer to come
back or I can recognize you now. There are still 8\1/2\ minutes
left in this series of votes.
Mr. Snyder. Whatever you want to do. I'm glad to go----
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Are you able to come back?
Mr. Snyder. Yeah, I can come back.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. It is up to you, then.
Mr. Snyder. We can come back.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. All right.
We have just two votes, so we will head down so we have
plenty of time to make this first vote and then when we return,
we will resume the question with Dr. Snyder.
[Recess.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. We will resume the hearing. Dr.
Snyder, you are recognized for your questions.
Mr. Snyder. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Wilson, I appreciate your being here and all your work.
I would think this must be a pretty exciting time for you all.
I mean, it is really--it has been a lot of people given some
opportunities they haven't had before and may not think they
have had before and I think your work is going to pay off for
the county.
I wanted to ask just about the IT aspect of things because
I am not a Member of the Subcommittee. I know Stephanie and a
good group of Members have done a lot of work on this. I don't
really understand where the delay was.
In your statement, you quote from your press release that
states that, ``The VA did not receive enough proposals from
qualified private-sector contractors to create an IT program
that implements a good benefit.'' That was your 2008 statement.
You know, my question is, ``Why not?'' I mean, it is not
like there is so much work out there right now that nobody in
America knows how to do information technology. Why didn't you
receive proposals? I mean, this would have been a very
lucrative contract for somebody.
Mr. Wilson. Part of my response would be speculation on my
part because I can't speak on behalf of the vendors. Having
said that, what I do know is that there appeared to be concern
with the time table and concern with the technical aspects,
such as integration with the myriad of systems that would have
to occur, setting up a rules engine, et cetera, just the
technical aspects of doing that much work in such a compressed
timeframe. There were just, I believe, high risks there. We had
several vendors that dropped out of the competition during
that.
Ultimately, we never got to the point where we were 110
percent comfortable that checks would go out on August 1st,
taking that into account, but we still felt we needed an
automated system to do this right. So taking that into account,
we developed the two track--do the minimum, do what we have to
do to get checks out the door on August 1st, but it is not
going to be pretty. Acknowledging that it is not going to be
pretty, keep that long-term strategy in place, get that
automated system in place as quickly as possible.
Mr. Snyder. It seems like, when you get to the point of
where you want to be, that the issue that Mr. Teague brought up
about if people make the wrong decision by choosing the wrong
program, that your software program should help them sort that
out, should it not?
Mr. Wilson. I think that is a fair characterization from a
technology standpoint. That could potentially be sought out,
worked through. Obviously, legal issues, as I mentioned, would
still be there. One thing that would be a potential concern----
Mr. Snyder. I wasn't talking about the issue of the
revocation. I was thinking about when someone--I mean, it seems
like ideally you go on, you edit information, it basically
makes the decision almost immediately about, you know, your
eligibility or not.
But then it also seems like that there should be a software
program that says, you know, because of your age or whatever,
your smartest decision may be to stay with MGIB because we
certainly--as those of us who, and probably nobody has been
more of a champion of this than Ms. Herseth Sandlin with this
GI Bill, and we all have really talked about it a lot, about
this great improvement, so I am not surprised that most people
out there think that this would be the better program. But
apparently for some people it is not.
And it seems like at some point there could be the
possibility of a red flag going off for the veteran that says,
you may want to talk to your veteran's counselor or consider
these other possibilities. Do you foresee that being down the
line somewhere, or is that going to be just distinctly a Post-
9/11 GI Bill application?
Mr. Wilson. No, I think that is a possibility. One thing I
would emphasize, though. The approach that we have consciously
made on this is emphasizing that this is both a monetary and a
non-monetary decision, and there are non-monetary factors, both
now and in the future that change, and if I could provide an
example.
An individual may make the decision now that they are
better off under the Post-9/11 GI Bill monetarily, and that's a
sound decision from their perspective. However, if they only
have 2 years--well, let me back up. They could make the
decision that they are better off under the Montgomery GI Bill
and monetarily that would pay them better benefits. They still
may be better off under the Post-9/11 GI Bill because of the
difference in the delimiting date.
If an individual elects to stay under the Montgomery GI
Bill right now, for example, if they have 2 years left to use
that benefit, it may be a wiser decision for them to opt into
the Post-9/11 GI Bill, even if they would receive those
benefits because they have 5 additional years to use the
benefit.
Even that decision is dynamic. A person could be very
comfortable in their job right now and make the decision in the
case that I just talked about, that they are going to stay
under the Montgomery GI Bill and they are good. But if they are
in a segment of the economy where a year from now, 2 years from
now, their job stability is threatened and they become more
concerned, then that is a factor that is changed concerning the
benefit that is best for them.
So that is why we have tried to focus on the monetary
aspects. That is fine. But take into account the non-monetary
aspects as well.
Mr. Snyder. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Dr. Snyder.
Mr. Boozman, you are recognized for your opening remarks,
as well as questions. We did enter your opening remarks for the
record.
Mr. Boozman. Yes, ma'am. That is fine.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay.
Mr. Boozman. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Wilson, as staff and as we have been out and about, it
seems like that there is not a lot of knowledge about Title IV
benefits such as the Pell Grants and things like that. Is there
any attempt to encourage vets--I know we have got a lot going
on, but is there any attempt to encourage vets to apply for
Title IV benefits such as the Pell Grants?
Mr. Wilson. Currently, we don't have significant efforts in
that area, and I believe that is a point well taken. I believe
we can do better in that area.
We do know right now there is information showing that
about half of our student veteran population are in receipt of
Pell Grants, a subset of the Title IV benefits you talk about.
So we can, I believe, do a better job of making sure folks
understand the Federal benefits that are potentially available
for them, as well.
Taking it a step farther, the local programs, the State
programs, the private programs, the campus-based aid, et
cetera, there is a universe of benefits out there, and we have
had preliminary discussions on how we do a better job of doing
that.
Mr. Boozman. And I guess maybe working with the Transition
Assistance Program might be an area that might be beneficial.
Mr. Wilson. Yes. We have had discussions with the State
Approving Agencies (SAAs) on this very topic, and we have had
some preliminary back and forth concerning how we plug into the
State mechanism, how do we make sure that we are doing what we
can to link up veterans with that State information. I think
the State Approving Agencies are the ideal mechanism to do just
that.
Mr. Boozman. The current term in place that you have, when
is their appointment scheduled to end, and I guess, also, are
you planning on employing any of these employees beyond their
current terms?
And then, also, as we go through the next enrollment
period, do we need to hire additional staff beyond what we have
done on this last go round?
Mr. Wilson. The 530 additional people that we brought in
out the gate under the Post-9/11 GI Bill are built into our
assumptions for our resources that we will have available in
2010. So we have those folks. Our understanding is we will have
them in 2010, if that need is there.
In terms of bringing on additional staff, you are aware
that we hired 230 additional people beginning in May. Those
individuals were hired under the ARRA (American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act) funding and we have them until the end of the
year currently.
Mr. Boozman. Okay.
Mr. Wilson. We are, also--I just want to make one more
point if I may. The efforts that I have talked about, the 230
additional hires, the 70 people that we have moved from non-
claims processing work into claims processing work, that is
part of a dynamic effort. We are looking at those efforts every
day. We are going to continue to do that as we identify
additional resources that we can bring to bear on this effort.
We will be doing that.
Mr. Boozman. I guess getting an idea of how long these
things take, when you requested, I guess when did you request
the 230 additional term employees to process the GI Bill? How
long did it take for OMB to approve the use of the funds?
Mr. Wilson. The funds were approved for claims processing
work under the ARRA authority. It did not define claims
processing work and clearly this is claims processing work, so
we were able to move out fairly quickly on that.
Mr. Boozman. Okay. Very good. And I guess the status of the
long-term IT fix for processing, do we have any idea when that
will be available?
Mr. Wilson. The first deployment of the long term will be
in the March/April timeframe of 2010. What that will do is
consolidate the current functionality that is in both the job
aids and the front end tool into a Web-based, user-interface
that will make the claims examiner's job a little bit easier.
Following that, there are three, I believe, three
additional deployments that will add functionality, two more
before or at the fall enrollment period for next year, and then
the final deployment for full automated functionality in
December of 2010.
Mr. Boozman. Okay. Before she starts blinking my light, I
know you all have worked really hard on this and it has been a
very difficult situation, and I think that the law is a
tremendous benefit for our veterans, and certainly I know my
commitment, and I know the Committee's commitment here is to
help any way we can. I think the key to that is you just
letting us know what we need to do. I know that we're going to
try and go forward, my understanding is that with the technical
corrections of the bill to make things easier a bit.
But I do appreciate your hard work and I appreciate your
staff's hard work. I think that they are doing the very best
that they can, and again, hopefully we will get all this
figured out and get things flowing in the right direction, and
then being in better shape as we go forward with the next
semester.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Boozman.
Just to follow-up on some of the questions the Ranking
Member was posing. Mr. Wilson, how much longer does the VA plan
to require mandatory overtime for claims processing staff,
which I understand has been 3 days per pay period, which is
every 2 weeks? Also how long will you continue to use
headquarters staff and redirect staff to help process the
education claims?
Mr. Wilson. We are not prepared to make a decision on how
much longer we will keep that in place until we have the
current backlog resolved.
Our goal is to go into the spring enrollment with no
backlog. If we need to, we will keep those measures in place,
in addition to any other measures that we identify through the
spring enrollment. We are doing everything in our power to make
sure that we are adequately prepared for the spring enrollment.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. And for this current semester, before,
as you work to get rid of the backlog before the spring
enrollment, on average, how many amended awards for tuition are
you anticipating for this semester?
Mr. Wilson. That potentially is a challenge. The short
answer is we don't know and it is related to the manner in
which schools will be required to report to VA under the Post-
9/11 GI Bill. As you are aware, Madam Chair, the Post-9/11 GI
Bill allows us to pay actual tuition and fee charges. So if
there are any changes in that number, even if a student were to
substitute one class for another class that might have a lab
fee, for example, the school is required to provide that
amended enrollment information to us and we will have to
process that work.
We are making sure that we are going to do everything we
can to segment that work out as much as possible so that we can
manage that without interrupting and impacting the housing
allowance payments that go out to students.
But potentially, it could be a significant amount of work.
Historically, what I can tell you is about 25 percent of our
students end up having some type of amended award, so we would
expect that to at least be the base number.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. When I was asking earlier about
whether there are any recommendations you can make to make it
easier for the VA to process amended tuition awards or other
legislative fixes to streamline the administration of these
benefits and the technical corrections that the Ranking Member
alluded to, this will all be part of the long-term solution
right? I mean it would be very difficult, just as it was
difficult in anticipation of the May 1st and August 1st
deadlines, to make changes that would impede meeting those
deadlines.
I know that in response to my question, you had indicated
we could possibly look at paying housing allowances in advance.
But again, being aware of how that then will affect
administration of the short-term solution through next
semester, but did you say that the long-term IT solution won't
be fully up to capacity until December of next year? Are we
looking at two additional semesters of using the legacy system?
Mr. Wilson. It is a phased deployed for the long term. The
full deployment does occur in December of 2010. That gives us
the automated functionality that is the goal for development or
implementation of the long-term solutions, so that is correct.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. Just a couple more questions,
but back to the amended awards issue. If you start anticipating
problems, or experiencing problems in terms of just
historically 25 percent are looking at amended awards, as I
know that you do in your communications meeting regularly with
our Subcommittee staff. We need to be made aware of the
problems immediately if there are any complications that arise
with the housing stipends and anticipating the need as you
should do in terms of advance payments, but that is my next
question.
Are there concerns that the emergency checks that were
recently given to veterans are going to cause an overpayment
and are veterans made aware of this and is this another
potential problem that lies out there?
Mr. Wilson. Veterans are made aware. When they receive
advance payment, they are notified that this is an advance on
payments that will be due when their award is processed and
that there will be a recoupment of the benefits, so they are
notified.
Whether or not they will be an overpayment will depend on
several things, for example, the amount of advance pay that an
individual chose to receive. It could be up to $3,000, but they
could take an amount less than that. Also, it would depend on
their housing allowance rate for the zip code that they live in
so there are several factors that are at play concerning any
overpayment.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Mr. Mitchell, did you have any
additional questions for Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Mitchell. Just one, if you don't mind.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay.
Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Wilson, I believe that no veteran--and I
am talking as a former schoolteacher and who values education
very, very much. I don't believe any veteran should fall
behind, even a semester, because of the VA's inability to meet
the goals that we have set out for and I would like to know
what the VA is doing to ensure that future payments will not be
delayed, as well as what assurances can you offer that measures
will work?
Mr. Wilson. Everything that we are putting in place right
now is designed to ensure that we go into the spring semester
fully loaded with what we need to have on board. We will take
every step that we need to to make sure veterans have access to
payment. If that means that we have to keep an advance payment
mechanism of some sort in process, we will do that. But our
goal is to make sure that those mechanisms are not needed, that
we have this issue resolved prior to the spring semester and we
move forward.
The Secretary has been very clear that any delay in payment
is unacceptable. Everybody in VA agrees wholeheartedly with
that. On a personal level, I can say firsthand I know exactly
what these students are going through. I went through college
under the GI Bill. I know what it is like to stand in a line
for food stamps after defending this Nation for 8 years. I take
this very personal and we are going to fix it.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Mr. Boozman, any follow-up questions?
Mr. Boozman. Very quickly, Madam Chair. Right now, we have
a number of minutes that it takes to process a claim. Is there
a performance goal for the long-term solution in what we want
to get that down to?
Mr. Wilson. Ultimately what we would like to see in the
long-term solution is essentially immediate turnaround. That is
why we are going to a rules-based mechanism by which we can do
this.
Our experience with rules-based processing within VA is
limited. We expect this to be a learning curve for us. We would
expect some segment of work out the gate, a large segment of
work out the gate to be processed through an automated system.
We don't want veterans to wait at all for eligibility
determinations and payments, et cetera.
As we gain experience and understanding more the nuances of
how we need to manage this rules-based system, we are going to
continue to work toward the point where we have everything
processed automated.
One thing I would remind the Members of, is we are talking
about the Post-911 GI Bill. We are looking at our other
programs in the same way, but our focus right now is the Post-
9/11 GI Bill.
Mr. Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Mr. Adler, did you have any questions
you would like to pose or a statement?
Mr. Adler. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. First of all,
Director Wilson, I thank you so much for the passion in which
you discussed your past experience, your personal experience
and I am so optimistic you will continue to bring that level of
passion to meet the needs of our people mustering out of
service and trying to transition successfully to a civilian
life through education.
Are there anything, any other tools you need from Congress
to achieve this goal of the Post-9/11 GI Bill?
Mr. Wilson. The main tool we need is the ability to
continue an aggressive dialog with Congress. We are anxious to
engage with Congress, as we have, to continue that, expand
that.
We want to streamline this as much as possible while making
sure that we don't do anything that we don't want to do in
terms of interrupting the level of service that we have now. We
do have limited flexibility concerning what we can do with our
existing IT structure, but the main thing is continued dialog,
I believe.
Mr. Adler. Director Wilson, I thank you for that. We
welcome dialog and, frankly, we would like to hear from you as
needs arise before crises arise, so if you see a backup because
IT is not working, I know there are other folks working in the
VA who don't like to come here for dialog because sometimes it
is in a less pleasant environment, a less pleasant context than
we are discussing today in terms of meeting needs of folks who
are trying to achieve their goals through education.
So, please, we welcome that dialog proactively on your
part. Tell us what you need from us in order to achieve the
goal for all America of treating our veterans rights in the
education context.
I thank you. I yield back.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. A couple of final questions with
regard to the education call center. We have received some
calls to the Committee from some veterans who are frustrated in
terms of their inability to reach a VA official when they are
calling with questions regarding a pending education claim, and
you had mentioned it in your written testimony, that the VA
hired and redirected a total of 57 term personnel to the
education call center. Are you able to call the data to tell us
how long the average wait time has been for veterans to
connect, what the dropoff rate percentage is and how long these
57 term personnel will be available, and do you need additional
resources as it relates to the importance of that education
call center to so many veterans?
Mr. Wilson. I don't have that data with me, but I would be
happy to provide it for the record.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. You can access it and get it to us?
Mr. Wilson. Yes.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. If you could do that.
Mr. Wilson. Yes, I would be happy to do that.
[The VA subsequently provided the information in the answer
to Question #9 of the Post-Hearing Questions and Responses for
the Record, which appear on p. 32.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. We would appreciate that.
Mr. Wilson. Because those----
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. It is one of those frustrations that
we want to seek to alleviate and it would be helpful for this
Subcommittee to know what those statistics are now, so that as
you take steps to improve it and we have the information to
compare it to in terms of the necessary personnel going
forward.
Mr. Wilson. I will be happy to do that.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Before we conclude the hearing, I
would like to make a few comments for you to consider as the VA
moves forward with the implementation of all of its education
programs. Again, we will continue to work closely with you as
it relates to your goals and objectives for implementing the
long-term solution for the Post-9/11 GI Bill and then fully
moving everything over. Again, there is interest at the full
Committee level to streamline the benefits to enhance
availability, customer service, timeliness, the whole bit for
our veterans as they access these important benefits.
Based on the feedback that we have received from a number
of veterans, we think that the VA should consider the
following:
Informing veterans of the importance of submitting an
application of eligibility early, allowing the VA enough time
to process a claim before the semester begins; asking veterans
if they plan on using their education benefits in the upcoming
term during that application process. It is my understanding
that the VA doesn't ask that simple question that, I think,
would allow the VA officials to prioritize the processing of
the certifications of eligibility.
Also, informing veterans to expect to receive their first
housing and book stipend in arrears--maybe we seek to change
that, but until we do, given that it is administered the same
way it was under the other education claims benefits, knowing
that there was some information or misinformation or
miscommunication in some of the outreach efforts that different
organizations in the VA were doing, there was an expectation
that wasn't effectively managed there.
Until a change is made, we all have to inform veterans more
effectively on what to expect as it relates to receiving those
housing and book stipends, informing veterans of the benefits
to applying for additional Federal education programs that
could enhance their VA education benefits. I would encourage
you to let us know or to coordinate with and for us to
understand better the role of State Approving Agencies and
assisting in that regard, other veteran service organizations
that can help communicate all of the opportunities available to
our veterans. Especially the Federal Pell Grant Program and the
Federal Work Study Program that may provide a source of funds
to veterans waiting for VA housing and book stipends to be
received certainly.
And furthermore, as you might recall, with the leadership
of Mr. Boozman, Congress authorized the VA to conduct mass-
media outreach services. The VA has the opportunity to use this
resource to implement some of these recommendations to ensure
that student veterans don't experience the same barriers that
the first wave of students recently encountered.
Again, I think, given all that you did anticipate, some of
which you didn't anticipate, I do have confidence that we all
will apply lessons learned to address this going into the next
semester, the following, and the deployment of the long-term
solution. But I do think that this authorization to conduct
mass-media outreach services, getting ideas for its
effectiveness, working with SAAs, working with our VSOs would
be very helpful.
I hope that you will place serious consideration on these
recommendations that don't require Congressional intervention.
I, along with my colleagues and the Committee, stand ready to
assist the administration, the President, the Secretary and
you, as you seek to eliminate the delays in processing the
education benefits for our Nation's veterans and their
dependents.
Mr. Wilson, I thank you for your testimony, your
responsiveness, your service to the country and your commitment
to our Nation's veterans.
The hearing now stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:36 p.m. the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman,
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Today, we seek to administer our oversight jurisdiction on the VA's
implementation efforts of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. I expect that this
hearing will provide the VA the opportunity to update us on recent
actions taken to address delays in distribution of education benefits,
and its plan moving forward to ensure the same mistakes do not occur in
the future.
To date, our main focus has been to ensure VA has the resources to
upgrade its information technology to support the unique demands of the
Post-9/11 GI Bill. Furthermore, we have actively requested that VA
appropriately alert us of any shortfalls in resources to successfully
complete its mission, to include legislative changes that must be made
by this Subcommittee.
Today we are seeking assurances that the VA has sufficient
resources to meet all its goals and demands placed upon it by Public
Law 110-252. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have shed some light on
the shortcomings facing the VA and how it must improve the way it
processes education claims.
Yesterday we had the pleasure of welcoming Secretary Shinseki to
the full Committee so that he could highlight VA's accomplishments and
unmet goals. I appreciate the Secretary's sincere commitment to provide
our Nation's veterans with the best resources in a timely manner. I
share this strong commitment and applaud actions taken by the VA to
address the current backlogs in distribution of education benefits.
While this is commendable, more forethought should have been given to
the emergency check solution to address any potential problems.
I would like to make a few comments for VA to consider as it moves
forward with the implementation of all its education programs. Based on
the feedback that we have received from veterans, the VA should
consider the following:
Informing veterans of the importance of submitting an
application of eligibility early allowing the VA enough time to process
a claim before the semester begins;
Asking veterans if they plan on using their education
benefits in the upcoming term during the application process. It is my
understanding that VA does not ask this simple question that may allow
VA officials to prioritize the processing of certifications of
eligibility;
Informing veterans to expect to receive their first
housing and book stipend in arrears. Many of us have heard from several
misinformed veterans that thought they would receive this benefit prior
to the start of school; and
Informing veterans of the benefits to applying for
additional Federal education programs that could enhance their VA
education benefits. The Federal Pell Grant Program and the Federal
Work-Study Program may provide a source of funds to veterans waiting
for VA housing and book stipend to be received.
Furthermore, you might recall that, with the leadership of Ranking
Member Boozman, Congress authorized the VA to conduct mass media
outreach services. The VA has the opportunity to use this resource to
implement some of my recommendations to ensure student veterans do not
experience the same barriers that the first wave of students recently
encountered.
I hope you place serious consideration to these recommendations
that do not require Congressional intervention. I, along with my
colleagues in the Committee, stand ready to assist the administration
as it seeks to eliminate any delays in processing education benefits
for our Nation's veterans and their dependents.
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Boozman, Ranking Republican
Member, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Good afternoon Madam Chair. I believe this will be the sixth
hearing we have held on implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill since
it became law last June. We have discussed staffing needs, the
initiative to develop the new information technology systems needed to
help manage the program, and the administrative complexity of the
program. In short, I believe we have covered the waterfront.
Despite our work and that of the VA staff, we are about what we
predicted in terms of a backlog in processing claims for education
benefits. In hearings before passage of the new program, VA testified
as to the administrative complexity and the resultant challenges. I
suspect even VA has been surprised about some of the unseen and
unintended consequences of the new program. I want to be very clear
that there is plenty of blame to go around. Congress rushed the bill
through without adequate consideration of alternatives such as the
Chair's H.R. 5684 or fixes to the Senate bill. The VSOs were too
focused on one product at the expense of others, and VA should have
recognized the need for more staff sooner than May.
I congratulate Keith Wilson on crafting VA's testimony, which in a
very polite way, essentially says. ``We told you so.'' Despite the
massive effort by the Education Service to meet all the milestones some
veterans are still waiting for checks. The current backlog is due to
many things such as VA's staffing, when a veteran applies for
eligibility, when a school certifies enrollment, when a State
legislature sets the budget for State schools, and other factors. So
while there have been some bumps in the road, I believe the Education
Service deserves our appreciation for the job they have done. With the
resources now in place and the arrival of the phase three software,
hopefully, we will not have a repeat of this fall's situation.
Madam Chair, it is time for us to hear from VA about the changes
they believe are needed to smooth administration. In yesterday's State
of the VA hearing with Secretary Shinseki, Ranking Member Buyer offered
some suggestions to consider to reduce the administrative workload.
Whether any of them are viable, or whether there are other technical
changes VA considers needed, we need to hear from the Department.
Finally, the time for finger pointing is over. I welcome anyone's
ideas and look forward to working with the Chair to take appropriate
action.
Prepared Statement of Keith M. Wilson, Director,
Office of Education Service, Veterans Benefits Administration,
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Good afternoon Chairwoman Herseth-Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman,
and Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear
before you today to discuss the status of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
implementation. My testimony will address the challenges we face, the
current status of education claims, workload trends, and
countermeasures we are taking to alleviate delays in processing.
Additionally, I will highlight the important Congressional support we
received during implementation.
Background and Challenges
Enactment of the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act on June 30,
2008, gave VA approximately 14 months to develop a new, highly complex
eligibility and payment system for hundreds of thousands of claimants
who would be eligible to receive benefits under the new program on
August 1, 2009. To meet this challenge VA began accepting applications
to determine eligibility for the Post-9/11 GI Bill on May 1, 2009. On
July 6, 2009, we started accepting enrollment certifications from
school certifying officials for Veterans utilizing their Post-9/11GI
Bill benefits for the fall term and began processing claims for
payment. The first payments were disbursed by the U.S. Treasury on
August 3, 2009.
Since May 1, 2009, approximately 210,000 individuals have been
deemed eligible and provided a certificate of eligibility, and
approximately 44,500 students have received a payment under the Post-9/
11 GI Bill. Not all individuals who applied to determine their
eligibility for the new program will immediately enroll in school; they
generally have 15 years following active-duty separation to use their
education benefits.
VA testified before this Subcommittee on October 18, 2007, stating
that, ``these new payment methods [for the Post-9/11 GI Bill] would
require extensive enhancements to existing payment systems. . . . Our
continued concern is limiting the impact on beneficiaries and ensuring
timely receipt of payments.'' Between June and October 2008, VA sought
contractor support for development of an information technology (IT)
system to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims beginning August 1, 2009. As
stated in VA's press release of October 10, 2008, ``VA did not receive
enough proposals from qualified private-sector contractors to create an
IT program that implements the new benefit.'' VA did not have
confidence that any of the respondents could create the required
complex IT system in sufficient time to meet the August 1 deadline. As
a result, VA terminated the solicitation process and began
implementation with internal resources. From this point, VA had 9
months remaining to complete implementation.
Due to the short timeframe, complexity of the new benefit program,
and limited availability of internal IT resources, VA began development
of an interim claims processing solution while simultaneously
developing a long-term, rules-based processing solution in cooperation
with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWAR). VA's
Office of Information & Technology (OI&T) designed the interim
processing solution functionality in three separate phases. Each phase
is intended to deliver a specific set of functionalities for claims
examiners to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. Development of the
interim solution has presented significant challenges due to the
complexity of the new program and the reduced timeline for delivery.
Prior to August 1 implementation, OI&T delivered two of the three
phases of the interim solution.
Post-9/11 GI Bill claims currently require manual processing using
four separate IT systems that do not interface to each other. When an
application or enrollment certification is received, the documents are
captured into The Image Management System (TIMS). The documents are
routed electronically to a claims examiner for processing. The claims
examiner reviews the documents in TIMS and determines the student's
eligibility, entitlement, and benefit rate using the Front End Tool
(FET). The FET is used to calculate and store student information to
support the Post-9/11 GI Bill claims adjudication process. However, the
FET has limited capability for processing the multiple scenarios
encountered in determining eligibility and entitlement under the new
program. As a result, VA in conjunction with MITRE Corp. developed
multiple job aids, or out-of-system tools and spreadsheets to augment
claims processing.
Once the benefit rate and payment amount are determined, the claims
examiner manually enters the payment information into the back-end tool
(BET). The BET utilizes the existing Benefits Delivery Network (BDN) to
issue payments. A payment cannot be processed until at least two
individuals approve the award and payment amount. All evidence to
support the award actions taken by the claims examiner and a senior
claims examiner is captured into TIMS. This process is completed
separately for the housing allowance, the tuition and fees payment, and
the books and supplies stipend. Due to lack of integration among
systems, the time to complete a Post-9/11 GI Bill claim is
significantly longer than processing time for other education benefits.
Currently, it takes approximately 1\1/2\ hours to process one original
claim under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Phase three of the interim solution, which will provide increased
functionality and additional automation for processing Post-9/11 GI
Bill claims, was originally scheduled for deployment in September 2009
during the peak enrollment period for processing education claims. Due
to the complexity involved in processing for both amended awards and
overlapping terms, phase three is now scheduled for early November
2009. Amended awards include changes in a student's actual charges for
tuition and fees and reduced or increased course loads. Since the law
requires VA to pay actual charges, amended awards are required for any
change in a student's tuition and fees.
Because the program implementation date falls in the middle of some
school terms, VA must also determine rates payable to students in
school on August 1, 2009, under two separate benefit programs and pro-
rate Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Further complicating the claims
process are overlapping terms. It is not uncommon for many students to
enroll in courses that begin and end in overlapping time periods at
different schools. Processing these claims involve additional manual
calculations for the overlap as well as separate payments going to more
than one school.
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on
May 7, 2007, VA noted that, ``the increased amount of benefits payable
at varying levels for different institutions would make administration
of this program cumbersome. The requirement that the benefit be paid at
the beginning of the term would further complicate administration and
would tax existing VA resources.''
The new benefit program requires VA to determine maximum tuition
and fee rates for each State before the beginning of each academic
year. Schools do not typically set their tuition and fee rates until
State support is determined for the academic year. Many States did not
pass their operating budgets until late July/early August.
Correspondingly, institutions could not set tuition and fee rates until
late August. Delays in determining the 2009-2010 maximum tuition and
fee rates resulted in delayed processing of payments for students
attending school in those States.
Current Status
Since May 1, 2009, we have received over 937,000 claims for
education benefits under all education programs and have processed
approximately 794,000 claims. Enrollment certifications for
approximately 30,000 students are currently pending under the Post-9/11
GI Bill. Processing actions under our education programs increased by
180,000 over the same period last year, due in significant part to the
large number of requests for certificates of eligibility for the Post-
9/11 GI Bill. The net increase in enrolled students is approximately
70,000.
In fiscal year 2008, the average time to process all education
claims was at a 5-year low; we averaged 19 days for original claims and
10 days for enrollment certifications. This fiscal year, our average
processing time has risen to 26 days for original applications and 13
days for enrollment certifications. Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill,
however, original applications are taking an average of 35 days to
process.
Workload Trends
VA anticipated a majority of students would transfer from the
Montgomery GI Bill--Active Duty (MGIB-AD) and the Reserve Educational
Assistance Program (REAP) to the new Post-9/11 GI Bill by the beginning
of the fall 2009 enrollment period; however, this has not happened.
Instead, we have seen only a slight decrease in the number of claims
received under MGIB-AD and REAP compared to the same time last year. An
original claim for education benefits takes more time to process
because it requires an eligibility determination before benefits can be
paid. At this time last year, only 15 percent of the claims received
during the fall enrollment period were original claims. Between May and
September of this fiscal year, 100 percent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
claims required an original entitlement determination. We also expected
the majority of Veterans applying for a certificate of eligibility for
the Post-9/11 GI Bill would start school during the fall enrollment
period. Instead, many applied for the new program to receive an
eligibility determination, but did not enroll in school this fall. This
is also true for the new transferability provisions under the Post-9/11
GI Bill. The Department of Defense (DoD) has received 66,000
applications to transfer entitlement and has approved 52,000. Of those,
VA has received only 22,000 applications from spouses and dependents to
use this benefit for the current academic year.
Meeting the Challenge Together
On May 7, 2008, VA testified before the Senate Committee on
Veterans' Affairs that, ``VA does not now have a payment system or the
appropriate number of trained personnel to administer the program . .
.it would take approximately 24 months to deploy a new payment system''
to support the proposed law. Congress heard our concerns and responded
through providing significant funding for VA to hire 530 term employees
in December 2008 to address the anticipated increase in claims under
the Post-9/11 GI Bill. When we determined we would have limited IT
capability for the interim processing solution, we hired an additional
230 term employees utilizing the additional funding provided by
Congress under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
VA is using all available resources to deliver education benefits
to our Veterans. VA rehired nine retired claims examiners and
redirected 70 Regional Processing Office (RPO) employees to provide
additional claims processing support. We implemented policies to
streamline the entire claims process based on case reviews identifying
duplication of efforts and redundant or unneeded development. We also
implemented a mandatory overtime policy at all of our RPOs, requiring
three additional days per pay period per person for claims processing.
While we are actively taking all possible steps to reduce the time to
process and pay an education claim, we recognize that we are not timely
serving all of our Veterans. In response, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs authorized issuance of advance payments to Veterans enrolled in
school who have not received their benefits. On October 2, 2009, VA
began issuing advance education payments to Veterans, in amounts up to
$3,000, at our 57 Regional Offices and through an online portal at
va.gov. Advance payments are being made to Veterans in all of our
education programs. In the first week, VA made advance payments to over
41,000 Veterans totaling approximately $120 million. Payments made
under this special provision will be recouped from Veterans' future
benefits.
Stakeholders
Numerous initiatives were undertaken to better serve and inform our
stakeholders. VA increased efforts to more widely disseminate
information, and to also improve the quality of information
communicated.
The Education Call Center (ECC) is an important resource for
Veterans to receive information about their education benefits. To meet
the increased call volume, VA hired and redirected a total of 57 term
personnel to the ECC, expanded phone hours, and added 72 additional
phone lines.
VA also increased correspondence with the higher education
community. We directed our Education Liaison Officers to personally
contact certifying officials at schools with 300 or more Veteran
students to answer any questions they had regarding certifying
Veterans' enrollments or the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. They also reminded
the schools that it is not necessary to wait for the student's
certificate of eligibility before certifying the student's enrollment.
This has never been a VA requirement in any VA education program, and
the same applies to the Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA also sent letters to
schools providing a status on the state of claims processing and
payments. More than 6,000 schools were provided supplemental
information on the Yellow Ribbon Program. Over 159 schools were
contacted directly to address questions or concerns about the program.
It has also been a priority to involve the higher education
community in the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA worked
with the American Council on Education (ACE) to evaluate the next steps
to be taken and to keep open an important line of communication with
the education community.
Conclusion
VA has hired and trained 720 new employees; built over 55,900
square feet of office space; drafted and published 359 pages of new
regulations; conducted over 100 outreach and training events; entered
into over 3,400 Yellow Ribbon agreements with 1,165 schools; modified
10 existing IT systems; and developed a new interim system for the
Post-9/11 GI Bill. Our Education employees continue to work tirelessly
to deliver benefits to all of our Veterans attending school this fall.
We are proud of the accomplishments of our employees within the short
time since the bill was enacted.
We recognize much work remains in order for us to achieve our goal
of timely delivery of education benefits to all Veterans enrolled in
the Post-9/11 GI Bill and our other education programs, and we remain
focused on achievement of our goal. VA will continue to place the needs
of Veterans first as we overcome the current challenges in providing
education benefits.
VA looks forward to engaging in a dialog with Congress and our
stakeholders to improve administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Thank
you for your continued support throughout this effort.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased
to answer any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may
have.
Statement of Patrick Campbell, Chief Legislative Counsel,
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Subcommittee,
on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), thank you
for the opportunity to submit written testimony for this hearing on the
status of implementing the Post-9/11 GI Bill. From legislative drafting
to cutting tuition checks, IAVA has been closely monitoring and
engaging in the evolution of this new benefit. IAVA strongly believes
that the Post-9/11 GI Bill will help chart the course of the next great
generation if implemented effectively.
We commend the VA's decision to issue emergency checks to veterans
who were desperately awaiting their education benefits. However, these
checks are merely a stopgap measure. The VA and Congress must address
the underlying problems with processing of Post-9/11 GI Bill claims
before another round of delayed checks leave veterans in the lurch.
IAVA recommends the following short-term and long-term fixes to address
these issues:
Immediately reassess their processing capacity and make a
realistic recommendation to Congress for additional staff.
Enlist the help of VSO's and schools to aggressively
promote this generous new benefit and establish realistic expectations
among veterans.
Ensure that the long-term automated solution is capable
of incorporating upcoming changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Streamline and simplify the Post-9/11 GI Bill to reduce
confusion and hasten processing times.
How serious is the check backlog?
Over 30,000 veterans, nearly half of all Post-9/11 GI Bill users,
are still waiting for their education benefits due to no fault of their
own. These veterans were promised that the new GI Bill would pay their
tuition and fees charges up front. ``You go to school and the VA will
pick up the tab'' has been promised to millions of veterans as one of
the key components of this new GI Bill. Now these veterans are relying
on the patience and gratitude of their schools and universities to
defer their tuition payments. Sadly, some veterans have been told that
their school will not grant veterans ``any special treatment'' (e.g.,
deferred tuition) and they were forced to pay out of pocket or risk
being kicked out of their classes.
These same thirty thousand students were promised a healthy living
allowance, allowing them to make school their top priority. Most
veterans did not know that living allowance checks were paid at the end
of each month. When they learned this hard fact they were forced to
borrow and scrimp to cover food and rent. Veterans are resourceful and
many could cover a month's living expenses if they could be assured
their checks would come at the end of the month. Unfortunately, when
these veterans called the GI Bill hotline they were put on hold upward
of an hour and often greeted with phone message saying benefits were
being delayed 6-8 weeks. Veterans who did get through were told to call
back in a month or so to check on their claim. For many this was a
month longer than they could wait.
Not knowing how you can afford your next meal or whether you can
afford to buy your textbooks before midterm exams is an serious and
disruptive pressure to place on any student. Veterans are now being
forced to wrestle with the VA and their schools just to get by, when
many veterans just want to be normal students and focus on their
education. These GI Bill check delays frustrate the primary purpose of
GI Bill benefits: a meaningful opportunity for returning veterans to
readjust to civilian life and build a sound economic future (The
Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944'').
Why do we have a backlog?
Last year the average processing time for Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB)
claims was 14-17 days. Currently the VA is stating the average
processing time for a Post-9/11 GI Bill claim is 35 calendar days. The
VA often writes a check to a veteran, on average, 35 days after the
veteran and their school complete their paperwork. Unfortunately, the
VA rarely receives completed paperwork from the schools at the
beginning of each academic term; a veteran starting classes on
September 1st may not receive their first check until the end of
October or early November.
Processing of a Post-9/11 GI Bill claim is a lengthy and laborious
two-step process. The first step is to determine the veteran's
eligibility for the benefit. The processor must determine:
1. If the veteran qualifies for the benefit?
2. The percentage of benefits the veteran qualify for?
3. How many months of remaining benefits are left?
4. Eligible for enlistment kickers or college fund?
Claims processors review veterans' claims for benefits using three
separate sources of information to determine the length of qualifying
service: the veteran's DD214 and DoD and VA Databases. Ironically,
according to claim processors, the VA database is the least reliable
source of information. Collected information is then inserted into a
number of separate forms that calculate each part of the benefit. The
processor then needs to ``print screen'' each form and save it to the
veteran's file. This is the only way to track how that particular
veteran's benefit was determined. After an hour of manual processing
the veteran is issued a certificate of eligibility (CoE).
The second step requires that schools certify the veteran's
enrollment to the VA. A low paid school official certifies to the VA
that:
1. The veteran is enrolled at their school and that the student is
attending at least one class.
2. Which classes the veteran is taking (name and number of units).
If a veteran adds or drops a class the certifying official must
immediately notify the VA of any changes.
3. Education goal of the veteran (certificate or degree).
4. Tuition and fee charges.
5. Yellow Ribbon Scholarships or Waivers.
These certifications are filed electronically to the VA for review
via a system called VA ONCE. The VA claims processor then reviews each
of the school's certifications and begins determining the appropriate
tuition and fee payments, yellow ribbon payments, living allowance
rates, and the book stipend. These calculations take another hour to
process.
To complete all required steps take 2 hours per Post-9/11 GI Bill
claim. The VA recently hired 760 new claims processors to handle the
increased workload. IAVA believes the VA grossly underestimated the
time needed to process each Post-9/11 claim and did not adequately hire
enough staff to process claims. We are concerned that many of these new
claims processors have not yet been fully trained and therefore are not
authorized to process claims individually, requiring twice the
workforce to process one claim.
Where are we now?
Over the past few weeks the VA has released some confusing numbers
regarding their status of processing GI Bill checks. Although the VA
will undoubtedly be releasing the most recent numbers, we would like to
explain what those numbers actually mean to veterans. As of October
6th:
Step One: Eligibility
Approximately 290,000 veterans have requested a
Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the VA
Approximately 205,000 (71 percent) veterans have received
a CoE from the VA
Step Two: Enrollment
64,000 schools have submitted a certification of
enrollment to the VA for veterans
34,000 (53 percent) veterans have received payments from
the VA
According to the VA, each day they are still receiving an
additional 2,000 enrollment certifications from schools and are
processing 3,000 backlogged enrollment certifications. On average that
means that the VA is processing 1,000 more claims then they are
receiving. With a current backlog of 30,000 veterans awaiting checks,
the VA will likely close this gap in a little over a month.
How did the VA respond to the delays?
The VA acted boldly when they agreed to issue emergency $3,000
checks to veterans awaiting their GI Bill payments. In just 1 week the
VA issued more emergency checks (36,161) than Post-9/11 benefits that
they had completely processed during the past 5 months (34,000 veterans
had received checks). The VA notified VSOs of their emergency plan and
we responded in force, leveraging our varied strengths. The VFW and
American Legion enlisted local posts to drive veterans to their closest
regional offices and IAVA notified tens of thousands of Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans through a mass E-mail and Web video. We continue
to update veterans and schools through our well trafficked
newgibill.org.
The VA publishes almost daily workload reports and welcomes
feedback. When banks put holds on the handwritten checks from the VA,
the VA quickly addressed the problem by working with several banks to
cash these check's immediately. The VA also issued letters to banks
verifying the checks authenticity. This past weekend the VA reached out
to veterans soliciting their feedback and asked VSOs to tell our
veterans that these calls were coming. Because of this joint effort,
IAVA recently received the following e-mail from a school official:
I have a student who got out of the Army after 4 years. He has
no family here nor did he have a place to live. He has been in
a shelter for the last month. When you guys told me via your
Web site about this 3000 check advance I had to see if he could
get it a week before school. The VA just gave him the check as
well as money to get home (he had walked to the VA--to say the
least it is a few miles). This is a tribute to what you guys
have done as well as the VA being able to come through for our
vets. The VA also wrote a letter for another student stating
that he was getting $1531 a month so that he could get an
apartment.
IAVA believes that this stage of the VA's response to the backlog
should serve as a model for future problem solving efforts. The VA:
Publically acknowledged the problem;
Swiftly implemented a bold short-term solution;
Enlisted the help of veteran service organizations; and
Quickly solicited and nimbly responded to veterans'
feedback.
IAVA is grateful to the VA for impressive effort to stand up this
type of emergency program. We look forward to working with the VA on
the last stage of any problem solving effort, developing a long-term
solution.
Sadly, this commendable effort was not was the VA's first response
to the backlog crisis. Initially the VA publically and privately
deflected responsibility on the backlog on two key points that IAVA
feels still need to be addressed. The VA has claimed that delays in
submitting enrollment certifications by schools have contributed to the
backlog. IAVA believes schools that fail to submit timely enrollment
certificates ensure that their veterans will receive delayed checks.
Schools that have not yet submitted their paperwork must do so
immediately. However, these delayed enrollment certifications did not
create the backlog. In fact they spread out the stream of applications
coming into the VA, reducing the average processing time for each
claim. If every enrollment certification had been submitted on the
first day of school the VA would have been buried under all the
paperwork and would be no further ahead in cutting checks.
IAVA has received a number of complaints from school officials
stating that the VA substantially changed the certifying process well
after these officials had received their training and began certifying
enrollments. Their specific complaint focused on VA guidance that
required schools, that offer State grants, to wait to certify tuition
and fee amounts until the State grants had been finalized. Last minute
changes to the procedures and regulations have made schools nervous
about certifying enrollments too early in the process. Realistically,
most schools will not certify enrollments until at least after the
first week of classes. This is because, if a school certified a veteran
who does not show up to school the school is responsible for refunding
tuition and fees payments to the VA. Additionally, if a veteran adds or
drops a class after the enrollment certification is submitted,
additional paperwork is required. These changes may place the veteran
in an overpayment situation resulting in a bill from the VA. Many
schools wait until the add/drop period is completed to reduce their
paperwork and ensure veterans aren't receiving bills from the VA.
Delayed certifications is an issue that must be addressed for future
academic terms, but they are not responsible for the current claims
backlog.
Second, the VA did a poor job managing veterans' expectations by
failing to communicate critical information in a clear and concise
manner. In fact, the VA blamed veterans' lack of knowledge of when
their checks should be arriving and the public's misconception of how
long it takes to process claims for a disproportionate ``perception''
of a backlog. Many veterans, new to the GI Bill, reasonably did not
know that monthly living allowance payments are paid in arrears, at the
end of the month. IAVA believes that establishing realistic
expectations for when benefits will be paid and how much those benefits
will be is the responsibility of the VA and any VSO talking about this
new GI Bill. However,
Additionally, IAVA acknowledges that GI Bill claims are seasonal
and it is natural that the VA's processing time slows down during the
Fall when veterans apply for general eligibility and schools submit
enrollment certifications. However, IAVA believes that an average 35
days processing time is more than a natural slow down and is wholly
unacceptable regardless of when it occurs because it places an undue
burden on our veterans.
What are the long-term issues that need to be addressed?
In truth, the VA and veterans across the country dodged a bullet
with the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The VA had initially projected upward of
400,000 veterans seeking benefits under this great new program. Less
than a quarter of that projected population began going to school this
year. This was the result of general confusion and the VA's decision to
grant veterans, who had begun using Chapter 30 (MGIB) benefits, an
additional 12 months of benefits under the new GI Bill. However, they
could only take advantage of the New GI Bill after they had exhausted
their entire MGIB benefits. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of
veterans continuing to use their MGIB benefits. They did not transfer
over to the new GI Bill and did not add additional load to the
system.\1\ If all the projected veterans had applied for their Post-9/
11 benefits and given the VA's inability to process current claims
quickly, IAVA believes that the wheels would have fallen off of the
truck.
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\1\ In FY 2008 the VA issued 461,259 veterans education benefits.
Already this year alone the VA is poised to pay 551,923 veterans
education benefits, only 10 percent of which are Post-9/11 GI Bill
users.
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As stated before, IAVA does not believe that the VA hired enough
claims processors to handle the new GI Bill. The VA needs to
immediately reassess their processing capacity and make a realistic
recommendation to Congress for additional staff. Mandatory overtime is
not a sustainable solution to ensuring GI Bill checks get out the door
on time. The VA must also finish training all their claims processors
in order to maximize the work accomplished from their current
processing staff.
The VA also needs to aggressively outreach to and educate veterans
on this new program to promote the generous new benefits and establish
realistic expectations. While the VA has done an excellent job
conducting outreach with the emergency checks, the VA continues to rely
on a passive ``pull'' presence on the web to explain a complicated and
lucrative new benefit program overall. The VA does not have the
internal capacity to mount the large-scale outreach campaign required
for a program of this magnitude. I have personally witnessed Keith
Wilson crisscrossing this country attending countless GI Bill forums
trying to spread the word. There are not just not enough people within
the VA with Keith Wilson's ability to tell the GI Bill story. Even the
GI Bill Call Center, the ``one stop shop'' the VA has been directing
all veterans with GI Bill question to, has been overrun by veterans'
calls. Wait times can be over 45 minutes because half of the operators
were pulled to help process claims. The VA needs what the military
calls a force multiplier, a plan to teach others to spread the word and
answer questions. This can be accomplished by enlisting veteran service
organizations, schools, and a cadre of trained GI Bill experts to
multiply the number of people pushing out good information.
In the long term the VA continues to implement their plan to
automate the processing of Post-9/11 GI Bill claims by January 2010.
However, the VA's most recent experience should raise some red flags.
The new GI Bill rules keep changing and they will likely continue to
change for the foreseeable future any automated system must be fluid
enough to manage these changes. While Congress has only changed the
Post-9/11 GI Bill once since its passage (the MSGT Fry Scholarship
program), the VA has issued a steady stream of dramatic changes since
the final regulations have been published in January. For example they
created separate tuition and fees caps; granted an additional 12 months
of benefits to MGIB users; changed transferability requirements and
altered tuition/fee caps well after the August 1st deadline.
Unfortunately, the contract for the development of this new automated
system is predicated on a Post-9/11 GI Bill that remains static and
unchanged over an academic year. IAVA is deeply concerned that the VA's
contract to automate these claims does not offer the flexibility
required to handle necessary upgrades to the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
At a macro level, there is general agreement that there are too
many GI Bill benefit programs (Chapters 30, 1606, 1607 and 33) to be
effectively administered by the VA or understood by veterans. IAVA
concurs with other VSOs that there should be one ``Total Force'' GI
Bill and we believe that it should modeled on a streamlined version of
the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This streamlined new GI Bill should include all
veterans who were excluded under the new GI Bill (Full-time National
Guard servicemembers and Vocational/OJT/Apprenticeship students). We
also believe the tuition and fees portion of the benefit has become
thoroughly confusing and unwieldy to implement and therefore needs to
be simplified. Last, distance learners should not be discriminated
against by denying them a living allowance. We believe that the Post-9/
11 GI Bill, if effectively implemented, will change history and we
continue to reap benefits for generations to come.
Statement of Hon. Ron Klein, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Florida
Mr. Chairman, thank you for calling this important hearing. I am
here today to bring attention to the experiences that the veterans of
south Florida have had in the recent implementation of the 21st century
GI Bill.
Let me say at the outset that I am grateful that Congress passed
this legislation, and I was proud to be a sponsor and a strong
supporter. I strongly believe that those who put on the uniform deserve
the best benefits when they return--and that includes a quality
education. The GI Bill for the 21st century will make our veterans an
integral part of our economic recovery by providing a new generation
with the education they need to succeed.
In July, I sponsored a college fair at Broward College in my
district for veterans who had recently returned from Iraq and
Afghanistan. I wanted to ensure that they knew about the benefits that
they would receive and make sure that they were prepared to take
advantage of them.
However, some constituents found that benefits were not easily
processed. One constituent from Boca Raton, Florida has already paid
for his books out of pocket. The college of his choice gave him an
extension for tuition payments until November, but cannot register for
next semester's classes, making it more difficult for him to get the
required credits for graduation.
Another constituent from Coconut Creek Florida filed his tuition
benefits paperwork in July and was told that processing could take 8
weeks. He began attending classes in August, but unable to pay for his
tuition, he worries when his check will come.
I am grateful that Secretary Shinseki and the staff at the
Department of Veterans Affairs moved quickly to address these issues
once the problem became apparent. Their swift action was certainly an
important message to send to our veterans. But, this process should not
require the intervention of a Member of Congress.
Mr. Chairman, it was not easy for these veterans to earn these
benefits; they endured the horrible scars of war. But, it should be
easy to access these benefits. The 21st century GI Bill is an
extraordinary opportunity for veterans to return to civilian life and
follow their dreams. I look forward to working with you Mr. Chairman,
and the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure that veterans are paid
in a timely manner and that we fulfill the promise that we made to our
Nation's heroes.
Statement of Pennsylvania Association of Private School Administrators
As the Committee knows, the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) created
an additional education benefit for student veterans on August 1, 2009.
The new benefit offers a total of 36 months of education benefits, the
equivalent of four academic years.
However, the new GI Bill is not fair. Not all Veterans can choose
the type of education they want and need. Students attending non-degree
post-secondary education institutions including public vo-techs, some
career schools, certain nursing schools and apprenticeship programs are
not eligible for enhanced GI Bill benefits.
On return to civilian life, many returning servicemembers are
interested in quickly hitting the ground running. Short-term
certificate and diploma programs can be a critical part of a successful
transition. But if they are not offered at a degree granting school,
then programs in truck driving, aviation maintenance and gunsmithing,
skills many vets may naturally want to enhance, are not eligible under
the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Other ineligible programs might include HVAC,
construction trades, tool and die training and allied medical programs
such as medical assisting, EMT and para-medical. Even some business
training programs could be excluded.
In addition, the current structure requires the serviceman or woman
to make a decision about whether to be in traditional Montgomery GI
Bill (Chapter 30) or Chapter 33, which is confusing to many of them, at
a time when they are in a major transition.
A growing number of veterans groups have recently stepped forward
to challenge the exclusion of non-degree granting institutions from the
Post-9/11 GI Bill. Non-degree institutions and apprenticeship programs
have always been included in the traditional Montgomery GI Bill
(Chapter 30) so why should Chapter 33 be different? After a veteran has
bravely served their country, they should be allowed to pursue their
next career at the school of their choice.
The Pennsylvania Association of Private School Administrators
represents the more than 320 private career colleges and schools in the
Commonwealth. PAPSA is the only association representing all for-profit
colleges and schools in Pennsylvania. With over 150 school members,
PAPSA is the unified voice of quality career school education.
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Washington, DC.
October 19, 2009
Mr. Keith M. Wilson
Director, Office of Education Service
Veterans Benefits Administration
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20420
Dear Keith:
I would like to request your response to the enclosed questions for
the record and deliverable I am submitting in reference to our House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
hearing on VA Status Report on Post-9/11 GI Bill on October 15, 2009.
Please answer the enclosed hearing questions by no later than Monday,
November 30, 2009.
In an effort to reduce printing costs, the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs, in cooperation with the Joint Committee on Printing, is
implementing some formatting changes for material for all Full
Committee and Subcommittee hearings. Therefore, it would be appreciated
if you could provide your answers consecutively on letter size paper,
single-spaced. In addition, please restate the question in its entirety
before the answer.
Due to the delay in receiving mail, please provide your response to
Ms. Orfa Torres by fax at (202) 225-2034. If you have any questions,
please call (202) 226-4150.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Chairwoman
JL/ot
__________
Questions for the Record
Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
VA Status Report on Post-9/11 GI Bill
October 15, 2009
Question 1: According to your testimony, many States determined
their operating budgets in July/August which meant institutions
determined their tuition and fees until late August. Did the
institutions delay in establishing their tuition and fees have a
significant effect on the VA's distribution of checks?
Response: Since the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) could not
establish the highest in-State undergraduate tuition and fee rates for
the Post-9/11 GI Bill until public institutions reported their rates,
there was a delay in distributing checks to students at institutions in
those States. VA could not begin processing any claims until we had
valid tuition and fee rates established for the 2009-2010 academic
year.
Question 2: It currently takes 1\1/2\ hours to process an original
claim. How can we help the VA improve or expedite the processing time?
Response: VA looks forward to discussing ways to improve the
administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill with Congress and appreciated
being able to participate in the roundtable discussion on Veterans'
educational issues with the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, on December 3, 2009. However, the
interim IT solution or the long-term solution will be deployed June 30,
2010, which will provide automated support for many of the activities
involved in the 1\1/2\ hour processing time.
Question 3: Does VA have a media campaign to educate veterans and
their dependents about the Post-9/11 GI Bill?
Response: VA has an extensive communication strategy and plan that
was implemented in June 2008. In accordance with the plan, VA used a
multilayered, multiple channel approach to educate both Veterans and
dependents about the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. This included traditional
outreach mechanisms such as direct mailings, pamphlets and brochures,
as well as new media, including web postings and social networking. As
part of that plan, in September 2009 VA contracted American Independent
Media, a professional marketing firm, to develop a media campaign that
will use print, electronic, and news media to reach out to Veterans and
their dependents. This contract includes a redesign of the GI Bill Web
site. The campaign is scheduled to launch before the 2010 fall
enrollment period.
Question 4: Has VA considered asking VSOs for assistance in
disseminating information about the GI Bill?
Response: VA recognizes that VSOs are a vital stakeholder and serve
as a direct channel to our Veterans, and they are already assisting in
disseminating information about the GI Bill. VA personnel have traveled
to many VSO conferences around the country to speak about the Post-9/11
GI Bill. VA also partnered with American Legion to prepare an
informational video on the Post-9/11 GI Bill. As a result, more
Veterans are aware of these benefits.
Question 5: What roles are the State Approving Agencies playing in
helping VA educate veterans and schools?
Response: The fiscal year (FY) 2009 State Approving Agency (SAA)
contracts include requirements to support the Post-9/11 GI Bill. While
the role of the SAAs generally remains the same, the contract requires
SAAs to perform duties that support all other VA education programs in
addition to the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
The SAAs have expanded outreach efforts to ensure awareness of the
Post-9/11 GI Bill, and VA recently utilized the SAAs to verify their
States' highest in-state public school tuition and fee rates for the
2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic years to support the Post-9/11 GI
Bill.
VA requested that SAAs complete an outreach questionnaire in April
2009 on specific efforts they were conducting related to the Post-9/11
GI Bill. The questionnaire responses and the outreach visit reports
indicate SAAs are performing specific outreach for the Post-9/11 GI
Bill. Some examples are: a 6-week radio campaign that highlighted the
Post-9/11 GI Bill; letters regarding the Post-9/11 GI Bill provided at
Transition Assistance Program (TAP) briefings; newsletters; Governor's
letters to recently discharged Veterans; articles in local
publications; presentations on the Post-9/11 GI Bill at school
conferences, job fairs and Veterans and military resource fairs; and
presentations to military and Veterans groups.
Question 6: Secretary Shinseki mentioned an emergency run-through
of its information technology system in January 2010, in preparation of
the spring 2010 term. Can you provide us more information on this?
Response: The development of the long-term information technology
processing solution is on schedule. At this time, VA does not have a
scheduled emergency run-through of the IT system. During his testimony,
Secretary Shinseki indicated VA would approve more emergency checks
during the spring enrollment period should the situation warrant it. He
referred to this future effort as an ``emergency exercise.''
Question 7: According to the Secretary's recent full Committee
testimony, once phase three is established the current backlog will be
cleared out. When do you expect for the backlog to be cleared out?
Response: Since the education workload is seasonal, VA anticipates
another influx of claims during the spring enrollment period,
particularly with the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA took aggressive action
to eliminate the backlog of fall enrollments and is using all available
resources to ensure Veterans receive their education benefits for the
spring terms accurately and on time. Over 60,000 claims for the spring
term have already been processed. In 2010, we will begin incremental
deployment of a more robust IT system that will make the benefits-
delivery process simpler and more efficient.
Question 8: In your written testimony you state that phase three of
the interim solution was scheduled for deployment in September 2009,
due to the difficulty in integrating multiple actions such as amending
awards and overlapping terms, led to rescheduling phase three
deployment for November 2009. How will this affect the timely
distribution of checks?
Response: The delay in deployment of phase three of the interim
solution caused a delay in issuing payment on amended awards and
overlapping terms. These types of awards can now be completed with the
same timeliness as all others. However, since the interim solution will
not materially improve the speed of processing, the overall effect of
deploying phase three on timely distribution of checks will be
moderate. VA expects to begin seeing significant improvements in
timeliness with the deployment of the long-term solution in June 2010,
with plans to reduce the average days to complete original education
claims to 18 days by the end of FY 2011.
Question 9: The Committee has received calls from frustrated
Veterans unable to reach a VA official when calling for answers to
their pending education claims. In your testimony you mentioned that
the VA hired and redirected a total of 57 term personnel to the
Education Call Center (ECC).
a. How long is the average wait time to connect? What is the
dropoff percentage rate?
b. How long will you have these resources available and will you
need additional resources from Congress?
c. You mentioned that VA has expanded its phone hours, what are
your expanded phone hours?
d. What is the total number of operators that are currently
manning the GI Bill Call Center?
Response: In September 2009, the average wait time was 5 minutes,
46 seconds. In October 2009, the average wait time was 7 minutes, 7
seconds. The abandoned call rate was 19.3 percent in September 2009,
and 23.2 percent in October 2009.
Term personnel can be extended up to 4 years. We are committed to
providing the best possible service to our Veterans and will ensure
appropriate resources are requested and allocated to meet this
challenge.
VA currently has 190 employees at the ECC answering phones Monday
through Wednesday, 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, Central Standard Time. As we
receive the anticipated influx of spring enrollments, the Call Center
employees will temporarily perform claims processing tasks on Thursdays
and Fridays to help ensure timely delivery of benefits for the upcoming
terms.
Question 10: On Wednesday's full Committee Hearing, we heard from
several Members proposing legislative fixes to make your job easier in
the future. Do you have a list of legislative fixes you recommend this
Subcommittee consider in the near-term and others you would like for us
to consider as we seek to streamline all education benefits?
Response: VA looks forward to discussions with Congress on ways to
improve the administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. We do not
recommend the Subcommittee consider any legislative fixes in the near
term due to the limitations in our short-term initiative to process
claims. The challenge for future legislative fixes is making sure that
they do not disrupt our ability to pursue timely rollout of the long-
term processing solution.