The House Veterans' Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity announced plans to hold an oversight hearing on information technology (IT)-related issues that led to Post-9/11 GI Bill payment delays.
The U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) will discuss plans for implementing the remaining sections of H.R. 3212, the Harry W. Colmery Educational Assistance Act of 2017—also known as the "Forever GI Bill"—as well as efforts to improve IT functionalities to handle new mandates under the law. The subcommittee is expected to review IT failures at the VA that led to students and schools receiving the wrong payments and associated processing delays for tuition, fees, and the monthly housing allowance. It will also discuss how the VA is informing beneficiaries of these delays, as well as training department staff to disseminate the proper information about the Forever GI Bill.
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Phil Roe (R-TN) said in a press release that it is of "great concern" to him that there continues to be "excessive GI Bill payment delays and that VA remains unable to properly implement the necessary changes to the system that were outlined in the Forever GI Bill."
"Student veterans should not have to face these problems in order to receive their earned benefits. It is of utmost importance that we hold this oversight hearing to get to the bottom this problem and ensure that VA is working to swiftly correct these errors," Roe stated.
The subcommittee hearing will be held on November 14, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.
Related Links
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Press Release
https://veterans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2257