[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
AN UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FOREVER GI BILL: IS VA READY FOR
AUGUST 1ST?
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
of the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-71
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
35-809 WASHINGTON : 2019
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee, Chairman
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice- TIM WALZ, Minnesota, Ranking
Chairman Member
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado MARK TAKANO, California
BILL FLORES, Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
Samoa BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
MIKE BOST, Illinois KATHLEEN RICE, New York
BRUCE POLIQUIN, Maine J. LUIS CORREA, California
NEAL DUNN, Florida CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut
CLAY HIGGINS, Louisiana SCOTT PETERS, California
JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
JIM BANKS, Indiana
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, Puerto
Rico
BRIAN MAST, Florida
Jon Towers, Staff Director
Ray Kelley, Democratic Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
JODEY ARRINGTON, Texas, Chairman
GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida BETO O'ROURKE, Texas, Ranking
BILL FLORES, Texas Member
JIM BANKS, Indiana MARK TAKANO, California
BRIAN MAST, Florida LUIS CORREA, California
KATHLEEN RICE, New York
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
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Page
An Update On The Implementation Of The Forever GI Bill: Is VA
Ready For August 1st?.......................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Honorable Jodey Arrington, Chairman.............................. 1
Honorable Beto O'Rourke, Ranking Member.......................... 2
WITNESSES
MG Robert M. Worley II USAF (Ret.), Director, Education Service,
Veterans Benefit Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs........................................................ 3
Prepared Statement........................................... 19
Accompanied by:
Mrs. Charmain Bogue, Deputy Director, Education Service,
Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs
Mr. Lloyd Thrower, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Account
Manager, Benefits Portfolio, Office of Information &
Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Daniel McCune, Executive Director, Enterprise Portfolio
Management Division,Office of Information and Technology,
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
AN UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FOREVER GI BILL: IS VA READY FOR
AUGUST 1ST?
----------
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:03 p.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Jodey Arrington
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Arrington, Roe, Russell, O'Rourke,
Takano, and Correa.
OPENING STATEMENT OF JODEY ARRINGTON, CHAIRMAN
Mr. Arrington. Trying to get some order up here on the dais
with my colleagues. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to
the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. An Update on the
Implementation of the Forever GI Bill, question: Is the VA
ready for August 1st?
The implementation of the new GI Bill is about to go live,
and we want to make sure that we can go live with great
confidence in a seamless transition. And I want to thank
everybody again for joining us today. And this is an oversight
hearing on the implementation of HR3218. To be technical, the
Harry W. Colmery Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2017,
also known as the Forever GI Bill.
This GI Bill was passed on a bipartisan fashion and then
was signed into law by President Trump August 16, 2017. This
was the first major improvement to the GI Bill since 2011, and
encompassed over 30 provisions brought forth by many Members of
this House who share all of our commitments to the men and
women who either served in uniform or alongside their active
duty spouse or parent.
As I said last December when this Subcommittee held our
first hearing on the implementation of this law, it is critical
that we work to ensure that this bill is implemented in a way
that is consistent with Congress' intent, and that veterans
receive the benefits in a timely and consistent manner.
Many of you may remember the significant delays that
beneficiaries experienced back in 2009 after the passage of the
Post-911 GI Bill, and we need to make sure, obviously, that we
avoid any of those problems. So the basic question here, ladies
and gentlemen, is, is the VA ready for the August 1st
implementation date? And, specifically, will the implementation
of the Section 107 cause backlogs and delays for student
veterans?
This Section 107 of the law required that VA changed the
way that living stipend payments for students were calculated
from being based on where a school was headquartered to being
based on where the student was taking the majority of their
classes. This change made it so that the living stipend
payments based on the basic allowance for housing at the E5
with dependents rate were a true indicator of what it costs to
live in the area where students were taking classes. Pretty
straight forward, pretty common sense.
General Worley and his team have always said that the IT
fixes to the VA's Long-Term Solution system for the
implementation of this section would be complicated, time
consuming, and potentially not ready for August 1st, so we are
anxiously awaiting your presentation and status report.
I think I am going to just stop there and yield to my
friend and ranking Member Mr. O'Rourke for any comments he
might have.
OPENING STATEMENT OF BETO O'ROURKE, RANKING MEMBER
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank
the witnesses who are here to testify today.
As usual, the Chairman has laid out the stakes and the
questions that we need to answer in this hearing, so there is
very little for me to add, and I would just urge us to ensure
that while we understand the challenges that the VA may face,
the challenges that the participating institutions may face,
that we keep our focus on the veterans, those who have earned
the benefit in question, that we want to make sure is delivered
on time and without any trouble on their part.
And so I will be looking for answers that relate to the
veterans' experience in this, and look forward to hearing the
testimony and the answers to the questions that are asked by
the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Arrington. I would also like to ask my colleagues for
unanimous consent that our colleague Mr. Russell from the great
State of Oklahoma be allowed to sit at the dais and ask
questions. I did not see the issue of moving the Red River
boundary north, but I--
Mr. O'Rourke. Is that on the agenda?
Mr. Arrington [continued]. --as my fellow Texan, and West
Texan, I think we could probably table that for another
discussion and just keep it simply about the GI Bill.
But hearing no objections, so ordered.
Mr. Russell, welcome.
Mr. Takano. As a Californian, I do not object. But I do
want to keep you--Oklahomans and the Texans, keep it on the up-
and-up, all right?
Mr. Arrington. The man of civility always coming to the
rescue.
We are going to now just do a quick introduction of the
witnesses. And, again, thank you all for taking time to be with
us. Today we have General Robert Worley, Director of VA's
Education Service, who is accompanied by Mr. Chairman Bogue,
Deputy Director--I am sorry, what is it?
Voice. Charmain.
Mr. Arrington. Ms. Charmain, I am sorry, it is just spelled
like Chairman on my--Charmain Bogue, Deputy Director of VA's
Education Service, and Mr. Lloyd Thrower, Deputy Chief
Information Officer and Account Manager for the Benefits
Portfolio within VA's Office of Information and Technology. And
Mr. Daniel McCune, Executive Director, Enterprise Portfolio
Management Division of VA's Office of Information and
Technology.
Before we begin, I ask the witnesses to please stand and
raise your right hand. We will go ahead and go through this
part of the formalities.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Arrington. Okay. Thanks. Please be seated. Let the
record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative.
And your complete written statements will be made part of the
hearing record, and all of you will be recognized for five
minutes for your oral statement.
General Worley, welcome back. I yield five minutes for your
opening remarks.
TESTIMONY OF GENERAL ROBERT M. WORLEY II, USAF (Ret.)
General Worley. Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking
Member O'Rourke, and other Members of the Subcommittee. I'm
pleased to be with you today to discuss the implementation of
the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of
2017. I won't reintroduce the Members that are with me today
since you did that, Mr. Chairman.
From this day--from the day this law was signed, the VA has
taken an expansive approach in communicating, promoting, and
implementing the significant improvements provided in the
Forever GI Bill. We have consistently and will continue to
actively engage and inform our stakeholders through our
innovative communications campaign designed to reach the widest
audience possible through numerous avenues.
This included a satellite media tour reaching over 3
million viewers and listeners, email and letter blasts to
millions of recipients, and a variety of targeted
communications to impacted beneficiaries and more. VA has
published extensive information and details on the Forever GI
Bill on its Web site. Regularly, we've posted on Facebook and
Twitter while actively interacting with beneficiaries, and
created a series of short videos on the law which will be
shared online and to key stakeholders.
VA continues to work with key stakeholders such as
veteran's service organizations, state approving agencies, and
school certifying officials, all of whom are critical links
between VA and our beneficiaries. VSOs are helping VA amplify
the Forever GI Bill message through regular communication touch
points including VSO national conferences, quarterly briefings,
and social media collaborations.
We are closely collaborating with the state approving
agencies on implementation of key provisions such as the school
certifying official training, housing payment changes, and
risk-based compliance surveys.
As you know, SCO's understanding and knowledge of the
Forever GI Bill is absolutely critical in helping GI Bill
students understand and make the most of their educational
benefits. We've engaged SCOs extensively through focus groups,
regular webinars, and written communications. These
communications will only intensify over the next weeks and
months.
VA has presented at over ten SCO training conferences
across the country; we hosted five SCO webinars, reaching
thousands of school certifying officials during each session;
and recently started hosting additional weekly webinars with
SCOs on more targeted parts of the law. My staff and I are
providing significant support to the Western Area Veterans
Education Specialists annual conference, which is hosting
around a thousand SCOs next week.
VA has worked tirelessly since the Colmery Act was signed
into law to accomplish on-time implementation of all
provisions. VA moved out immediately to implement the 13
provisions that were effective on the date of enactment on
August 16th, 2017. This included massive communications, and
award letter corrections, and direct notifications for the most
notable provision Section 112, which, as you know, removes the
expiration date for those exiting service on or after January
1st of 2013.
We expeditiously implemented the school closure provision,
which has restored almost 12,000 months of benefits by that
authority so veterans can get back to getting their education.
We were also pleased to immediately implement the long-needed
increase in state approving agency funding provided in this
law, first for fiscal year 2018 and next for fiscal year 2019,
so that we can continue the strong partnership between VA and
state approving agencies to ensure that these critical agencies
are sufficiently resourced for their vital work in ensuring
quality education for GI Bill students. Suffice it to say, we
hit the ground running and we haven't slowed down in making
this landmark law with 31 education provisions a reality.
As we look to the 17 provisions which become effective on
August 1st, 2018, VA is fully prepared to implement 15 of them
with the other two very close to being ready for full
implementation pending completion of IT testing and deployment.
Many of the 15 ready to go provisions will be implemented with
interim solutions or requiring job aids or work-arounds until a
full IT solution can be put in place. But we're ready with
those.
Education Service and VA's Office and Information
Technology have been working nonstop to complete user
acceptance testing and deploy the IT solutions for the
remaining two provisions, Sections 107 and 501.
As you stated, Mr. Chairman, these provisions change the
way VA pays monthly housing allowance by aligning payments to
the location where students physically attend a majority of
their classes. And for Section 501, by removing the reduction
exemption on GI Bill housing payments.
These provisions have widespread impact with respect both
to GI Bill beneficiaries because most of them have receive some
kind of housing payment as well as the depth of the required
technology modifications. And it is, of course, absolutely
critical that we get this--these changes right.
To deliver a complete and fully responsive IT solution for
these sections, OIT must significantly modify the fundamental
set of business rules built into the Long-Term Solution
technology, LTS. Must also install the proper MHA rate tables
that are in our GI Bill approved database, the WEAM System, the
Web Enabled Approval Management System, which is where LTS
pulls the data. And it must also modify the system--the system
that SCOs use to send student enrollment information to the VA,
a system called VA-ONCE.
Implementing these system modifications is extremely
challenging because of the complexity of the IT testing
environments, including the fact that education services
supported by multiple legacy systems. All testing relies on
access to and synchronization of data feeds from multiple
supporting systems.
There are critical and complex technical system and data
interdependencies that add to the challenge. The original
target date for implementing Sections 107 and 501 IT
modifications was July 16th. Given the complexities I've just
described, this date represented an aggressive and challenging
schedule.
Testing of Sections 107 and 501 modifications by claims
adjudicators working with developers has been underway since
early June with steady progress being made daily to achieve a
successful release. OIT and Education Service have been
operating literally on a 24/7 posture to test, resolve issues,
release a new software build, and begin the cycle again.
Since testing began, there have been 50 new software
builds, or releases, which have successfully identified and
resolved nearly 100 defects to ensure needed functionality
works. Another key metric is to ensure that the automated
processing runs at similar levels as to prior to these
modifications, which is about 40 percent or so, 40 to 45
percent.
We have reduced unresolved defects to single digits, and we
have achieved significant improvements with automation through
the testing period. And we need some additional small
improvement before we declare victory. Given the overall
complexity of this effort and with the improvements we're
seeing through this final phase of the testing process, we are
adjusting our target go live timeframe to mid-August.
In early April, VA sent out a request to the schools asking
the school certifying officials to hold on submitting those
enrollments, and only those enrollments, that might be affected
by Section 107. That is for students who may not be taking all
their classes at the main campus or the training location. This
request was intended to minimize rework of enrollment claims
once the IT solutions were put into operation.
We understand that schools have been concerned about their
mounting workload, so in light of the delay in implementing our
IT fixes and to try to relieve some of this pressure amongst
the schools, VA released guidance yesterday to the schools that
they can, in fact, resume sending enrollments into the VA and
we will process them under the existing rule set.
Once the IT system updates are implemented, we will need
schools to send VA enrollment amendments to ensure any payment
corrections can be made in a timely manner. We're doing
everything in our power to minimize any potential payment
delays for our beneficiaries. It is important to remember, with
respect to the housing payments, that they're paid in arrears.
So terms that start in August will be paid on 1 September.
Additionally, VA has dedicated more resources to include
having on boarded about 200 field employees to augment our
claims processing staff and will be implementing mandatory
overtime no later than 1 August for two to three months to
ensure that we maintain timeliness of our service.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, Mr.
Chairman, I look forward to your questions and the questions of
the committee.
[The prepared statement of MG Robert M. Worley II appears
in the Appendix]
Mr. Arrington. Okay. Thank you, General Worley. I now yield
myself five minutes.
I appreciate your testimony and candor, I am trying to make
sense of it. I think any time I hear critical, complex
interdependencies plus aggressive time tables, I start
thinking, Houston, we have a problem. Very directly, are we
going to be ready to implement, especially this Section 107,
which I noted as special cause for concern, are we going to be
ready to go live for this fall semester?
General Worley. The story I was trying to tell, Mr.
Chairman, is that this is a complex, heavy lift effort. We made
very good progress to date. We didn't get to the 16 July date
we were hoping for, we need to slip that about a month, and
that's where we are. And we have a handful of defects left, and
continuing to monitor, and try to improve the automation run.
Mr. Arrington. How will that affect the implementation, or
the operation rather, of the new GI Bill for the fall? You are
behind some, but will you be ready to go live this fall and
operate without any hitches, significant hitches?
General Worley. Because we asked the schools to hold on
enrollments, we expect, you know, a wave of enrollments to come
in between now and the early part of the fall. So that will be
an increased workload, and that's why we've got more people and
overtime scheduled, and those--those kinds of things.
We're accepting the fact that we'll need to do some rework
for enrollments that come in between now and mid-August where
we need to make corrections, but our feedback from the schools
is they would rather do that than continue to hold until the IT
solution is in place. So, as always, our goal is to make sure
we're paying people timely and accurately, and we will continue
with that laser focus throughout the peak period as we always
do.
Mr. Arrington. You don't have a lot of control over your
IT, from what I am--you are a client of the IT operation there
at the VA, does the VA have a CIO in place? Mr. Thrower, is
there a CIO in place, permanent CIO? Last time we had a
discussion on VR & E, I could not trace the points of
accountability from your position up.
Mr. Thrower. We have an acting CIO.
Mr. Arrington. You have an acting CIO. How long has that
CIO been acting? Or, how long has that position been open?
Mr. Thrower. Approximately three months.
Mr. Arrington. Okay. And are you servicing, I assume,
General Worley and his outfit as they prepare for--
Mr. Thrower. So, General Worley, and Charmain, and I, and
Dan here, and our teams are together two and three times every
single day working through the problems here. We have, you
know, their team and our team are co-located working on the
actual solution doing test cases. We've been pretty much 24/7
for about three weeks trying to get the last little bit out the
door.
Mr. Arrington. So this business about General Worley asking
the schools to hold enrollment, I couldn't really make much--I
don't understand that, but I understand it is a work-around,
how long will that work-around be needed before you can be
fully implemented and operational in the new system?
Mr. Thrower. We--
General Worley. Well, I mean, I'll take that one. If the--
the challenge we have, and it's not just with this particular
provision, but many times when there's a provision that goes
into effect that changes either the rule set or something, the
fact is that schools are able to submit enrollments for a term
up to 180 days ahead of time.
So, in a sense, we're behind the power curve with respect
to getting those technical solutions in place before schools
can submit enrollments that might have to be corrected later.
So what I was trying to get across, Mr. Chairman, is schools
can be submitting enrollments that may be affected by these new
rules long before those new rules and the IT solution are in
place.
Mr. Arrington. And the LTS--
General Worley. We're always--we're always kind of catching
up.
Mr. Arrington. And the Long-Term Solution, that is an
internal?
Mr. Arrington. Long Term Solution is a nickname for the
automation engine, the technology.
Mr. Arrington. But it is developed at the VA, this is not
off-the-shelf, this is not market--
General Worley. Long Term Solution was developed by a
contractor under the Office of Information and Technology.
Mr. Arrington. Are you on budget in terms of the budget for
this particular project?
General Worley. I'll let Mr. Thrower talk this time.
Mr. Thrower. We're actually ahead of budget.
Mr. Arrington. Okay.
Mr. Thrower. We had anticipated this would cost around $8
million to get these things in place. It looks like, in fact,
it's only going to cost us about 5.
Mr. Arrington. Okay. I am out of time, and will now yield
five minutes to the ranking Member Mr. O'Rourke.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Worley, the
effort that you described so far is very impressive in terms of
the number of hours put in, the number of builds, the number of
defects found, and the number of defects remaining, which I
think you said are in the single digit, but who knows how
significant any one of those defects are. But just relative to
the number that you started with, that is impressive. But,
ultimately, obviously, we are only going to be judged on the
experience on the end-user's part, the veteran, for whom the
benefit is intended.
What is their experience right now at this point, what
decisions are veterans making, what are they doing, and how is
the status of this project affecting them? And the next
question, which you can probably anticipate, is how will that
affect them going forward seeing that we are one month delayed
past the original target date? What will their experience be?
General Worley. And that's, obviously, something we're very
concerned about. I would say if they're not in--if they're not
in school, they're contemplating going to school, then the
issue--then they're not affected immediately, but the issue
would be if they end up taking classes at multiple locations,
and--where their housing could be different, then their
experience would be, they would get a housing payment initially
if they were certified and started before the IT solution went
into effect.
Mr. O'Rourke. Let's assume that is August, and let's assume
that first payment is due September 1. What will their
experience be?
General Worley. So their experience would be they would get
X amount in their housing payment based on the main campus zip
code, even if they were taking a majority of their classes
elsewhere.
Mr. O'Rourke. Let's, just for the sake of the argument,
pretend that main campus is downtown Manhattan, and they, the
student veteran lives in El Paso, Texas, you know, huge
discrepancy in housing cost between the two. What will their
experience be going forward if the zip code is not resolved
prior to September 1?
General Worley. They could either--well, they're taking--
they're going to school in Manhattan, or they're--
Mr. O'Rourke. If they're taking a course from a school
headquartered in Manhattan, located in Manhattan. And let's say
the software fix is not in place at the time that their housing
allowance is dispersed.
General Worley. Okay. So I think you're setting up a
scenario where they would be underpaid with the housing
allowance, so that's obviously a concern. And if they were
underpaid, then once the correct--once the IT fixes were in
place, that correction would be made, and they'd be made whole
for--
Mr. O'Rourke. For the sake of the argument, I think I am
trying to demonstrate how someone could be overpaid--
General Worley. Oh.
Mr. O'Rourke [continued]. --if they lived in El Paso, the
school were in Manhattan.
General Worley. Okay. I'm sorry.
Mr. O'Rourke. And whatever the amount of money is, it is
then the policy of the VA, even if it is the VA's fault for not
having the fix in time, on schedule, the veteran would be
overpaid and then have that payment taken back from her or him.
General Worley. If it was--
Mr. O'Rourke. How would the adjustment be made?
General Worley. Okay. So if they were overpaid and we'll--
what happens in our system when there's a--we'll call it
adverse action, there's a debt that the system would normally
establish, those claims are--we call them off ramped because
they don't go through the automation engine totally untouched
by human hands--they're off ramped and a human being looks at
them.
If the overpayment, after review by the claim's examiner,
was due specifically and solely to this issue where the IT
solution wasn't in place for Section 107, then the VA would
consider that an administrative error on the VA's part and we
don't establish--
Mr. O'Rourke. You will--
General Worley [continued]. --debts against the student
when it's an administrative error on the VA's part.
Mr. O'Rourke. So just to make it clear as part of the
record, if a student is overpaid because of the inability of
the VA to implement the solution on time, the veteran will not
have to return the overpayment to the VA?
General Worley. That's correct.
Mr. O'Rourke. Okay. Great. Lastly, what is--let's just
assume that the single digit number of defects that remain are
not able to be solved in a timely fashion--not next month, not
the month following--what is the plan B for this next academic
semester should we not be able to resolve this? What's the plan
B going forward if we continue to have problems, which is not
without precedent within the VA's IT history?
General Worley. Well, we can't not process claims, and pay
schools, and pay veterans. So we would continue--we would
continue to process the claims under the rules engine that we
have now until such time as the IT solution is in place.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Arrington. Ranking Member yields back, I now yield five
minutes to Mr. Russell from Oklahoma.
Mr. Russell. Well, I thank the Chairman, and I thank the
Members for allowing me to join you today.
I guess my question really is dealing with Section 115 with
regarding the improving the processing of claims. My
understanding is that the VA has broad latitude in the
implementation in the payment of claims to institutions. One of
the problems that we have seen in the past is a waste that
develops because of enrollment or how long the veteran is
there, whether they drop out. Institutions hold money and then
trying to get that money back becomes a problem.
Is there any consideration given under Section 115 in the
rules that you promulgate that will allow payment to those
institutions that are eligible for the veterans that are
enrolled on a bi-weekly or monthly basis as opposed to a
semester basis, which seems to me that it would preserve the
funds and would prevent having to recollect those funds from
institutions? And so that would be my question to you, if that
is clear.
General Worley. There's no consideration at present, sir,
about doing something like that. The way--as you know, the way
it works now is the school certifies to the VA the start date,
end date, and rate of pursuit of the individual, and the VA
pays for the term that comes in in its entirety. The--sometimes
schools hold onto those certifications--
Mr. Russell. All the time.
General Worley [continued]. --in order to wait 'til a drop/
add period, or whatever, but the sooner they get that in the
sooner they get paid, so.
Mr. Russell. Yeah. I would just ask that you take a look at
that. I am not a Member of this committee, but I am on Armed
Services and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I
am a veteran. Unfortunately, my three wars and decades of
service didn't get me a Forever GI Bill, but I am glad to see
that we have got at least something going forward.
It would seem to me that if we would promulgate some rules
that would allow a shorter payout based upon eligible
enrollment as opposed to a semester payout, then a lot of the
waste that occurs with the VA paying out more money than it
should, and then trying to pay people--give them the incentive
of just complying by the law to pay back, right now we
shouldn't pay a dime to incentivize anybody to obey the law.
And that is one of my big concerns, sir that I have tried to
raise to others.
And so I would just ask that you give that serious
consideration. I plan to keep pursuing this issue in the
future, but it really could be, even on implementation, it
could be promulgated by rules or adjustments within the law, as
I understand it. And if I am not correct in that, then, you
know, I would welcome that information.
General Worley. Yes, sir.
Mr. Russell. And that is all I have. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Russell, for your interest.
And I agree, and we should further examine that, and I can
commit to you that I will stay on that and report to you so
that you are kept in the loop on it. So thanks for bringing
that up.
Now I will yield five minutes to my colleague Mr. Takano.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Worley, the
passage of the Forever GI Bill was a major step forward for
generations of future veterans. I was particularly grateful
that this bill fully restored GI Bill benefits to students
harmed by the abrupt closures of Corinthian Colleges, and ITT
Technical Institute, and other institutions that shut down
without warning.
This year I met with an Army veteran, Travis Craig, who
attended ITT Technical Institute and shared his story of fraud
and deception. Because of the legislation that we passed, he
had GI Bill benefits restored. General Worley, I know you
mentioned restoration in your testimony, but I want to walk
through the process. How many applications for entitlement
restoration have you received?
General Worley. Thank you, Mr. Takano. We have received for
the--for the retroactive part, the special application part
that goes back from the day of enactment back to January of
2015, we received about 1,800 applications.
Mr. Takano. Wonderful. And how many applications have been
restored? How many people were successful?
General Worley. There have been about 1,100 of those 1,800
applications are--have been approved. And that's the basis on
which I said in my oral testimony, a little over 11,000 months
of entitlement have been restored to those 1,100 individuals.
Mr. Takano. It is on average; the people are receiving
different amounts based on--
General Worley. Right.
Mr. Takano [continued]. --how long they were--
General Worley. That's just the total. That's the total--
Mr. Takano. Yeah.
General Worley [continued]. --aggregate.
Mr. Takano. Okay. If you could work with my office, I want
to figure out--get a better breakdown of that 1,100 at some
point.
General Worley. Yes, sir.
Mr. Takano. But I want to move on with my other questions,
okay, we can come back to it. What are the reasons for why
approximately 700 applications have been denied?
General Worley. We took a look at that in a very detailed
way over the last 48 hours or so with a team out at Muskogee,
and the two top reasons are either the individual was able to
transfer credits to another program, which makes them
ineligible for the restoration. Or they weren't enrolled at the
school within 120 days of the school closing, which is another
aspect of the provision. So those two together make up about, I
think, 72 percent or so of the reason--the reasons of why.
Mr. Takano. Let me just say on that second group, the ones
who weren't enrolled during the specified time period. I know
we set parameters in the law, I don't want to create extra work
for you on this, but I do think it would be interesting to know
more about that group of people who missed that deadline. They
are veterans, and I do want to know if they have compelling
stories of being defrauded. I think that would be something
that would be good due diligence for the VA to do.
But let's get back to these students who were able to
transfer. My understanding is that the transfer, if you were
able to transfer just one credit, you were not eligible for the
restoration. Is that something--is that a provision that was in
the statute that we passed, or is that a regulation set by the
department?
General Worley. I think the statute was more--well, it was
not that specific. It just said, I think, if credits
transferred, or I think--I think it might--I don't know if it
said any credits transferred. So that's the way it was--
Mr. Takano. So we are not--
General Worley [continued. --interpreted.
Mr. Takano. --really distinguishing between a veteran who
was able to transfer 12 credits versus a veteran who
transferred 1 credit. A veteran who--
General Worley. Versus--
Mr. Takano [continued. --was able to transfer maybe 1
credit out of the 12 credits that he received, he or she is not
eligible for restoration. Is that the stance of the--
General Worley. Any--if they can transfer any--
Mr. Takano. Any credit?
General Worley. One or higher, yes, sir.
Mr. Takano. That is a topic I hope that the committee will
look into in the future. I don't quite see that as quite fair.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 5,000
beneficiaries would receive an average of 18 months of benefits
restored. In your testimony you mention reaching out to 8,000
beneficiaries, so far you have received about 800 applications.
Is there anything more that the VBA can be doing to make sure
that the veterans know that they have access to restoration of
the GI Bill?
General Worley. Just to correct, sir, it was 1,800
applications not 800. But so--
Mr. Takano. Oh, I am sorry, excuse me.
General Worley. So what we have done, we have reached out
on--we went out to the 8,000 then we had follow-up
communications where we got indications that either the email
or letters didn't get there. We've also gone out and we took a
sample, statistically significant sample, of 400 of these
cases, and we went through the case individual files, and we
looked at these reasons, and looked at those, you know, why
people were, you know, being treated the way they were with
respect to this provision.
About 25 percent of them were already graduated or really
didn't need the program. And we actually followed the--followed
up with phone calls to, I think, close to a hundred of those
individuals to talk with them. And the single biggest reason
the rest of them hadn't used the restoration was that they
weren't ready to go back to school yet.
Mr. Takano. Mr. Chairman, if I could ask one brief follow-
up.
Mr. Arrington. Go ahead.
Mr. Takano. So, Mr. Worley, I am really concerned about
those 800 veterans, or those veterans that said they weren't
ready to go back to school again. As you know, this is a
transferable benefit for their wife, for themselves, but it
strikes me that we should know--were these students informed
that they still were entitled to restoration even though they
weren't ready to go back to school--
General Worley. Absolutely.
Mr. Takano [continued. --and it would be to their benefit
to actually get their benefit restored?
General Worley. Yes, sir, that was part of the reason for
the phone call. One, did you know about this, and most of them
did. I mean, there was--the communication blasts out there was
effective, most of them knew about it. And then, you know, then
there was a discussion about why haven't you applied for it,
and so they haven't--they weren't ready to go back to school.
Mr. Takano. Were they encouraged to restore the benefits?
General Worley. Absolutely.
Mr. Takano. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Arrington. I thank the gentleman for his line of
questions, and will recognize our Chairman--no? Okay. Well,
thank you, Mr. Chairman, for being here.
Mr. Correa, yield five minutes to you.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want
to thank everybody for the good job you are doing over there at
the VA. And I had a question about the Forever GI Bill, which
is, the law made all Purple Heart recipients one-hundred
percent eligible for benefits, and as you know, before the law,
you had to serve 36 months. So my question is, are we going
back and doing anything to communicate with these Purple Heart
recipients to let them know that there's money on the table,
and they have got to come back and reapply for these benefits?
General Worley. We are--Congressman Correa, thank you. We
have gone into our own system to see where we--well, first of
all, let me just emphasize that this provision as well as the
provisions that add additional authorities for reservists to
have creditable service, those that are supporting major
disasters, and those that are supporting special combat--
combatant commander operations.
All of those authorities are important. That was
information that we didn't have access to in our interaction
with the Department of Defense. Now all of that, we've worked
very closely with Department of Defense over the last many
months, all of that information is now available, so when our
claims examiners need to verify either Purple Heart serv--
Purple Heart recipient or other types of creditable service
that have been added as a result of the Colmery Act, that
information is available so we'll be able to make the correct
eligibility determinations. So that's been, I think, a great
success in working with the Department of Defense.
With respect specifically to Purple Hearts, we've gone into
our own system and looked at Purple Heart recipients who have
already started to take advantage of their benefits to make
sure that they're--they know and that they're assessed at the
right level, if they weren't already a hundred percent. And
then we've also worked with DoD, there's another 10,000 or so
that are indicated to have received Purple Hearts. So we're
going over those records, and then we will make a particular
targeted outreach to those individuals to make sure they're
aware of their benefits, and that if they want to take
advantage of them, where to go.
Mr. Correa. And, sir, I just noticed that I started out my
comments by saying, ``What are you doing,'' and I would like to
throw that back on us, me specifically, to say, how can we work
together to make sure we get that message out? I would welcome
the opportunity to work in my district and my colleagues to
make sure that message gets out there.
General Worley. Yes, sir. I appreciate that point because
one of the things I didn't mention in the communications aspect
is we--we've done I think it's something a little bit
innovative, we've trained up ten, what we're calling Colmery
ambassadors. They're--they're VA employees, and most of them
are--work for me in the field or elsewhere, and they're
commissioned, basically, they're trained up in commission to go
out and spread the word, and we'd love to come out to your
districts and provide that expertise on the Purple Heart and
the whole suite of provisions that are in the Colmery Act.
Mr. Correa. Thank you. You have got a deal. We will work
together. And, again, thank you for the good work. Mr.
Chairman, I yield the remainder of my time.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Correa. I am going to ask if
any of my colleagues on both sides have further questions while
we have our friends here from the VA on such an important
matter. I know I have a few follow-up questions, but I am going
to ask if you guys have any, and I would defer to you at this
point.
Mr. Ranking Member?
Mr. O'Rourke. I do not, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Arrington. Mr. Takano?
Mr. Takano. No, sir.
Mr. Arrington. Okay. And, Mr. Chairman, any--okay. I yield
as much time as the Chairman might need.
Mr. Roe. I was here when we rolled out the GI Bill with
General Shinseki, and it was, to say the least, bumpy. And this
creates a lot of problems at our universities and for the--
General, do you anticipate a fairly smooth rollout for this
where we are not going to have all this confusion Mr. O'Rourke
talked about and other things where we are going to have our
office inundated with calls about how my GI Bill isn't working?
General Worley. I do anticipate, compared to what I
understand that was like, and I wasn't on board at the time I
was still in the Air Force, but I think this is a--this is a
whole different--I think we're in a whole different place for
sure right now.
Yes, we need some IT solutions in place. The effort is
there, and we're very close on 107, 501. We'll be working with
Mr. Thrower and his staff for the other IT requirements through
fiscal year 2019, and I don't think you're going to see
anything like what I understand happened in--after August of
2009.
Mr. Roe. About how many students will you have applying to
these benefits this fall do you think? What's your estimate?
General Worley. Mr. Chairman, typically in the fall
semester we have about a half a million beneficiaries that
we're paying.
Mr. Roe. Okay.
General Worley. And that's pretty consistent each fall and
a little bit less than that in the spring tends to be, and
then, of course, smaller number through the summer.
Mr. Roe. And that has been pretty consistent since it is up
and running?
General Worley. Yes, sir.
Mr. Roe. As you know, and the Student Veterans of America
pointed this out, that I think it is upwards of over 70, maybe
even 72 percent, of those students that use that benefit finish
in, I think--I am not sure of the time--but within six years, I
think. So it is a pretty amazing number when you look at the
rest of the student community around the country, it is much
higher than--
General Worley. Yes, sir.
Mr. Roe [continued. --at public universities. And I think
what we want here, and as Mr. Correa said, we want to be
helpful, because if it works well, we don't hear about it, and
that is always a good thing. And so anything we can do to help
make that work better, we are more than happy to do it because
it is going to create work for us, and more work for you if it
isn't seamless.
And I have maintained very close contact with my college
where I went, which is Austin Peay, which is in a military
town, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, there. So they see a lot of
students, and I will hear from them probably and East Tennessee
State University, also, that has--which is in my hometown,
right away this isn't working. So I know my view is if you can
get this to working as seamless as possible, the quicker the
better. And do you think that your IT solutions will be
through--complete by the 1st of October maybe? That is two
months, two-and-a-half months.
General Worley. Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned, we're
targeting the middle of August to have that IT solution in
place. That's our revised date.
Mr. Roe. And that means at that point in time, I know this
refiling causes a lot of confusion, that I just heard you
talking about when I first got in the hearing, and that is
confusing for the admissions office and those folks.
General Worley. And communication is key in that regard.
And, as I mentioned, we've started this week, we've really
ramped up our webinars. We've had webinars for veterans, we
will have weekly and then twice a week webinars with school
certifying officials. I mentioned I'm going out next week to
speak to a thousand school certifying officials from the
western area.
So keeping them up to speed and knowledgeable about what's
going on is critical, and we'll continue to do everything we
can. And I appreciate the offer of support and assistance. We
want this to be smooth, we don't want you getting phone calls
for sure, and we're doing everything we can to make this a
smooth and seamless rollout.
Mr. Roe. Well, this is a tremendous bipartisan effort and
an incredible benefit for our servicemen and women, and we want
it to work as seamless as possible, so thank you for everything
you can do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What else, if we
had a dashboard of blinking yellow to red, like Section 107, I
put that--equate that with a blinking yellow to red, what other
components of the GI Bill implementation should we have on our
radar, and make sure that we are following up, and staying in
communication with you guys?
General Worley. Well, that's a tough question, Mr.
Chairman. I would say in the realm of, and it's continuing in
the IT theme a little bit, we're--the Vet Tech program is
scheduled to start to go operational in early 2019, and we're
well on our way to that. We have the application that training
providers will need to apply, we've put in place quality
measures and all those kinds of things to make sure we have
quality providers, we're finalizing the application that
veterans will use to apply for the Vet Tech program and all
those kinds of things.
But the Vet Tech is something that's--stands alone in terms
of the normal program offerings and the technology that we
have. So we're going to have to create a new way to pay people
with respect to the Vet Tech program, to pay them their
housing. And so that's, again, another--it's another challenge,
it's not insurmountable, but it's something we're focused on
and working with our office of financial management as well as
OIT.
So Vet Tech we know is a high visibility program, we're
doing everything we can to make sure that's ready to go, and we
have good quality providers. That's the only thing that comes
to mind. The other things where we have job aids or work-
arounds, those will--I'm confident those will work, but we
definitely want to continue to work to get the IT solutions in
place so that we don't have to do those kinds of things.
Mr. Arrington. Following up on Mr. Correa's question about
the Purple Heart component, Section 102. My understanding is,
is that is going to require coordination with the Department of
Defense. Is that going well? Do you anticipate any issues
there?
General Worley. No issues, and I was just making the point
that there's been a very strong collaboration with the
Department of Defense. The Purple Heart issue, as well as the
1230412301(a) and (b) provisions, the authorities under which
reservists get called up that is now credible service for the
GI Bill going back to 2001.
All of those things are now in what we call the VIS--the
VADAR and VIS database, that's the database we use, our claims
examiners use to verify service data so that we can make sure
that we establish eligibility correctly. So all of that has
gone--it hasn't been easy, but it's gone very well. We have the
data in place right now, what we need for 1 August, and we're
ready to go on those.
Mr. Arrington. So just overall, so I can get my mind around
it because there are a lot of pieces to this, and it is a
massive undertaking, and--
General Worley. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arrington [continued. --can only imagine that it is--
every component will not be perfectly implemented, but on a
scale of 1 to 10, 10 being perfect, how would you score
yourself right now on implementation and going live this fall
semester?
General Worley. Going back all the way to the date of
enactment provisions, I'd give us, you know, if I could count
those as successes, which they are, if you're just talking
about--either way I'd give us a--
Mr. Arrington. I'm talking about--
General Worley [continued. --7 or 8. I'd give us--
Mr. Arrington. Maybe I should go back--
General Worley. I'd give us an 8.
Mr. Arrington [continued. --to Mr. O'Rourke's perspective.
General Worley. I'd give us an 8 out of--
Mr. Arrington. From the customers' perspective. From the
veteran and the schools, will this be a 10 or a 1? And I don't
suspect it will be a 1.
General Worley. One being the worst, I think.
Mr. Arrington. Yeah.
General Worley. Yeah. No, we'll--we're doing everything we
can, Mr. Chairman, to make sure this--the experience of the
veteran is seamless.
Mr. Arrington. You ought to run for Congress with that
answer, it is remarkable. Okay. I just have one more follow-up
question then we will close.
Mr. Thrower, while I have got you here, we had a hearing
about the VR & E case management tool system, there was $12
million spent, and there was a decision that was going to be
made, I think you guys said, by June. Whether you were going to
continue down the existing path or start over. There was a sunk
cost of $12 million, we have a great interest to know exactly
what the decision was, and what is the plan, and can you give
us a status on that?
Mr. Thrower. Well, let me give you a status. There is no
decision as of today. I will say, though, that we--at the end
of May, we published an RFI out to industry to understand many
different options, service options. Got a lot of good input
from industry ranging from software-as-a-service options, to
managed business services.
And when I say ``we,'' let me--let me be clear that this
was a joint effort between the VR & E team, the front office,
VBA team, and my team. And we've been looking at a series of
options and we just actually have just put the final
presentation for the new Under Secretary and set the options in
front of him. And I expect a decision on this one very shortly.
Mr. Arrington. What do you need from us to serve your
clients like General Worley and fulfill the obligation to
implement the law as we intended it to be going forward? I
mean, if you had a wish list to help you serve your clients and
ultimately our customer, the veterans, what would you need?
Mr. Thrower. I actually think the one thing that's always
helpful is one thing I think that we have is a good dialog. And
the fact that, you know, and keeping, you know, both of our
teams, your staff, and, thus, you the Members, you know, aware
of what is going on. They ask good questions to us, the hard
questions that we answer. And--but keeping those lines of
communication open so that when things do arise, and things
need to happen that they're always there.
Mr. Arrington. And I am not picking on you, but we didn't
know about that $12 million sunk cost and the decision until
just before that hearing. So I am going to ask you just as we
move forward, especially on big projects like the
implementation of the GI Bill, let us know if you are having
problems so we can get on it early, and I know everybody at the
dais, and especially our Chairman, want to do everything we can
to support you so that we can all be successful in serving our
veterans.
Mr. Thrower. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Arrington. Okay? Any last comments or questions, and
then we will close? Mr. Ranking Member? Okay.
I now ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks, and
include extraneous material. Without objection, so ordered.
This hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 2:54 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of Robert M. Worley II
Good afternoon, Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member O'Rourke, and
other Members of the Subcommittee. I am Robert M. Worley II, Director
of Education Service, and I am pleased to be here with you today to
discuss the implementation of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational
Assistance Act of 2017 (Colmery Act) or, as it's more commonly referred
to, the Forever GI Bill. Accompanying me today are Mrs. Charmain Bogue,
Deputy Director, Education Service, VBA; Mr. Lloyd Thrower, Account
Manager, Benefits Portfolio, Office of Information & Technology (OI&T);
and Mr. Daniel McCune, Executive Director, Enterprise Portfolio
Management Division, OI&T.
Colmery Act
Since the passage of the Colmery Act on August 16, 2017, VA has
diligently set out to implement the law with special consideration to
the intent of the Congress and the great impact the provisions have on
our Nation's Veterans. The Forever GI Bill has 34 provisions, 31 of
which affect education benefits. These provisions transform how VA
delivers education benefits, while ensuring that the GI Bill keeps pace
with the demands of our Nation's economy and remains valuable to
Veterans, Servicemembers, and their dependents. This is clearly seen in
VA's new authority to restore entitlement to those affected by a school
closure; the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
scholarship; and the Veteran Employment through Technology Education
Courses (VET TEC) Pilot program, which makes coding and programming
boot camps available to GI Bill-eligible Veterans.
As noted in our testimony for the House Veterans' Affairs Economic
Opportunity Subcommittee hearing on the implementation of the Forever
GI Bill that was held on December 12, 2017, VA established a Program
Executive Office (PEO) to monitor and coordinate all Forever GI Bill
implementation activities. The PEO consists of 12 full-time employees
and 29 contractors and closely collaborates with internal partners to
include: General Counsel, the Office of Business Process Integration,
Resource Management, Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Human
Resources, Performance Analysis and Integrity, Corporate
Communications, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, Compensation
Service, and OI&T. These offices have been instrumental in the
implementation effort thus far and will continue to play a key role as
we approach the August 1, 2018, milestone, the effective date for a
number of the provisions.
Date-of-Enactment Provisions
VA has implemented the provisions that were effective on the date
of the law's enactment. Since the November notification to nearly 8,000
beneficiaries who may have been impacted by a school closure or program
disapproval and may have been eligible for restoration of entitlement
under the Special Application provision in section 109, VA has restored
over 11,000 months of entitlement to 1,070 beneficiaries. VA has
consistently received between 40 and 60 applications each week since
sending the initial notification, and VA has completed two follow-ups
via emails, letters, and phone calls to encourage individuals to apply.
To better understand why some may not be interested in submitting an
application for restoration, VA selected a statistically valid sample
size of 400 files to review and determined that approximately 25
percent of these individuals had either already graduated or
transferred credits to a different school, making them ineligible for
restoration. VA then attempted to contact the remaining individuals by
phone and found more than 75 percent intend to apply, but are not
prepared to return to school. As there is no deadline to request
restoration, VA is confident that the steady rate of applications will
continue into the future.
In January 2018, VA contacted nearly 3,200 Veterans who may have
lost their Reserve Educational Assistance Program eligibility due to
the program's sunset. This notification informed individuals that they
may now have the option to make an irrevocable election under section
106 to have their eligible active-duty service periods used to
establish Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility. A recent file review of a
representative sample from this group found that over half this
population already established eligibility for Chapter 33 benefits,
which means that, for many, no action is necessary.
Section 112 of the Colmery Act removes the 15-year time limitation
to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit, which impacts more than 635,000
Veterans. In February 2018, VA emailed approximately 600,000 of these
individuals and sent paper mail to the remaining beneficiaries
informing them that VA was working on system changes to update
automated letters and that they may no longer have a time limit to use
their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.
In April 2018, OI&T and Education Service worked to deliver those
system changes and modified automated letters to accurately reflect the
removal of the 15-year month time limitation to use the GI Bill
benefit. Education Service took additional steps in the interim and
properly notified those impacted.
The Colmery Act has been especially important for Veterans,
Servicemembers, and dependents, but there are also several provisions
that aid State Approving Agencies (SAA) as they work on behalf of VA
and its beneficiaries. VA allocated $21,000,000 for SAAs in fiscal year
(FY) 2018 and is planning to allocate $23,000,000, plus the COLA of
$552,000 as specified in the law, for FY 2019. VA and the National
Association of State Approving Agencies established a working group to
develop and enhance the risk-based compliance surveys conducted by
SAAs. The group meets regularly and has developed an initial list of
risk measures. VA also notified SAAs that they may approve accredited
independent study programs at certain educational institutions that are
not institutions of higher learning, like career and technical
education schools, in accordance with section 302.
VA submitted its initial implementation strategy to achieve full
claims automation to Congress in May 2018, and is preparing to provide
an update on this plan in August. The initial student progress report
due date in section 114 was extended to March 1, 2019, so that
additional months of data could be provided in the report. VA thanks
the Committee for its consideration in extending this deadline. VA
appreciates the extended authorization of the Veterans Advisory
Committee on Education until 2022 in section 306.
Several provisions improve the student Veteran's experience, like
the permanent authorization of work-study, which provides additional
educational allowance assistance to students performing Veteran-centric
activities including providing outreach services for SAAs. The
codification in section 309 of VA policy giving School Certifying
Officials (SCO) additional flexibility to certify courses that begin
seven or fewer days after the first day of the academic year assists
SCOs in their efforts to seamlessly administer the GI Bill. To provide
information on whether schools offer priority enrollment to Veterans,
Education Service has instructed institutions to provide this
information to a centralized team in Buffalo. These data will soon be
available on the GI Bill Comparison Tool.
August 1, 2018, Provisions
VA has worked tirelessly since the Act was signed into law to
ensure an on-time implementation of all provisions. VA is anticipating
implementation of Sections 107 and 501 by August 1, 2018-which have the
widest impact on beneficiaries-and several other provisions that expand
and enhance access to VA educational benefits. Many of these provisions
will be implemented with an interim solution concurrent with the
decommissioning effort of the 50-year-old Benefits Delivery Network.
This will provide VA more modern technology on whether to make changes,
or pursue alternative service offerings.
VA has collaborated with the Department of Defense (DoD) on
implementing the provisions that expand qualifying service for the
Post-9/11 GI Bill. The new qualifying service types include service as
a result of orders under 10 United States Code 12301(h),
which involves orders of members of a reserve component to active duty
to receive medical care, and orders under section 12304a and 12304b,
which are used in response to major disasters or pre-planned missions
in support of combatant commands. For both, the Defense Management Data
Center has made this service available to view in the Veteran
Information Solution so that VA staff can properly process claims for
those eligible. Similarly, VA has worked closely with its DoD partners
to identify Purple Heart recipients, so that those who meet the
criteria in the Colmery Act to receive full benefits are aware of this
new eligibility and aware that they are now covered under the Yellow
Ribbon program. Fry Scholarship recipients are also now covered under
Yellow Ribbon, which requires VA to implement a manual workaround and
job aid to allow these claims to be properly processed on time.
There also has been extensive work with DoD to revise business
processes and procedures as they relate to the transfer of benefits
entitlement related to the death of a Veteran/Servicemember and for
entitlement transfers related to the death of the originally designated
dependent, as authorized under section 110. VA expects that the
additional opportunities to transfer Post-9/11 GI Bill entitlement will
be welcomed by Veterans and their families. To ease the burden on those
seeking to conduct a transfer, in most instances, the transfer will be
conducted through milConnect. In the event of a Veteran or
Servicemember's death, an eligible dependent will be able to contact VA
to request a transfer.
The Colmery Act includes measures that maximize a student Veteran's
educational benefit. A beneficiary will no longer be charged an entire
month of entitlement when requesting payment for fees associated with
licensing, certificates, or national tests. Instead, the entitlement
charge will be prorated to the amount of the actual cost of the test.
Reservists will no longer lose a full month of monthly housing
allowance (MHA) when called to Active Duty. VA will pay MHA for every
day the student is not on Active Duty, which offers these individuals
financial stability and balance as they manage both their call to serve
our country and their personal educational goals. VA has developed job
aids for its field personnel to calculate the proper entitlement charge
or MHA payment until permanent information technology (IT) solutions
are put in place.
VA is preparing communications to educational institutions
regarding the increase in the Annual Reporting Fee (ARF) and guidance
restricting institutions with more than 100 education benefit enrollees
from merging the ARF funds with the institutions' general fund. These
monies are to be used to support certification and Veterans program
activities, and VA will incorporate such checks as necessary in its
compliance functions. VA is also designing new and more comprehensive
SCO training and plans to implement a two-phased approach. The initial
focus will be on ensuring that new SCOs, defined as those with less
than 1 year of experience, complete VA's training. The second phase
will expand training opportunities and institute certification and
continuing education programs for all SCOs. To support a student's
ability to opt out of providing entitlement information to his or her
school in accordance with section 308, VA developed a new form that can
be submitted electronically and included an opt-out option on all
education benefit forms.
VA provided instructions in a procedural advisory to inform
employees of the reduction in entitlement from 45 to 36 months, as
required by section 202, for the Survivors' and Dependents' Educational
Assistance (DEA) Program. VA is also incorporating messaging on the
substantial increase in DEA payments required by section 203 that takes
effect on October 1, 2018, so that participants are well informed of
these changes.
Today, Education Service and OI&T are faced with an even greater
challenge in providing an IT solution for sections 107 and 501, which
change the way VA pays monthly housing stipends by aligning payments to
the location where students physically attend the majority of their
classes and removing the reduction exemption on GI Bill stipends.
To deliver a complete and fully responsive IT solution for these
sections, OI&T must significantly alter the rules engine that powers
automation in Long Term Solution, install the proper MHA rate tables in
the Web Enabled Approval Management System, and modify the user
interface in VA's Online Certification Enrollment (VA-ONCE) to collect
the necessary data to pay the student's correct MHA. This is a labor
and resource-intensive effort with tremendous technical
interdependencies and risks to complete by August 1, 2018.
With respect to section 107, after careful consideration and input
from a variety of internal and external parties, including
representatives from impacted educational institutions and
Congressional stakeholders, VA has determined that it will interpret
the term ``campus'' to include, ``Any internship, externship, practicum
or student teaching site.'' This definition provides a measure of
equity for all students in administering their MHA based on the
``physical'' location where the student is participating in the
majority of his or her classes.
VA is undertaking a robust and multimodal communications effort to
minimize disruption to both students and educational institutions ahead
of the August 1, 2018, effective date. VA held two in-person and
virtual focus groups with representatives from educational
institutions, SAAs, Veteran Service Organizations (VSO), other Federal
agencies, and school officials from various VA-approved training
providers to provide information and garner feedback on its
implementation plan. On March 14 and June 12, 2018, Education Service
held webinars featuring a wide-ranging presentation and scenario
overview of section 107 to thousands of SCOs. VA staff have attended
and presented at almost half a dozen regional SCO conferences and will
continue to seek out these opportunities to ensure that those impacted
by section 107 are well informed.
Additionally, in early April 2018, Education Service coordinated an
email campaign to notify SCOs and their leadership on what to do with
post-August 1st enrollments, specifically instructing them not to
submit certifications if a student is attending courses in a location
other than the one represented by the facility code known to VA.
This action is intended to reduce the level of effort required by
schools when VA's IT solution goes live this month. This campaign also
contained notifications to VSOs, SAAs, and Congressional stakeholders,
and updated messaging on VA ONCE.
While schools will be required to report ZIP codes of the locations
where students are physically participating in a majority of their
classes for courses that begin on or after August 1, 2018, schools will
have until August 2019 to update their school catalogs to reflect the
different training locations and courses that are located in a
different ZIP code from their main, branch, or extension campus. This
decision is to give both VA and schools an opportunity to adjust to
this change and better study how it is operationalized and
administered. VA will continue to review and solicit feedback on
section 107 to ensure that its policies and procedures properly protect
the Government and taxpayers' interests while providing sufficient
controls.
Testing is currently under way, and OI&T is targeting to go live
with the system changes for sections 107 and 501 by August 1.
Communications
VA takes seriously its role in communicating and promoting the
changes and impact the Forever GI Bill has made to Veterans,
Servicemembers, and their families. Since the law's enactment, it has
continuously sought out new avenues and opportunities to inform the
public and is now fully engaged in a communications campaign on the
August 1 provisions.
SCOs are a critical link between VA and its beneficiaries. SCOs'
understanding and knowledge of the Forever GI Bill only heighten
student Veterans' awareness and aid in preventing confusion or
misinformation regarding the law. VA has presented at SCO training
conferences in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Puerto Rico,
provided detailed overviews during multiple SCO webinars reaching
thousands of SCOs, and is planning additional webinars with SCOs on
more targeted parts of the law soon.
VA has also attended and briefed audiences on the Forever GI Bill
at the Council of College and Military Educators Conference, at Teach
for America, the Departments of State and Defense, and the National
Association of County Veterans Service Officers Annual Conference. In
the coming months, VA will be at the National Guard Association of the
United States General Conference, the Enlisted Association of the
National Guard of the United States Annual Conference, and the National
Association of the State Approving Agencies Conference.
These events are just a snapshot of the outreach VA has done and
plans to do. To maintain its presence and attend as many events as
possible, VA recently welcomed its first cohort of Forever GI Bill
Ambassadors. These ambassadors are located nationwide and are
authorities on the Forever GI Bill. They are prepared to perform
outreach to groups small and large and welcome the opportunity to speak
at events in your district so that your constituents can ask questions
about the GI Bill on the spot.
VSOs are helping VA amplify the Forever GI Bill message through
regular communication touchpoints, including quarterly briefings,
promoting certain provisions like Priority Enrollment, and coordinating
social media experiences like the Facebook Live event hosted by the
National Military Family Association and a recent Twitter ``Take Over''
done in collaboration with Student Veterans of America celebrating the
74th Anniversary of the GI Bill. Additionally, I interviewed with The
American Veteran, a web-based VA news program for VA and DoD, and I
participated in an online question- and-answer session hosted by
RallyPoint for Veterans interested in the law.
VA has published extensive information and details on the Forever
GI Bill on its website, to include frequently asked questions, easy-to-
understand infographics, and accurate content. On Facebook and Twitter,
VA posts content on specific provisions and interacts with
beneficiaries to provide additional information and answer questions
daily. To further round out our online presence, VA has created a
series of short videos on the Forever GI Bill, with the intention to
pique the viewers' interest, so that they may be inclined to contact VA
or seek additional information on their benefits.
With this momentum, VA hopes that it will have reached as wide an
audience as possible and will remain focused and steadfast on achieving
this goal so that all Veterans, Servicemembers, and their families are
up to date on the GI Bill.
Looking Ahead
The August 1, 2018, milestone brings VA closer to fully
implementing the Forever GI Bill, but there is still considerable work
remaining. Through FY 2019, permanent IT solutions will need to be
implemented for 19 provisions. Also, VA will be launching two programs,
the STEM Scholarship and the VET TEC Pilot Program, two of the law's
most unique and consequential provisions. VA expects to begin
administering the VET TEC Pilot in early 2019. Effective August 1,
2019, VA will be able to offer additional educational assistance to
beneficiaries pursuing degrees in a STEM program. VA will work closely
with SAAs and other partners to ensure that proper oversight and
consideration are given to programs in receipt of these additional
funds.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify before the Committee today. We look forward to
responding to any questions from you and Members of the Committee.