Veterans & Service Members

AACRAO recognizes and honors the sacrifices these men and women have made and its members are proud to assist them and meet their educational needs. Veterans and students on active military duty and their families face special circumstances and challenges.

Changes in federal statute and executive actions have greatly promoted the expansion of services toward veterans and their families. Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was passed in 2009, close to 1 million veterans, service members, and eligible dependents have taken advantage of the educational benefits available to them. With the passage of more recent legislation, such as the Forever GI Bill in 2017 and the Isakson Roe and THRIVE Acts in 2021, there will be significant changes to military education benefits over the coming years.

Capitol

Latest Actions

AACRAO recently hosted a webinar to discuss the implementation of veteran legislation passed in December 2020, also known as the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act. This law will have a transformative effect on the mission of Education Service to provide ready access to, and timely and accurate delivery of, education benefits to Veterans, Service members, and their families, as well as further enable the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to empower GI Bill beneficiaries to achieve their vocational and career goals.

Other recent legislation introduced in both the House and Senate include important provisions to help ensure veterans can continue to receive their education benefits as well as technical corrections to the legislation passed last year.

UPDATES

DoD Announces Data-Sharing Agreement to Help Servicemembers on Student Loans

Apr 24, 2019, 18:29 PM
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Summary : New policy will make it easier for military servicemembers serving in war zones to eliminate interest on their federal student loans.
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The U.S. Department of Defense this week unveiled a new data-sharing agreement with the Education Department that aims to help servicemembers serving in war zones with a student loan benefit, Politico reported. The new policy would allow the agencies to automatically determine which servicemembers qualify to eliminate interest on their student loans during combat service.


Congress created the no-interest accrual benefit in 2008, but relatively few student loan borrowers have actually received it. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau noted the issue in 2015, estimating that servicemembers who were eligible for the zero percent interest rate had paid more than $100 million in unnecessary interest charges.


The agreement will enable the Defense and Education departments to compare information on military borrowers in existing government databases and automatically identify qualified individuals.


U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who previously included a directive to the Pentagon on the issue in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, praised the move as a way to help servicemembers overcome "bureaucratic red tape" in making sure they receive the benefits they are owed, reported Politico.


Related Link

Federal Register

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-04-16/pdf/2019-07531.pdf

Politico

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2019/04/19/pentagon-makes-moves-on-student-loan-benefit-for-servicemembers-426763

Michelle Mott
Categories :
  • Advocacy
  • Financial Aid and FAFSA
  • Veterans and Service Members
Tags :
  • education department
  • Federal relations
  • federal student loans
  • interest
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