AACRAO, along with 16 other higher education associations, sent a letter this week to the U.S. House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees, urging lawmakers to make technical corrections to the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement (Isakson Roe) Act and the Training in High-demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment Act (THRIVE Act).
The Isakson Roe and THRIVE Acts, which were enacted earlier this year and effective August 1, provide important protections for student veterans to help ensure that they can use their GI Bill benefits to complete a quality postsecondary education. However, the groups cited concerns regarding several provisions that could create unintended consequences for veterans and institutions.
"While we support the goals of these important pieces of legislation . . . we respectfully ask you and your committees to craft a package of technical corrections to address these concerns, and work to move this legislation quickly through to passage," the letter states.
More specifically, the associations seek technical corrections to address unintended consequences in four areas:
- the consumer information requirements of section 1018;
- the incentive compensation requirements and their applicability to the recruitment of foreign students abroad;
- the requirement of institutions with flat tuitions and fee structures to certify the same information to VA twice; and
- the requirement that institutions must be eligible and participating in Title IV in order to be eligible for GI bill benefits, which affects a handful of institutions who are eligible, but choose not to participate.
AACRAO and other higher education groups previously shared these concerns with committee staff, including in July in advance of a House Veterans Affairs Committee oversight hearing on implementation of the law.
"Now that these provisions have taken effect August 1, we write again to urge you to quickly move forward on technical amendments that will address these concerns while maintaining the safeguards for veterans and taxpayer investment that Congress intended in the underlying legislation," the groups stated in the letter.
Related Link
Letter to House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees on Isakson Roe Technical Corrections
https://www.aacrao.org/docs/default-source/statements-and-letters/letter-to-va-committees-on-isakson-roe-technical-corrections-final.pdf?sfvrsn=b15efeba_1