[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
of the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-14
__________
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
40-764 WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
MARK TAKANO, California, Chairman
JULIA BROWNLEY, California DAVID P. ROE, Tenessee, Ranking
KATHLEEN M. RICE, New York Member
CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania, Vice- GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
Chairman AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN,
MIKE LEVIN, California American Samoa
MAX ROSE, New York MIKE BOST, Illinois
CHRIS PAPPAS, New Hampshire NEAL P. DUNN, Florida
ELAINE G. LURIA, Virginia JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
SUSIE LEE, Nevada JIM BANKS, Indiana
JOE CUNNINGHAM, South Carolina ANDY BARR, Kentucky
GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, JR., DANIEL MEUSER, Pennsylvania
California STEVE WATKINS, Kansas
COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota CHIP ROY, Texas
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, W. GREGORY STEUBE, Florida
Northern Mariana Islands
COLIN Z. ALLRED, Texas
LAUREN UNDERWOOD, Illinois
ANTHONY BRINDISI, New York
Ray Kelley, Democratic Staff Director
Jon Towers, Republican Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
MIKE LEVIN, California, Chairman
KATHLEEN M. RICE, New York GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Ranking
ANTHONY BRINDISI, New York Member
CHRIS PAPPAS, New Hampshire JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
ELAINE G. LURIA, Virginia JIM BANKS, Indiana
SUSIE LEE, Nevada ANDY BARR, Kentucky
JOE CUNNINGHAM, South Carolina DANIEL MEUSER, Pennsylvania
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
----------
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Page
Evaluating The Effectiveness Of VA Vocational Rehabilitation And
Employment Programs............................................ 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Honorable Mike Levin, Chairman................................... 1
Honorable David P. Roe, Ranking Member, Full Committee on
Veterans' Affairs.............................................. 2
Honorable Gus M. Bilirakis, Ranking Member....................... 2
WITNESSES
Mr. William Streitberger, Director, Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs........ 4
Prepared Statement........................................... 33
Mr. Patrick Murray, Deputy Director, National Legislative
Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States......... 17
Prepared Statement........................................... 37
Mr. Derek Fronabarger, Director, Legislative Affairs, Wounded
Warrior Project................................................ 18
Prepared Statement........................................... 38
Mr. Jeremy Villanueva, Assistant National Legislative Director,
Disabled American Veterans..................................... 20
Prepared Statement........................................... 47
Mr. Steven Henry, Associate Legislative Director, Paralyzed
Veterans of America............................................ 22
Prepared Statement........................................... 51
Ms. Tanya Ang, Vice President, Veterans Education Success........ 23
Prepared Statement........................................... 54
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS
----------
Tuesday June 4, 2019
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
U. S. House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m., in
Room 210, House Visitors Center, Hon. Mike Levin [Chairman of
the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Levin, Rice, Brindisi, Pappas,
Lee, Cunningham, Bilirakis, and Meuser.
Also Present: Representative Roe.
OPENING STATEMENT OF MIKE LEVIN, CHAIRMAN
Mr. Levin. Good morning. I call this hearing to order. I
want to thank everyone for joining us today in the Veterans
Affairs' Committee. Today's Economic Opportunity Subcommittee
hearing will review the effectiveness of a critical long-
standing benefit for our Nation's veterans, the VA Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment Program, or VR&E.
Earlier this year, we had a chance during our budget
hearing to begin asking some very important questions about
this program's direction, and today we have a great opportunity
to dig a little deeper.
VR&E provides job training and other employment-related
services to veterans with service-connected disabilities. Today
we will be reviewing the program's funding levels, staffing,
administration, and the ongoing modernization of the
administrative systems.
I would like to speak on that last item, the matter of
technology modernization. I wasn't here last Congress when this
Committee learned about the major complications regarding case
management modernization, but I know this Committee was very
critical then about $12 million of lost investment and I would
associate myself with many of the remarks the Committee made
last year. We must be better stewards of taxpayer dollars and I
hope it will be clear today that the VA has learned from what
went wrong.
Regarding the VR&E program myself, I am concerned about
both the veteran-participation rate and the number of quality
counselors the VA is employing. We should be encouraging more
veterans who are eligible to sign up for VR&E, but first we
must demonstrate strong results, which requires hiring more
counselors. I am grateful that the VA is making progress to
bring the counselor-to-student ratio closer to the 1-to-125
ratio that we expect, but I am concerned that the program as a
whole is suffering because that hasn't happened sooner.
Second, I would like to see the VA more actively promote
VR&E services to our veterans. I know many of our witnesses
agree with me on this point. For eligible veterans, VR&E should
be a part of the transition process from the military.
Finally, we must do a better job at making sure our
veterans are receiving the very best advice from the very best
counselors. This Committee has heard from veterans who have
either been misinformed by VR&E counselors and given advice
that prioritized savings to the VA over the quality of
education. While we must be prudent, we should not seek out
savings at the expense of outcomes for our veterans.
I look forward to hearing the testimony from our witnesses
to determine where we should be focusing our efforts.
Mr. Levin. On a different note, I would also like to
welcome Angela Disbrow, who is shadowing me today. She is a
preschool teacher from Oceanside, California, my district, and
she is with the National Foster Care Initiative for National
Foster Care Month. Angela, thank you for joining us.
And I know my friend Dr. Roe, who is Ranking Member of the
Full Veterans' Affairs Committee, is being shadowed as well.
Dr. Roe?
OPENING STATEMENT OF DAVID P. ROE, RANKING MEMBER, FULL
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Mr. Roe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to introduce
Alex Glendo. Alex is a freshman or just finished his freshman
year at the University of Tennessee, and he is majoring in
microbiology and wants to be an orthopedic surgeon. I told
Alex; anybody can be a carpenter. But, anyway, that is his
choice, and we are really glad--I participated in this program
since its inception and these are some outstanding young people
who have stepped up to represent a group of young people who
are not very well represented, which are foster kids, and it is
a huge problem in this country. And it is great to see from
Oceanside, California a teacher, and a future orthopedic
surgeon who may fix my bum right knee in the future, we are
very glad to have them here and I want us to give them a warm
welcome.
[Applause.]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Dr. Roe. I certain share those
sentiments and really appreciate the opportunity.
And, with that, I now would like to recognize my friend
Ranking Member Bilirakis for 5 minutes for his opening
statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF GUS M. BILIRAKIS, RANKING MEMBER
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it
very much.
Today, the Subcommittee will conduct an oversight hearing
on the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program at the
Department of Veterans Affairs. VR&E is a program designed to
assist our severely wounded and disabled veterans by helping
them find meaningful employment or reach maximum independent
living, a most worthy cause.
Every day, VR&E's masters-level counselors work diligently
with veterans in the program to help create a rehabilitation
plan that fits their needs and to execute that plan. Counselors
are also a constant source of support for the participant as
they go through their individualized rehab program.
I agree with those who have said that the VR&E Program
should be the crown jewel of benefits provided through the
Veterans Benefits Administration; it is certainly needed.
This program is more than just a benefits program, it is
also a vital first step for disabled veterans to become more
financially independent, which is a win-win for veterans and of
course taxpayers alike.
For years, this Subcommittee has continued to sound the
alarm about the rising caseloads for VR&E counselors and the
impact these caseloads were having on employee morale and
services provided to veterans. I am pleased to see that after
many years of advocacy by this Subcommittee and Veterans
Service Organizations, VA has begun the hard work of hiring
additional counselors to reduce caseloads to the recommended 1-
to-125 counselor-to-veteran ratio. I want to thank the VBA for
addressing this issue that was seemingly falling on deaf ears.
Thanks so very much for doing this, it is so important.
Another topic that seems to be falling on deaf ears is
oversight of the new case management system for tracking VR&E
participants. This system was supposed to finally eliminate
participants paper-based file that can be lost or damaged and
hamper counselor efficiency. After years of waiting, in 2015
VR&E was given the green light to begin working with VA
information technology staff on a replacement for the current
case management program that has been in place since 1997.
After almost 3 years of work, eight different IT bills,
hundreds of man hours--sound familiar--and $12 million, VA
ended up with a system that didn't work. Unacceptable. We have
been told that none of the code created is salvageable and the
only thing VA were able to get out of this work were lessons
learned for the next time.
This was the main topic of discussion at our oversight
hearing on VR&E last year, which outlined problems--of course,
the Chairman alluded to this--facing VA with the creation of
this new case management system. I would be remiss if I didn't
point out that this incident and the challenges faced with the
Forever GI Bill implementation last fall highlight challenges
VBA leaders have had in getting the attention of the VA Office
of Information and Technology.
To the best of my knowledge, no one associated with the
development of either of these IT systems has been held
accountable, not one. Unacceptable, again. It begs the question
of how many veterans would have been better served if this $12
million program had been better--the money had been better
spent.
So, Mr. Chairman, I am encouraged by the recent investments
in VR&E programs, including the promise of a new case
management system in fiscal year 2021. I am also encouraged by
the suite of new tools that are being developed and have the
potential to greatly assist VR&E counselors with their day-to-
day operations. However, it is Congress' job to ask the tough
questions about these new systems and processes will improve
the experience and outcomes for disabled veterans, not just
make things easier for VA employees. Again, that is the key. I
mean, we are trying to help our veterans, so we need more
production to serve more veterans.
Finally, I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses
how we can improve consistency of services and decisions being
made by VR&E counselors across the country. I would also like
to receive recommendations on how to improve and track long-
term outcomes of VR&E participants.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing, and I
look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses.
Folks, it has got to work. I mean, this is a great program,
it is a wonderful idea, great concept, but it has got to work
for our veterans, and that is what we are going to make sure
happens.
So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Ranking Member Bilirakis. I certainly
share your sentiments.
On our first panel we are joined by Mr. William
Streitberger, Director of the Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Service at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Thank you for joining us. As you know, you will have 5 minutes,
but your full statement will be added to the record.
Director Streitberger, you are now recognized to present
your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM STREITBERGER
Mr. Streitberger. Good morning, Chairman Levin, Ranking
Member Bilirakis, Ranking Member Roe, and distinguished Members
of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear
before you today to discuss the VR&E Program. I am deeply
honored and privileged to be here not only as the Executive
Director, but as a proud recipient of this benefit and alumnus.
I would not be in this role today had it not been for this
tremendous contribution this program has had on my life.
Today, I am excited to share with you VR&E's historic
modernization efforts to provide participants with the benefits
that they have earned in a manner that honors their service.
The mission of VR&E is to assist servicemembers and
veterans to prepare for, find, and maintain employment.
Services fall under one of five tracks.
Ninety six percent of our participants are in the long-term
services track, which includes all payment of training and
other required resources. Currently, more than 1,000
professional VRCs deliver services through a network of over
350 locations. VR&E works with the OFO to provide oversight,
guidance, communication, and advice to the field.
As Executive Director, I am heavily involved in all aspects
of program operations. Since my arrival, I have instituted a
comprehensive change-management strategy to support the
modernization effort. I have traveled the country conducting
town halls to share my vision and engage in discussions on key
topics of concern and interest.
There are currently three significant initiatives underway
to strengthen program oversight and compliance.
First, VACO will expand program oversight and compliance,
and will expand that by threefold. Our new model will ensure
compliance at each regional office every fiscal year.
Second, our QA transformation will increase effectiveness
and efficiency of the program, enabling us to get a more
accurate picture of VR&E performance.
And, third, technology will increase our capability to
monitor operations, enforce compliance, drive higher quality,
and eliminate inconsistencies.
In fiscal year 2018, VR&E serviced nearly 16,000 veterans
to achieve a positive outcome, an increase of 3 percent from
fiscal year 2017.
VR&E has implemented a new growth metric which measures the
percentage of veterans entitled to our program that actually
enter a plan of service. This will help us focus on increasing
participants in the program. We continue to collaborate with
DoD to off services to Active duty, Reserve, and National Guard
through the IDES program, providing early intervention
counseling and other services to wounded, ill, and injured
servicemembers.
Further, we support transitioning servicemembers, veterans,
and family members through Chapter 36, including adjustment
counseling, vocational testing, education, and career advice.
We consistently hear veterans say that they do not remember
hearing about VR&E in TAP. We will improve the TAP curriculum
to add time based on the 2018 NDAA legislation. We continue to
track veteran cohorts in the congressionally-mandated 20-year
longitudinal study. Nearly 90 percent of participants reported
moderate to high satisfaction with the program and around 90
percent of veterans achieving rehabilitation from an employment
plan were employed last year. Those who complete the program
report positive economic outcomes, including higher employment
rates, months worked, annual earnings, and home ownership, as
compared to those who discontinued from the program.
VR&E has embarked on a comprehensive modernization effort
to improve customer service by streamlining processes and
modernizing our systems. We have developed an overarching plan
to include implementation of a new case management solution to
replace our existing 20-year-old legacy platform. We will
leverage software as a service, enabling us to grow with
technology into the future. We anticipate acquisition before
the end of fiscal year 2019. Concurrently, we will leverage
existing people, process, and technology initiatives to more
efficiently prepare us to transition into the new CMS. These
include a virtual assistant for automated appointment
scheduling and routine communication; tele-counseling to meet
veterans on their terms, creating greater flexibility,
convenience and access; e-invoicing to standardize and
streamline invoice payment processing; paperless claims
processing to move us fully into an electronic work
environment; and centralized mail to streamline the receipt,
processing, and filing of documents.
As we implement these changes, VRCs will manage workload
more efficiently and effectively, providing world-class
counseling and employment services to participants.
Mr. Chairman, VR&E continues to move in the direction of
modernizing this very consequential benefit. With these
initiatives, we will substantially improve and enhance the
program. My vision is to continually challenge the status quo,
to think differently to provide veterans with the benefits they
have earned in a manner that honors their service, in the way
they want to be served; that VR&E is a modern, 21st century
facilitator of economic opportunity, the crown jewel in VBA's
benefits portfolio.
This concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would be
pleased to answer questions from you, the Ranking Members, and
other Members of the Subcommittee.
[The prepared statement of William Streitberger appears in
the Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Director Streitberger. I now
recognize myself for 5 minutes to begin our questioning. I want
to thank you again for being here. I very much value VR&E and
its contributions and your work. That being said, I think there
are areas of concern that we want to address today. I know many
of my colleagues will I am sure talk about the $12 million and
some of the concerns around improved technology.
I want to talk for a bit and ask you a few questions about
counselors, which I think are really the backbone of VR&E, and,
specifically, I would like to focus my time on staffing levels,
quality, and caseloads for our counselors.
Last year, the VA began the process of increasing its
Vocational and Rehabilitation workforce to 1,113 counselors
across the country. Director, what is the status of that effort
and when do you expect to reach that goal?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for your question, sir. We are
very pleased to say today that we are currently moving our 1-
to-125 with the 169 new counselors. We have hired 166 of those
counselors, the last remaining three are currently in the offer
process and we hope to on-board them this month. We are also
working very strategically to realign resources around the
country to actually move cases based on our electronic
capability to stations that have more capacity to serve
veterans in ways that we can serve them that are not so
intensely counselor or personal relationship-related, but to
provide service to these veterans as timely as possible.
As of today, we should have a 1-to-125 ratio across the
Nation in each of our regional offices, the national average
being 1-to-122.
I appreciate that. As I mentioned during my opening
statement, we have heard some quality concerns from some
veterans. Can you, Director, explain how are counselors
evaluated and how is the situation handled if a veteran is
unhappy with their counselor?
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. So,
three things. Our counselors are consistently monitored by
their supervisory staff within each regional office on a
monthly basis, they have a performance review. We also look at
quality from a local and national perspective on a monthly
basis to ensure the consistency of program delivery of our
service to our veteran participants. And then we have robust
training programs within VR&E Service where all of our
counselors when they are on-boarded as new employees receive
virtual training for preparatory courses to attend an in-
residence training session. And then after that training,
following onto those services is an intensive mentoring program
within the regional office, the station that they work at.
Mr. Levin. But I guess, again--that is helpful, but if a
veteran has a specific problem with a counselor, how is that
specific problem addressed? How do you interact with that
veteran and how do you follow up?
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely. So that can happen on many
levels. We hope that that takes places at the local level and
that the local level leadership are involved and engaged with
that veteran regarding their concern.
I believe that many of those instances are solved at that
level, but we do receive inquiries from veterans through our
partners that will be here on the panel today, we work very
closely to resolve those issues. And I personally receive
inquiries from veterans whom I have met with as I have traveled
the country and gone to their conferences and have invited them
to speak with me personally. I can tell you, in those instances
we are very quick to resolve those issues to ensure no
interruptions to the veteran's services.
Mr. Levin. I appreciate that. I also recognize a big aspect
of program quality is out of counselors' control. There are
many skilled counselors in the field who are simply
overburdened with too many cases, too much administrative work.
I am hopeful that both issues will be eased by VA's hiring and
information technology efforts. However, I think we have to
continually assess capacity to ensure veterans are well served.
Director, how does the VA monitor counselor caseloads and
do these measures include time spent on direct counseling
versus paperwork?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for that great question, sir.
So one of the major emphases on driving modernization in our
processes has been from our research that says over 60 percent
of a counselor's day is actually spent in administrative tasks
and functions. So driving the modernization effort through e-
invoicing, through our virtual assistant, ultimately the case
management solution, is to alleviate the amount of time a
counselor spends in actually updating our systems, processing
invoices, reconciling credit cards and the like, and turning
that capacity back toward direct-facing veteran services, which
is what they have been hired to do, which is what they are
trained to do, and which is what I absolutely want them doing
each and every day.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Director. I appreciate your answers.
I now would like to recognize Ranking Member Bilirakis for
5 minutes.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it.
Sir, how many actual veterans, how many veterans are
counselors? I know you have to have a master's degree and what
have you, but how many currently are veterans?
Mr. Streitberger. Sir, I would have to take that question
for the record. I know that roughly 55 percent of our workforce
are veterans; in terms of veteran counselors, I don't have that
exact figure.
Mr. Bilirakis. Yeah, if you could get that information,
because I think it is important.
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely, I would be happy to do that.
Mr. Bilirakis. And then also the folks, the veterans that
qualify for this program and need it--so, you know,
qualification and need, because some veterans obviously get
jobs on their own and do well, but what is the percentage of
people that actually need the program that participate in the
program?
Mr. Streitberger. Sir, could I ask you to clarify that
question? Percentage--
Mr. Bilirakis. Yeah. So, for example--
Mr. Streitberger [continued]. --of people who actually
apply--
Mr. Bilirakis [continued]. --if you qualify--
Mr. Streitberger. Yes.
Mr. Bilirakis [continued]. --okay? And you need the
rehabilitation, the job, what have you--placement, what have
you, vocational services, and you are aware of those services,
you are aware it is available with VR&E, how many of those
people actually use the service?
Mr. Streitberger. So, roughly 110,000 veterans applied for
our program last year and somewhere in the neighborhood of just
under 25,000 actually entered a program of service. So, roughly
25 percent of veterans applying will actually enter a plan of
services.
Mr. Bilirakis. So how can we get that more participation?
Because I understand that participation has declined in the
last 2 or 3 years. How can we do that? Is it more awareness?
What would recommend?
Mr. Streitberger. So there's several things that I would
recommend. First of all, expanding the TAP briefing on VR&E
will certainly help through the 2018 NDAA legislation; more
outreach, which our outreach team is planning on doing more
extensively through social media; through our engagement with
our VSOs at their conferences; through our Vet Success on
Campus counselors, who are at institutions of higher learning
across the country.
But we also need to be more clear about what our program is
about. When we look at the discontinuances from our plans and
our program, 66 percent of the folks who are actually
discontinued from the program out of applicant status or out of
entitlement status, and we believe that much of that has to do
with maybe two things: one is, I didn't realize that this was
an employment program and I just want to go to school and get a
degree, and I don't want to have to participate in the
employment services piece and get a job to participate in the
program.
The other is that the veteran does not want to after
leaving service have to participate in a program that has such
intensive oversight. And that is necessary for our folks to
persist in the program and to achieve a positive outcome, but I
have heard personally from my veteran roundtables as I have
traveled across the country that, I got out of the service, I
have been told what to do for many years, and then came to VR&E
and I found out that I was going to have to be tracked every
month, I was going to have to submit my grades, I was going to
have to meet with a counselor, and I was just done with that.
I met a nurse who is in a program of ours for a master's
degree in Little Rock, Arkansas who told me, I was so glad to
find my leader again after 2 years floundering in my own
educational pursuits.
So I think we have a lot of that we have yet to work with,
and I am really eager to dig in with my team and find out how
we can communicate this program differently so that veterans
see the value in having the wraparound services that we
provide.
Mr. Bilirakis. Yes, I think it is so very important and I
appreciate that. Anything we can do to help.
I have one more question, Mr. Chairman.
As I mentioned in my opening statement, I am pleased to
hear about the new technology and game-changers that we are
going to put in place for the VR&E counselors. What type of
improvement should we expect to see in demonstrable outcome
measures for VR&E participants once these new tools are
implemented?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you--
Mr. Bilirakis. You kind of touched on it--
Mr. Streitberger. Yeah.
Mr. Bilirakis [continued]. --but if you could elaborate, I
appreciate it.
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely, and that is the exciting part
about what we are doing. And our team back at headquarters, we
are involved in this process every day looking at how are we
going to measure the success of the implementation of this
technology and, quite frankly, the bottom-line outcome is going
to be how we are able to create more capacity for counselors to
provide direct-facing services to veterans each and every day.
How much more time can they spend sitting across from them from
their desk and dealing with their issues, and providing them
with guidance and concern or referrals to our partners in the
community, VHA and other places, to ensure that everything that
they need to be successful is taking place in their plan of
service. When they are overworked and they are spending most of
their time doing administrative tasks, they can't get to all of
their veterans on their caseload to provide that service, and I
am working each and every day tirelessly to ensure that these
technology initiatives eliminate or eradicate to the greatest
extent possible that burden that they have currently, that is
not providing service to veterans in a manner that they deserve
to be served.
Mr. Bilirakis. Very good, sir. Mr. Streitberger, I think
you have some great ideas and, again, we are looking forward to
working with you on this, because it is so important.
Thank you very much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you, Ranking Member.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.
I would now like to recognize Miss Rice for 5 minutes.
Miss Rice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sir, last year the VA assigned a Vet Success on Campus, a
VSOC counselor to be shared between two schools in my district,
Nassau and--well, one of them, Nassau is in my district, and
then the Suffolk Community College, both are on Long Island. So
I can't even tell you how much of a game-changer that was.
I mean, the VSOC counselors are such a valuable resource
for student veterans. They provide benefits assistance, port
services during the transition from military to college life.
And I, as well as everyone on this Committee, has advocated for
an expansion of that program, because not every school and not
every district, you know, schools in districts across the
country are as lucky as we were to get a VSOC.
So, does the VA plan to continue expanding the program, and
what challenges are you currently facing in terms of the VA's
ability to meet the demand for placements of VSOC counselors on
additional college campuses?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for your question, ma'am, and I
could not agree with you more on the value of the VSOC program.
We are extremely interested in expanding the program. I have
asked for seven additional FTE in the 2020 budget, but that is
clearly not enough. I have over 225 institutions of higher
learning clamoring to get the same resources and I am currently
only authorized 145 FTE to fill those slots.
So the current representation at 70 installations around
the country represents--I'm sorry, the 83 that I have
authorized--so we would need to expand the authorization of FTE
to fill any additional VSOC roles.
Miss Rice. So can you just go back to something that you
were talking about when you said 66 percent of the people who
leave--who don't access the services anymore, there were two
specific reasons you said for that?
Mr. Streitberger. So, in our estimation from what we have
heard from veterans, they have either come to an orientation
after they have filed an application for our program and
determined upon hearing about what VR&E is all about, which is
employment and not education, education being a component of
how they achieve a positive outcome to become suitably
employed. And then the others not wanting to participate in a
rigorous process of achieving their employment goal, which
might be through education or training, where they have to
engage on a very frequent basis with their counselor to provide
oversight and other program services.
Miss Rice. So when is the first time that a servicemember
has contact with you and the program?
Mr. Streitberger. So a servicemember can have contact with
our program during 6 months prior to their discharge through
our VSOC program on campus, they have engagements with us
through our Integrated Disability Evaluation Assistance
programs at our military installations when they are
transitioning out as wounded, ill, or injured. And they
typically come to us after they have separated from the
service, have applied for the benefit, and attended an
orientation program at one of our 56 regional offices or 142
out-based offices.
Miss Rice. So what percentage of your program attendees are
you connecting with before they officially separate?
Mr. Streitberger. That question I would have to take for
the record.
Miss Rice. Can you? Because it seems to me that that is--
there has to be earlier engagement in order to maximize the use
of this program and helping the people we are intending to
help.
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, ma'am.
Miss Rice. So, if you could get that information, that
would be great.
Mr. Streitberger. I would be happy to do so. Thank you.
Miss Rice. Thank you very much.
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, ma'am.
Miss Rice. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Miss Rice.
I now recognize the Ranking Member of our Veterans Affairs'
Committee, Dr. Roe, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Roe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for being
here, and I just have a very few questions.
But we have seven and a half million unfilled jobs in the
country right now and the unemployment rate among our veteran
population, which is great, is 1.7 percent. That is the lowest
I remember. But the question I have, I guess, for you is, how
large is your budget and how many people do you serve, and how
do you measure success? In other words, a year after you finish
the program, there is--I mean, every organization ought to have
a metric or way to say we were successful in what we did, and
about how much money do you invest per participant in this
counseling process?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for your question, sir.
Regarding how much money we actually spent--
Mr. Roe. What is your budget?
Mr. Streitberger. So, in 2018, the budget for the
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program was $1.3
billion.
Mr. Roe. Okay.
Mr. Streitberger. About $250 million of that was for
discretionary funding to administer the program. So in terms of
understanding the success rate, first of all I would like to
say, how we view success is by the outcome of what the veteran
experience is.
And I think of an Air Force veteran that recently was in
our program for just about five and a half years who had
struggled severely with alcoholism, joblessness, critical
medical issues, and the suicide of his wife, who left him as a
single father to his 13-year-old son, and how after 5.5 years
in our program he is now today a Vocational Rehabilitation
counselor working in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is
happily remarried, due to the adjustment counseling he received
from our program, and he is a proud homeowner. That is how we
determine success--
Mr. Roe. But, I mean, at--not to interrupt you, but at the
end of--and you have how many, you said 110,000 veterans in
this--
Mr. Streitberger. Right now, we have 115,000 in the
program.
Mr. Roe. Actively in the program?
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, sir.
Mr. Roe. So it would look to me like that maybe 12 months
or 24 months or 36 months later, because the whole idea of this
is to get into--you have been injured, but to get into a
gainful employment that you can take care of your family and
raise your family and earn an income, am I correct?
Mr. Streitberger. That is correct, sir.
Mr. Roe. Well, then we ought to know at 12 months, or 24 or
36 or 5 years, are we actually doing that.
Mr. Streitberger. Yes.
Mr. Roe. And, if we are not, then we probably ought to
change how we are doing it.
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely. And so participants in our
program spend roughly 5 to 6 years on average in the program,
and so we track them through that, the continuum of the
program, to ensure that they are on track and that they are
meeting their particular individual program requirements.
Determining success for each individual veteran is based on
what in fact their program of service is. Is it a short-term
training program and can we measure that over a period of 6
months, or is it an education program that includes a 4-year
degree program and then subsequent employment services post-
education to get them ready for--
Mr. Roe. Well, again, not to quote Yogi Berra, but if you
don't know where you are going, you might end up someplace
else. And so you ought to have some goals out there and have we
met those metrics for these veterans--
Mr. Streitberger. Yes.
Mr. Roe [continued]. --and been successful. And I think, if
we are, that is great, because I am huge supporter of Voc
Rehab; we used it in Tennessee on the non-military side very
successfully to retrain people and get them back in the
workforce. And that is the whole purpose of this--
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely.
Mr. Roe [continued]. --question is, are we doing it?
Mr. Streitberger. We are, sir. And last year, as I
mentioned, we rehabilitated almost 16,000 veterans in our
program of service, which is 3 percent higher over the last
year, and we are on track to do even more this year, which is
the ultimate determination of success of our program is to
achieve our stated program targets and outcomes.
Mr. Roe. And are your numbers--and I missed that--are your
numbers stable or going up or down? And, again, not knowing
about the program, obviously veterans can't access it.
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, so great question, sir. Our program
outcomes have increased over the last 3 years, but our
participation has dropped over the last 3 years. So, as I
mentioned in my opening statement, we have instituted a growth
metric, a driving metrics that will point attention to our
counselors to actually work with veterans to ensure that they
get into a program of service, so we can have more folks in the
program, we can sustain them throughout the program, and can
continue to have high levels of positive outcomes, which means
veterans are being employed and supporting their livelihood.
Mr. Roe. And my time is very short and I think you have
answered this, but of the 15,000 or so veterans that
discontinued, I think you have mentioned just you may have
gotten in there and this program just is not right for me, is
that--
Mr. Streitberger. Correct, sir.
Mr. Roe. Okay. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Levin. Thanks, Dr. Roe.
I would now like to recognize Congressman Pappas for 5
minutes.
Mr. Pappas. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Ranking
Member and Mr. Streitberger, great to be with you here today.
Just following up, I wanted to draw on the VA's annual
performance plan and looking at the class achievement rates
contained within there. I noticed that 2018 had an achievement
rate of 72 percent, it fell to 65 percent in 2018. There is a
strategic target of 68 percent, as you well know. I am
wondering if you could comment on those numbers and what needs
to be done to get them moving back in the right direction.
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for that great question. I am
very excited to tell the Subcommittee that within VR&E Service,
we are working on new measures, what I call measuring the
middle. We do a really good job, sir, up front of measuring how
timeliness of getting folks into a program of service, their
average days to entitlement, their average days to evaluation
and planning, and then on the back end of the program we
measure the timeliness of their employment services and then
their positive outcome targets. But within the middle where
they persist in our program, we evaluate a lot of the
activities that our hardworking counselors do each and every
day to support a veteran in persisting in the program and our
qualitative measures.
We are currently working right now with a work group of
folks from around the country to look at what do we do in the
middle. What are those key activities that we must do and
elevate them to our performance standard level, so that all
employees are focused on ensuring that the activities they do
each and every day are ensuring a veteran is successful in
persisting in their program, so that they can have the positive
outcome that they worked for from the beginning.
Mr. Pappas. Can you talk about the timeliness in the
entitlement determination of a 45-day goal, how that target was
arrived at and whether you are going to look to narrow that in
the future?
Mr. Streitberger. So, with our new technology
implementation, we are going to look very closely at how that
shrinks our timeliness in many of these processes. One of the
things that is really, really important to point out about
finding someone entitled or developing a plan of service is
that each plan of service or each program of service is very
uniquely individual to every individual veteran. And it is at
that point in many instances we turn this process back to the
veteran to go out and do vocational exploration with our DOL
Vets partners, to do research on the types of schools and
programs that they want to do. Is that education program viable
and will it ultimately result in employment in the geographical
location where they reside.
So the timeliness there, we would like to of course
streamline that to the extent that we possibly can, but it is
also there to ensure that the veteran has explored his or her
option to be successful in the program more fully.
Mr. Pappas. Would you be able to set a specific target in
the future or is that TBD?
Mr. Streitberger. Well, I think it is TBD, and I will tell
you why. We are in a change-management process where we have
unfrozen all of what we have been doing in the past and we are
implementing new people, process, and technology initiatives,
and as we lay them down between now and the first quarter of
fiscal year 2021, there is going to be a lot of change and our
ability to firmly understand what it is we are going to be able
to measure and the benefits that we will achieve, through the
modernization and technology initiatives in particular, I think
is TBD until we have re-freeze and we have our new process in
place, and that we can evaluate what is happening in across the
value stream of the program of services that we provide to our
veterans.
Mr. Pappas. One final area, I wanted to address the Video
Connect Program.
Mr. Streitberger. Yes.
Mr. Pappas. I think there is a lot of potential here,
especially for veterans from a district like mine who are in
rural communities not adjacent to services, this will allow
them to virtually see tele-counselors. And I am wondering, you
know, how equipped our veterans are to take advantage of that
technology if there are some on the other side of the digital
divide that won't be able to because of lack of access to
broadband or, you know, the technology they need?
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely, great question. One of the
things that I am most excited about, we have heard from our
employees in the field about their veteran participants who
have not been able to come in to have a face-to-face
appointment for various reasons: distance, time, money, their
inability to get off work, and the like. So this new platform
that we actually launched in November of last year is one of
the easiest platforms to run this technology on. It is the
Cisco Pexip platform, it can be used on any mobile device that
has a camera and a microphone. So on your iPad, your iPod, your
whatever, you can access this technology and have an
appointment with your counselor.
Mr. Pappas. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Pappas.
I now recognize Mr. Meuser for 5 minutes.
Mr. Meuser. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Director. Looking at your background and
extensive experience, I can see clearly you are virtually the
ideal person to be the Director of this important area for the
Department of Veterans Affairs and for our veterans.
So I want to run through some questions for you relatively
quickly. The system, the integrated system that we are getting
into now, are you confident in its development and the progress
being made?
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you for your question, sir, and
thank you for your confidence in me, I greatly appreciate that.
I would say with 100-percent certainty that I am confident that
we will deploy the system in the first quarter of 2021, and we
will implement components of it as they become available after
its acquisition at the end of this fiscal year.
And I will tell you that there has never been more
oversight of this implementation than we currently have right
now. I am partnering with executives at my level in our Office
of Business Process Integration, with OI&T, and we have
actually added another layer in that process to ensure that we
successfully acquire and start deploying this system. Our
acquisitions executive leadership is in our scrums on a weekly
basis to ensure that we are hitting all the targets of our
critical path among our integrated master schedule. There is no
daylight between our engagement among those entities to ensure
that we are successful for the veterans that deserve to be
served in this manner.
Mr. Meuser. In my district, Pennsylvania's 9th, do you know
of the employers, for instance, that often hire veterans, or is
that on a list and do you do your best to match those to the
veterans that live in the district?
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely, sir. I personally could not
name them one by one--
Mr. Meuser. Sure.
Mr. Streitberger [continued]. --but our employment
coordinators who are employed in our regional offices and many
of our vocational/rehabilitation counselors who deal heavily
with our employers, we have those employers listed; we are
engaging with them out in the community, we are offering them
the additional services that we provide to employers to help
ensure that veterans are successful when they do become
employed with those employers.
Mr. Meuser. Now, they don't operate out of the VAs?
Mr. Streitberger. They do.
Mr. Meuser. They do?
Mr. Streitberger. Yes, they do.
Mr. Meuser. Okay, thank you. Do you then--if the skills
aren't there, do you match them up as well with various
vocational schools and career development centers?
Mr. Streitberger. Absolutely. So we assess their program
needs, we determine their interests, aptitudes, and ability. We
write a plan of services for them based on their career goals
and then we match them with institutions of higher learning,
training facilities. We also do on-the-job training programs,
non-paid work experience programs, and the like, to ensure that
they are fully prepared to be successful when they engage with
that employer.
Mr. Meuser. Okay. How about transportation when that
becomes an issue where a veteran who has the ability to do the
job just can't get to the job?
Mr. Streitberger. So those are pressing issues that we are
working very closely on with our DOL-Vets partnership. We have
a work group where we are working with community partners
through our SVPs and other community partnerships to help us
bridge the gap where transportation is concerned. It is a
pressing issue that some of our program participants face and
we know we have to address that issue.
Mr. Meuser. How is the volunteer initiative going for that;
is it strong, is it good? Are there people stepping up to
volunteer to provide transportation for veterans?
Mr. Streitberger. So specific to the VR&E Program, we don't
participate in that; however, if we do have veterans who are
coming to our co-located regional offices with a hospital, they
often participate in transportation services such as the DAV
transportation services and the like. But where it concerns
them actually getting to work from their home and the like, we
are still dealing with those issues.
Mr. Meuser. Yes, that is difficult. There are, I think,
about 16 states that offer tax credits to employers for hiring
veterans; do those tax credits create the right incentive, in
your opinion?
Mr. Streitberger. I do. And our employment coordinators or
Vocational Rehabilitation counselors work with the employers to
inform them. We also have special employer incentives to
incentivize employers to hire veterans that may need some more
on-the-job experience and training before they are somewhat at
the journeyman or woman level, so we work with them to inform
them about those as well.
In addition to any workplace adjustments or reasonable
accommodations the veteran might need to be successful in that
role, we can support those requests with the employers as well.
Mr. Meuser. Any data you have on that that perhaps we could
share within Pennsylvania or any state, for that matter, would
be helpful.
Mr. Streitberger. It would be my pleasure.
Mr. Meuser. And thank you for your service.
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Meuser. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Meuser.
I now recognize Mr. Cunningham for 5 minutes.
Mr. Cunningham. I just want to thank you for your service
and being here today, and I would yield back to the chair and
save my time for the second panel. Thank you so much.
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you, sir, I appreciate it.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham.
And thank you, Director Streitberger. I really appreciate
your testimony and your work on behalf of veterans, and your
service yourself.
Mr. Streitberger. Thank you.
Mr. Levin. Thank you so much for all that you do.
I would now like to call on our second panel to join us.
[Pause.]
Mr. Levin. All right. Everybody ready? Record time.
Appearing before us today is Mr. Patrick Murray, Deputy
Director for the National Legislative Service at the Veterans
of Foreign Wars of the United States. Good to see you again.
Also here is Mr. Derek Fronabarger, who serves as Director of
Legislative Affairs for the Wounded Warrior Project. Thanks for
being here.
We also have Mr. Jeremy Villanueva, Assistant National
Legislative Director for the Disabled American Veterans.
Next is Mr. Steven Henry, the Associate Legislative
Director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Finally, Ms. Tanya Ang, Vice President at Veterans
Education Success.
Good to see you all again and thanks for joining us.
As you know, you will have 5 minutes, but your full
statement will be added to the record.
With that, Mr. Murray, you are now recognized to present
your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF PATRICK MURRAY
Mr. Murray. Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and
Members of the Subcommittee, on behalf of the men and women of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and its
Auxiliary, thank you for the opportunity to present our views
on this important program today.
Making sure that veterans remain employed in the right
career for every one of them is incredibly important. One vital
program that veterans can use is the Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment Program, commonly referred to as Voc Rehab. This
program provides critical counseling and other adjunct services
necessary to enable service-disabled veterans to overcome
barriers as they prepare for, find, and maintain gainful
employment.
Ensuring veterans achieve meaningful and prosperous careers
will improve their financial situations, thereby mitigating
issues such as unemployment and homelessness.
VA budget documents state the Voc Rehab program will meet
and sustain the congressionally-mandated goal of 1-to-125
client-to-counselor ratio. However, the latest data in VA's
budget documents also shows that from 2016 to 2018 the number
of Voc Rehab participants dropped by more than 5 percent; there
was also a caseload reduction of 8.4 percent. It would appear
VA is able to meet the 1-to-125 goal by having fewer veterans
to serve.
VA has hired additional counselors, which brought them
within the mandated ratio, and have made substantial
technological upgrades within the past year. VA also predicts
that some of these changes will increase participation within
the Voc Rehab program. If that does in fact happen and
participation increases, then VA will again be outside the 1-
to-125 ratio.
Now is the time to be planning for the additional resources
or employees needed to accommodate the increase in clients and
not wait until after the fact. This is an opportunity for VA to
get ahead of an issue instead of waiting until the problem
arises.
While the number of counselors is something to always keep
an eye on, the consistency of granting approval for this
program is important as well. A consistent complaint from our
members is they are unaware of the Voc Rehab program and just
exactly who is eligible for it. A lot of disinformation is
spread by word of mouth, and there is a lot of confusion about
eligibility and exactly how the program can be used. Some
veterans are approved to use Voc Rehab to attain advanced
degrees and others are denied the same opportunity.
The flexibility of Voc Rehab is one of the best parts of
the program, but not having standardized usages leads to a lot
of confusion and resentment towards VA. The VFW recommends a
more robust discussion of the program within TAP classes, which
we believe would help mitigate some of the confusion surround
Voc Rehab and may guide more veterans to using it if there is
better information presented earlier.
While Voc Rehab is an employment program, it is commonly
used for training on college campuses. The processing of Voc
Rehab claims to universities is where we hear a lot of Voc
Rehab problems. The processing of Chapter 31 claims takes
months to go through the system, leaving some universities
without payment for multiple semesters. In some cases, students
are not allowed to further enroll until payments are made, and
in other students are being counseled to voluntarily not enroll
until the delayed payments are made.
The delays in processing Voc Rehab payments are negatively
affecting users of the program and this problem needs to be
rectified immediately.
Lastly, for years the VFW has called upon Congress to make
Voc Rehab available for life. The 12-year limit on utilizing
Voc Rehab is detrimental to older veterans who might be seeking
to remain current with the evolving job market or a change in
employment needs due to a service-connected disability received
years ago.
Recently, the forever part of the Forever GI Bill was
implemented because we recognize the importance of education
throughout veterans' lives, employment and training
opportunities are just as important throughout all stages of
their lives. We fully understand that counselors have the
ability to waive the 12-year requirement and are told they
often do so. However, the issue we have heard from our members
isn't that they are being denied, but instead they aren't even
applying because the requirements say they aren't eligible.
Removing this barrier for applying would help veterans at any
point in their lives to utilize this great program, and that is
why we support H.R. 444 to remove this limit.
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, thank you again
for the opportunity to testify today. This concludes my remarks
and I am prepared to take any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Patrick Murray appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Murray.
Mr. Fronabarger, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DEREK FRONABARGER
Mr. Fronabarger. Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis,
and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity, Wounded Warrior Project is pleased to discuss our
thoughts regarding the Veterans Affairs Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment program, and thank you for the
opportunity to do so.
Wounded Warrior Project has more than a dozen direct
programs which we offer to wounded, ill, and injured
servicemembers and veterans to help with their physical and
mental challenges. One of these programs informing our
perspective for this morning's hearing is known as Warriors to
Work.
This program assists WWP alumni in searching for jobs with
an emphasis on helping at transition. We provide a range of
services designed to meet veterans wherever they are in their
job-seeking process. We assist Warriors with resume building,
job placement, interview skills, and military occupational
skill translation. While we can connect veterans to all of our
programs no matter where they live, Warriors to Work is one of
the only three programs where we have dedicated staff in each
of our locations and field offices because it helps us meet
such a critical need.
We realize that education and vocational training are key
tools for this population of Warriors and, in addition to the
proof of our programming, we have specific data to illustrate
that point. Perhaps most telling is that our annual survey
reflects that 27 percent of our Warriors who reported currently
enrolled in school reported doing so through the VR&E program.
Over 95 percent of the more than 33,000 Warriors who
responded to our survey stated that they have a disability
rating over 20 percent and, regardless of disability rating, we
know that a fulfilling career after service is critical to
overall well-being.
In this context, we are pleased with the current VR&E
information technology improvements; specifically, the virtual
assistance and tele-counseling changes. The virtual assistant
will support scheduling appointments be it text message, email,
and other platforms. We hope that this new tool will allow
Vocational Rehabilitation counselors more time to work with the
veteran and lower the rate of scheduling complications.
Additionally, VR&E will be introducing a tele-counseling
ability using VA's Video Connect Software.
It can be difficult for veterans to drive to a local office
due to time constraints or location. We hope using tele-
counseling will drastically reduce no-shows and allow
counselors more time to interact with veterans.
We have a few recommendations regarding the VR&E, which is
outlined in more detail in our written testimony; however, we
would like to highlight three issue areas for this Committee's
consideration.
First, WWP recommends aligning the Chapter 31 monthly
living stipend with Chapter 33. We have seen instances where
veterans would benefit more from VR&E services opt into Chapter
33 Post-9/11 GI Bill solely for the monthly living allotment.
By matching Chapter 31's living stipend to Chapter 33, veterans
can choose the program that is best for their future and not
what pays most in living stipend presently.
Second, we recommend updating the program's name. The term
``rehabilitation'' had a different meaning in 1918 when the
program was adopted. At this time rehabilitation meant the
restoration of someone into a useful place in society. Today,
that same dictionary defines rehabilitation as rehabilitating
someone who is a criminal or needs drug or alcohol assistance.
Because of the connotations behind the word rehabilitation or
rehab, Voc Rehab, we recommend VA look at alternative language
that is more appropriate in today's world. It would be
unfortunate if a veteran overlooked this program due to
confusion regarding the term ``rehabilitation.''
Lastly, we recommend that the VR&E self-employment track is
revamped to promote more usage among the veteran population.
The VR&E self-employment track is for veterans who have limited
access to traditional employment and might need a flexible work
environment to accommodate disabilities. It empowers veterans
to enter into entrepreneurship roles.
In this program, veterans receive assistance to start their
own business, to include access to start-up funds. And, as you
know, access to capital is considered one of the biggest
barriers of entry for starting a small business.
Wounded Warrior Project's mission not only assists veterans
with disabilities, but allows them to live the most productive
lives possible; many times, this means connecting them with
meaningful employment.
We would like to thank the Committee for their time today
and look forward to any questions you may have regarding our
oral or written testimony. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Derek Fronabarger appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Fronabarger.
Mr. Villanueva, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JEREMY VILLANUEVA
Mr. Villanueva. Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis,
and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting DAV to
testify at this oversight hearing to discuss the program
management, outcomes, effectiveness, and needs of VR&E.
I testify before you today not just as an advocate for
disabled veterans, but also as a successful outcome of VR&E. As
a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, I had utilized my
educational benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill and attained a
bachelor's degree at Cal State Bakersfield in 2013. However,
due in part to my disabilities, I could not obtain gainful
employment. When I was hired in DAV in 2014, I was enrolled
VR&E, provided a vocational plan that took into consideration
my service-connected conditions, and assisted in my first 16
months of employment as a National Service Officer, where I
personally helped veterans with their VA claims, to include
VR&E benefits.
I completed NSO training in 2015 and began a series of
promotions that led me to DAV's legislative staff. This is one
example of how VR&E can help a veteran find the path to
economic success that is best suited for the individual.
VR&E reported in 2017 that approximately 90 percent of
veterans who have achieved rehabilitation were employed in the
past year and that the rate of home ownership was higher than
the general population of the United States. Combine this with
reported income that are at least $18,000 higher than for those
who discontinued the program. VR&E is proving to be a valuable
resource to America's disabled veteran, but there are some
areas to improve upon and, despite data showing how beneficial
VR&E can be, participation rates are down.
VA's budget request shows that it will meet the 1-to-125
counselor-to-veteran ratio; however, the latest data and the VA
budget document shows that from 2016 to 2018 the number of VR&E
participants fell by 5 percent and caseload declined by 8.4
percent, which raised some questions. Is VR&E able to meet this
goal by serving fewer veterans? Has VR&E instituted any new
policies or practices that have deterred disabled veterans from
seeking these services? And what action is VA taking to
increase awareness of the availability and benefits of VR&E
services?
We are concerned that VA's hiring of new counselors to
strengthen the program and increase services to disabled
veterans is being negated by utilizing these counselors to do
administrative tasks. While the request for 70 additional FTE
is encouraging, the total FTE will only be raised by four. So
where will the additional 70 counselors come from?
VA noted in its assessment of the teleconferencing pilot
program that VRCs who participated in the pilot had to assume
duties that were generally completed by support staff, like the
scheduling of appointments, monitoring of attendance, sending
10-day letters, et cetera. Increasing counselors, but losing
other essential staff, undercuts the benefit of achieving the
125-to-1 ratio.
Mr. Chairman, VR&E has improved the lives of thousands of
disabled veterans, yet rural and economically disadvantaged
veterans continue to have barriers to access these benefits.
This past March, VR&E extended tele-counseling services
nationwide to over 1,000 counselors. We are encouraged that
VR&E has taken steps to reduce travel times to both veterans
and VRCs alike, facilitate better case management, and help
veterans to obtain their benefits more efficiently. It should
be noted, though, that this program should remain an option for
veterans and not standard protocol.
In addition, VR&E suffers from a lack of resources and
funding, an issue we believe to be due in part to a lack of
leadership whose entire focus is on the economic opportunity
programs. DAV is extremely pleased that the House passed a bill
that would create a new fourth administration of the VA, but we
need to work together to ensure that it makes it through the
Senate during this Congress.
In order to further strengthen VA's education, economic
opportunities and transition programs, to include VR&E, DAV
supports the creation of this fourth administration, which
would be made up of the VBA programs currently under the
purview of the Office of Economic Opportunity. This new
administration would include critical programs such as VR&E,
the GI Bill, and TAP for transition servicing veterans.
For VR&E to fully reach its potential, it needs a
leadership structure whose success rests solely on the success
of the economic opportunity programs. The creation of this
fourth administration would provide a greater accountability to
Congress when problems such as low participation rates and the
misallocation of resources come to light.
In addition, by having an Under Secretary who is held
accountable for the actions of VR&E and other EO programs,
greater oversight can be accomplished, and results improved.
Mr. Chairman, VR&E has shown time and time again that it is
a useful resource for service-disabled veterans who are looking
to utilize their given skills and talents to improve their
quality of life. We look forward to working with this
Subcommittee to make sure that VR&E continues to ease and
expand access to this important resource for America's disabled
veterans.
This concludes my testimony, and, on behalf of DAV, I would
be happy to answer any questions you or other Members of the
Subcommittee may have.
[The prepared statement of Jeremy Villanueva appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Villanueva.
Mr. Henry, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN HENRY
Mr. Henry. Good morning. Chairman Levin, Ranking Member
Bilirakis, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee,
Paralyzed Veterans of America appreciates this opportunity to
testify before the Subcommittee about the effectiveness of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment programs, VR&E.
We often hear how great and beneficial VR&E is, but the
number of veterans eligible for the benefit compared to those
who use it suggests there is a clear lack of communication and
outreach to all eligible veterans. In fiscal year 2018, roughly
4.75 million veterans had service-connected disabilities, but
less than 3 percent of them utilized VR&E services.
If you were to ask the average veteran about VA benefits,
most could explain key elements of the disability compensation
program, but very few know basic facts about VR&E.
PVA believes that the effectiveness of VA's VR&E programs
could be greatly improved through a number of changes that
include greater outreach to veterans to raise awareness about
the benefit, continued collaboration with outside agencies and
programs, and increased follow-up time with participants.
PVA has found that VR&E usage throughout our membership is
rather low. We do not believe this is due to a lack of
interest, but rather a lack of understanding of how the program
works. One PVA member recently noted that he learned about the
program only after he had returned to the workforce following
his injury. Another was vaguely aware of the program, but
thought he was no longer eligible, even though he had actually
retained eligibility. These are common occurrences. And it is
possible that the program is being overshadowed by the Forever
GI Bill, which is widely advertised through a multitude of
venues.
A veteran's eligibility period for receiving services from
VR&E is for 12 years beginning on either, one, the date of
separation from military service or, two, the date the veteran
receives a disability rating. To receive services, a veteran
must need vocational rehabilitation to overcome employment
barriers due to a service-connected disability. For veterans
who have incurred a catastrophic disability, the 12-year
delimiting date may not be sufficient to allow them to meet
their vocational/rehabilitation goals.
Furthermore, many of these veterans have disabilities that
may continue to evolve and worsen over time, which may cause
them to need additional assistance. Although a VR&E counselor
may waive the 12-year limit for veterans with serious
employment barriers, veterans living with the wounds, injuries,
and illnesses associated with military service should have
certainty that if they need assistance in staying in or
returning to the workforce in the future that this program will
be there to assist them.
As a result of the barriers to employment faced by our
members, PVA launched its own vocational rehabilitation and
employment program in 2007, Paving Access for Veterans
Employment, or PAVE. PAVE serves all veterans nationwide using
a hybrid integrated approach to assist veterans and
transitioning servicemembers who face significant barriers to
employment, as well as their spouses and caregivers.
Collaborating with public and private partners is an
important way to ensure that veterans with disabilities will be
able to receive the services and supports needed to allow them
to build successful employment outcomes. VR&E must continue to
do community outreach to find experienced, credible partners to
meet gaps that will result in more veterans with disabilities
being placed in competitive, integrated employment sooner.
VR&E counselors typically follow veterans for 60 days once
they are placed in a job. PVA believes that at the very least
VR&E should study whether or not the current tracking standard
of 60 days is sufficient follow-up time. For employees with
probationary periods over 60 days, longer follow-up time may
allow for problems that could lead to dismissal to be
addressed, resulting in the veteran remaining employed.
Regardless of the length of a probationary period, if any, it
makes sense to increase the follow-up time to ensure that the
veteran has the support, if needed, to ensure a successful
transition to the workforce. That is why our PAVE counselors
conduct ongoing follow-up for our veterans placed through our
program. Long-term support may be needed to help a veteran with
a catastrophic disability to not only successfully transition
back to the workforce, but also to remain in the workforce.
In conclusion, without the proper services and supports,
veterans with catastrophic disabilities are in danger of
falling out of the workforce permanently. Such a loss means
decreased financial security and social opportunities. VA's
VR&E program provides critical access to needed services and
supports for veterans with service-connected disabilities. An
investment in VR&E is an investment in helping veterans with
disabilities return to work, and ensuring their long-time
rehabilitation and success.
PVA thanks the Subcommittee for the opportunity to express
our views and I welcome any follow-up questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Steven Henry appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Henry.
Finally, Ms. Ang, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF TANYA ANG
Ms. Ang. Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and
Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify today. At Veterans Education Success, we work to
advance higher education success from military affiliated
students. We believe holistic support and access to high
quality post-secondary education and training for workforce
development increases vocational opportunities for those who
have served our country.
VR&E is a crucial program that does just this, as it
provides support for veterans and servicemembers with service-
connected disabilities through individualized plans that help
them prepare for, obtain, and maintain suitable employment.
I would like to bring to the Committee's attention the
following three areas that deserve attention: technology; ways
to improve the role of vocational rehabilitation counselors;
and the need for parity.
First, technology. The last time the case management system
for VR&E was updated was in 1997. Complaints from school
administrators around the country have revolved around the
challenges certifying officials face with, what one
administrator referred to as the black hole of certification.
Student veterans have gone up to 6 months without receiving
payments, causing undue financial hardship. When SCOs contact
regional offices for updates, they are left with little
information and much frustration, as they work to find ways to
provide answers and support for their student veterans
struggling to stay in school.
VBA has proactively made this issue a priority over the
last year, and based on recent conversations we have had with
the VR&E office, we remain cautiously optimistic. With recent
challenges VA OI&T has experienced with its last attempt to
modernize the current system, and the recent rollout of
sections of the Harry W. Colmery Act, we urge careful
consideration and oversight from Congress.
Second, veteran resource counselors. We applied VBA's
concerted effort to reduce the number of clients per counselor,
but question the current legislative mandate of 125 clients to
one counselor. The program offers individualized support
specific to the needs and challenges of each client. This type
of support is necessary, yet the time it takes to provide such
support and follow-up can be labor intensive. We encourage the
Committee to further explore whether the current client to
counselor ratio is realistic and consider decreasing the
congressionally mandated ratio.
We are also concerned about the recent news of James King,
a VR&E counselor who pleaded guilty to bribery, fraud, and
obstruction for demanding and receiving bribes from three for
profit schools in exchange for steering veterans to those
schools. While this example is clearly egregious in nature, it
is important to ensure counselors are not in positions where
significant conflicts of interest exist. It also highlights the
power and influence current legislation gives to counselors.
I have supported a number of students who were admitted
into top tier universities, as well as low quality schools that
did not produce the same vocational outcomes. Because the lower
quality school accepted one credit of physical education from
the student's joint services transcript, the counselor only
approved the individual to choose the lower quality school
because it would be more cost effective.
Not all colleges are created equal. A veteran's career and
earnings trajectory are significantly enhanced by attending a
college that offers high quality and better respect in the--
high quality education and better respect in the job market.
Consistency in guidelines and expectations for counselors is
important, as is ongoing training and allowing veterans a more
prominent voice in the institution or program of study they
choose to pursue.
We encourage the Committee to institute higher benchmark
counselors should consider for a program's quality, including
considering college outcome metrics, using readily available
Federal data.
In a Government Accountability Office report, veterans
cited challenges with their counselor's inability to help them
translate their military service into Federal civilian
employment, and frustration that a counselor did not adequately
describe the physical challenges of the job, given the
veteran's service-connected disabilities.
Veterans using the VR&E program are supported by their
counselors to develop individualized plans following one of
five tracks. The counselor is expected to be a subject matter
expert on each of these issues. This seems unattainable for any
one person. VES agrees with GAO's recommendation to conduct
field research to identify and publish promising practices for
field offices.
Third, parity. With the passage of the Forever GI bill,
Congress removed the 15 year delimiting date and included
restoration of entitlement to students due to school closures.
We agree with our colleagues who have called for the removal of
the 12 year delimiting date. We also believe those using VR&E
should have the same restoration of entitlement as their peers
using the post-9/11 GI bill, should a school they are attending
close.
We also ask the Committee to consider moving the program to
only one subsistence rate, instead of the two that currently
exist. Doing so would reduce beau acracy, eliminate confusion,
and create better parity for those using the program.
Finally, we believe this program needs more transparency
and that the GI comparison tool might be an optimal place to
house information for both programs. I appreciate the
Committee's continued commitment on this program and look
forward to answering any further questions you might have.
[The prepared statement of Tanya Ang appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Ms. Ang. I now recognize myself for 5
minutes.
Many of you have raised the need for greater promotion of
VR&E to increase awareness among eligible veterans. Question
for each of you, would you agree that these discussions about
VR&E, the marketing effort, if you will, should take place
during the transition assistance program or are there other
venues that you would recommend as well? You can go in no--
Mr. Murray. Sir, I think both. I think that more
information any way we can get it out there. I think that in
the TAP class, it is mentioned, but there is not a healthy
discussion about it. As mentioned, the Forever GI Bill, you
hear about it all over the place. You don't hear about it on
social media the same way that Voc rehab is. So I think that
there is multiple ways you can spread the information.
Mr. Fronabarger. I would agree with my colleague. I think
TAP is a great venue for that. Social media can also assist a
lot in trying to promote this program, but also looking at it
before TAP is even in the mind set. So allowing servicemembers
to know what sort of programs are out there if they were to
transition out is also an option.
Mr. Levin. Do you want to just keep going down the line?
Mr. Villanueva. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would like to
reemphasize what my colleagues have said and want to actually
expand on it. Not only should it be mentioned at TAP for the
outgoing, the transitioning the brand new veteran, but also you
can really talk about expanding the VSOC program, the VSOCs as
on the other end of that with these veterans who are at the
schools and are not able to be around at least a vet center or
an RO. Because currently--take California for example, Mr.
Chairman. I will use that.
Only three of the CSUs has a counselor at their school. And
none of those are rural. All three of those CSUs: San Diego
State, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal State Los Angeles, which
all are within semi-reasonable access of a VARO. What about Cal
State Bakersfield, or Fresno State? You know, these ones should
have it as well so that they could tell the students who are
already there, ``Hey, these are the benefits that are also
available to you.''
Mr. Henry. I also agree with my colleagues. Definitely, it
needs to be more of a broader portion in TAP. But I would also
say that as the 12 year delimiting date is removed, we need to
do more outreach for the older veterans. And that includes a
large portion of our membership. A lot of them are older.
Definitely, as was mentioned before, social media,
LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a huge platform and I see veterans
looking for job assistance every single day. But also possibly
going into SCI centers because we have--our membership, the
veterans that have to spend time in the SCI centers, they could
benefit greatly from some of the programs for Voc rehab.
Ms. Ang. I agree with all of my colleagues here. I actually
had highlighted VSOC counselors as well. I do think we need to
increase that program, and they are a great way to disseminate
some of the information to veterans who might be eligible for
VR&E that are not even aware of it, and as well as the
partnerships with other veterans and military groups who can
help disseminate similar information.
Mr. Levin. Thank you. Also, many of you alluded to the fact
that it is not enough to help veterans just secure initial
employment, but we really need to invest in ensuring they have
lasting and fulfilling careers. Towards that end, I would like
to learn more about the suggestions to improve follow up after
veterans get placed in the job market. For no one in
particular, anyone can weigh in on this, what information
should be captured on follow up and how frequently should this
occur?
Mr. Fronabarger. So using our own program as a base, we
actually follow up after employment at the 30, 60, 190, and
365. We don't consider it a successful employment unless they
stay in that job for one year. At that time, we ask how
satisfied they are. We know that satisfaction is incredibly
important in making sure that there is successful retention
within that job. So those are some of the suggestions we would
recommend if you were to look at that.
Mr. Levin. Anyone else care to weigh in on that?
Mr. Villanueva. Yes, so DAV does have a resolution where we
look to support the extension of the period of employment
services under voc rehab, because currently under Title 38,
United States Code 3105, that allows veterans counseling and
placement for the post-placement services for an additional
period not to exceed 18 months, unless it was determined by the
secretary that it would need more.
Now, we all want to see the veteran succeed, and so we
would--we do support the extension of those services,
absolutely.
Mr. Levin. Thank you. Out of time, but want to thank you
all for your work and look forward to continuing to work with
you to continue to improve this program for veterans. So with
that, I'll turn it over to the Ranking Member, Mr. Bilirakis.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
And this is for the panel. What is your view of the current
management structure for VR&E? Do you believe that a regional
review or some type of increased line authority focus is needed
to improve performance? We can start from here, please.
Mr. Murray. Thank you, sir. I think one of the things that
we should focus on is a little bit better reporting and
oversight based on the regional offices, having a national 1 to
125 client to counselor ratio is great, but I think if it is
reported at the local levels, that would help focus attention
for management and oversight to see which regional offices were
maybe above or below that.
Mr. Bilirakis. Yes. Anyone else? Please.
Mr. Fronabarger. I would agree with my colleague with VFW.
Currently, we are seeing a lot of changes, especially in the IT
section with the VR&E office. We would definitely recommend
that from the leadership down to relay, we have heard some of
the local counselors saying these are a lot of changes in a
short amount of time. But with that, the reporting structure,
we would recommend just streamline that information down a
little bit easier.
Mr. Bilirakis. Anyone else? Yes, sir.
Mr. Villanueva. Yeah, I would like to reiterate what my
colleague at VFW said. We do support changing the reporting of
the ratio to reflect the VA regional offices, instead of a
nationwide client to counselor ratio, and so that would help
address the needs of specific offices and more directly help
veterans.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you. Yes, sir.
Mr. Henry. I would say in regards to PVA, our usage with
VR&E is just so low, we just have few members that use the
program that I would--I will take the question for the record
because I just don't think that we have enough experience with
the program to really comment on management structure.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you.
Ms. Ang. I would say based off of the 2014 GAO report, and
then having spoken with a number of school administrators who
work with us on a daily basis, there does need to be more focus
on the regional offices. There seems to be some offices that
are doing exceptionally well and others that are really
struggling. And to have some sort of accountability and
transparency related to each office, I think would really help
even VA, the proper, to hold them accountable and kind of
address those issues at a more localized level.
Mr. Bilirakis. Okay. Thank you. That was very helpful. Mr.
Villanueva, I am sorry I messed up the name, Villanueva, sorry,
and Mr. Murray, can you please discuss your concerns about the
drop in participation in the VR&E program and how this drop may
have led to the 1 per 125 veterans to counselor ratio being
achieved? I know that you talked about it a little bit, but
elaborate a little more. We will start with Mr. Villanueva,
please. Thank you.
Mr. Villanueva. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member. And it is--
don't worry. It takes me some time to say it myself.
Mr. Bilirakis. Well, I should know better. I apologize.
Mr. Villanueva. It is fine. No, we do have some concerns
and it was--I know it was brought up at a prior hearing where
the deputy undersecretary, she noted her concerns of it as well
because looking at the numbers that Department of Labor is
putting out and that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is putting
out, and how this same core group of veterans that utilizes
VR&E, the Gulf War to our veterans that are roughly my age,
late 20s, mid to late 30s, they are actually on the rise.
However, the participation rates and the caseload is declining.
Now, if the decline matches up with their now new 1 to 125
ratio, that is going to be a concern. We want every veteran who
can utilize this be able to utilize it and know about it. And
we don't believe that this is a good trend, especially since
all--according to the longitudinal studies in all the other
cohorts, it was--the usership and caseload was dramatically on
the rise and for it to now all of a sudden drop, not
precipitously, but definitely have a drop, this is something
that we would want Congress to take a look at.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you. Mr. Murray, what do you attribute
the decline to?
Mr. Murray. So we are actually afraid that lack of
attention for this program over years attributed to lack of
outreach, lack of knowledge about it, lack of the counselors
having the ability to properly manage their caseload. Not
hiring the additional employees from the 2016 public law that
passed for two years we think affected the program and the
participation rates.
As my colleague said, the rates were climbing steadily and
to see them drop, there needs to be a better explanation for
the lack of attention over the years and now hopefully that we
are putting a spotlight on it, we are going to see those
numbers start to rise again.
Mr. Bilirakis. Good. One last question, Mr. Chairman, is
that fine? I know I have a couple seconds here. Mr. Villanueva,
what is your view of the tele-counseling program? I think this
is important. Do you believe that this new tool can provide
greater accessibility to VR&E services to disabled veterans? I
know Mr. Pappas asked the question as well. I think it is a
key, I mean, in tele-health, in tele-mental health as well, but
in this particular case, how effective would it be?
Mr. Villanueva. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, and I
couldn't emphasize this more, that it is definitely a key,
especially for reaching those who are in more rural
communities. However, the pilot did show that it was 58 percent
who chose not to do it, and the overriding reason, one of the
two main reasons was because they wanted that face to face with
their counselor. So we need to ensure that that is still
maintained for the veteran as well.
Mr. Bilirakis. Good point. Thank you very much. I yield
back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member. I would now like
to recognize Ms. Rice for 5 minutes.
Ms. Rice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Ang, is that how you
say your--Ang?
Ms. Ang. Ang.
Ms. Rice. Ang. Ms. Ang, in terms of the ratio, I think it
is something that every single one of you have spoken about,
and I think we really have to drill down and figure out how we
figure out--I know Mr. Villanueva, you had said that maybe
the--the numbers should be driven by the region, and the need,
and that as one of the driving factors. But Ms. Ang, you had
said that the numbers should be closer to 85 I believe you
said. So maybe you can talk--if you could talk about that, and
then anyone else on the panel who has any thoughts about how
we--because if you--if we can't get to the bottom of this, what
is the point of the program?
Ms. Ang. Correct. I based that off of the knowledge
necessary to be able to support a military connected student as
they are going through the VR&E program. And having worked as
an academic advisor within a higher ed institution, 85 was
typically the number that would provide the best results for
client--for student to counselor ratio. Academic advisors often
provide similar, more focused guidelines related to workforce.
You know, what career are you going to pursue after you finish
this degree. And so then what is the right degree for you to
pursue that--or what is the right program of study for you to
pursue that career trajectory.
And based on that experience and in other experience with
working--I oversaw another program that worked with severely
injured at Walter Reed as they were in the process of recovery
to get them into top tier schools using their Voc rehab. And we
found that, again, the smaller client to counselor ratio
provided a better return on investment and results.
We believe VA has been conducting some research in that
area and I think that their numbers were close to that. That
hasn't been published yet. And so we felt that that was just an
estimated guess, but probably a highly educated one.
Ms. Rice. Well, I mean, you talk, and rightly so, about the
nature of how time intensive the interaction between each
individual client and a counselor is. And I guess depending on
the specific needs of the client, but also I think we should
put a huge emphasis on training of the counselors as well
because the more trained and the better trained they are, the
faster without sacrificing--we can be more efficient without
sacrificing the quality of the care that is given to the
clients.
Mr. Villanueva, if you want to talk more about what you had
mentioned before about the geographic specificity or in terms
of the ratio.
Mr. Villanueva. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, I would love to talk
about that. And one, like my colleague said, addressed, some
regional offices being more efficient than the others and some
giving out the services. And also the need, rural areas, of
course, are not getting the same. However, I want to stress
when it comes to the nailing down a number, the 1 to 125 or the
1 to 85. And as I stated in my oral testimony, and also in our
written testimony, one of the things that we are worried about
is that becoming a metric that the VR&E is shooting for over
the services provided to the veteran.
If they are hiring all of these counselors and then using
them to replace service staff, doing administrative tasks, then
we are losing out--these disabled veterans are losing out on
services and time that the counselors should be used by giving
it to them. So--
Ms. Rice. That is a good point.
Mr. Villanueva [continued]. --we would always want to be
very careful on what it is and putting too much of an emphasis
on that actual number. We will always look to see a greater
client to counselor ratio, that level to go down. However, the
most important part is the services to this--to these disabled
veterans. And like I said, I was an example of what they can do
for the individual veteran and having them achieve the success
that they deserve.
Ms. Rice. So I just want to thank the Chairman for holding
this hearing with Mr. Streitberger, is that how you say your
name, and all of you present because you have the management,
who is trying to implement the program and all of you who are
hearing firsthand from the clients about the pros and cons of
the program.
And I just--so I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for putting
everyone in the same room because this is where all of you have
to agree that you are going to work--and us too up here are
going to work toward having this program work, not just for
management so that their numbers and they get the credit for
getting their numbers where they need to be, and all of you
being advocates for your constituencies.
This is really, really important that we are all here
talking about this in the same room so that we can have
accountability at the end of the day and ultimately service the
clients who need it. So I just want to thank you all very much,
you, Mr. Streitberger, for staying and hearing what everyone
has to say, and all of you for participating. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Ms. Rice. And I have to also thank
our great staff for making sure that everybody was able to be
gathered here this morning. I would now like to recognize Mr.
Cunningham for 5 minutes.
Mr. Cunningham. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to each
and every one of the witnesses who have come here to testify
today and for the service you all provide to your respective
organizations and the service you provide to our veterans.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Mr. Fronabarger, it is good to see another South Carolinian
here today. Welcome to D.C.
Mr. Fronabarger. Thank you.
Mr. Cunningham. And you are from the district, right? You
are from the low country?
Mr. Fronabarger. That's correct. Born and raised in
Charleston.
Mr. Cunningham. Okay, excellent. Nice to have you here. And
I don't have to tell you that objectively speaking, we have the
most beautiful district in the entire country, and it is partly
that because we have such a high number of veterans living
there as well. It is the highest concentration of veterans in
the entire state of South Carolina, which I am sure you are
aware of, right?
Mr. Fronabarger. Correct. And I think that is a fact, the
most beautiful.
Mr. Cunningham. I concur and now that is part of the
record, we can move on. And we have a great VA facility there.
I stopped by there on Sunday afternoon and saw some of the
staff and people keeping that one of the best facilities.
But, you know, our VA also has some challenges and it has
difficulty recruiting and retaining employees. And in your
testimony, you mentioned that VRCs often have difficulty
finding Federal employment opportunities for participants. So I
like your idea of a pilot program to streamline the interested
veterans into open positions at the VA. Could you provide a
little bit more detail on how you would envision this program
being designed?
Mr. Fronabarger. Definitely, Congressman. I appreciate that
question. As you know, the VA hospital in Charleston is quite
large. There is also a good amount of schools around there:
College of Charleston, Trident Tech, and then the Medical
University of South Carolina. It really comes down to a
number's game. You have 45,000 open vacancies at the VA, and
you have about 115,000 people currently enrolled in the VR&E
program.
What we would like to see is a pilot program that if a
counselor was to identify a nurse that was about to graduate or
a police officer that was about to graduate and indicated that
they were interested in working at the VA, they didn't have to
jump through the same hoops, go on USA Jobs. They could say
hey, the left hand, being the vocational rehabilitation
counselor, speaks to the right hand, which is the VA HR
representative saying, ``I have got a few individuals that
might be interested, can we fast track them or at least get
their background checked and their applications through before
they graduate?''
Mr. Cunningham. And obviously South Carolina being a prime
location to implement that with all of the technical schools,
and the education facilities. Do you think that pilot program
could fall under one of the existing tracks under the
vocational rehab program or was this an entirely new one that
would need to be established?
Mr. Fronabarger. I think it could probably--it could
definitely fall under one of the existing tracks. For
individuals going to school, I think this is a good option for
them.
Mr. Cunningham. And so this essentially just puts people
within that program with other schools, universities, or
organizations and has a constant open line of communication, I
guess, with that recruiting process, correct?
Mr. Fronabarger. That is absolutely correct. I think the
ultimate goal is since the VA is investing in these veterans,
to try and find meaningful employment and at the same time
while they are looking for qualified veterans to fill these
open positions, there should definitely be some communication
there.
Mr. Cunningham. I appreciate your testimony. I appreciate
your time in coming here today, as with the rest of you all,
and I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. And you are always
welcome to visit California's 49th district, which includes La
Jolla, the beautiful VA at La Jolla. Our guests from the low
country certainly welcome as well, as is everyone else. I think
we have got the second most veterans in the United States, but
according to the VA, we will have--San Diego region will soon
have the most. But no doubt we are--Mr. Cunningham, we are very
fortunate, both of us, to represent beautiful coastal
districts.
If there are no further questions, I want to echo the
comments of many of my colleagues. We are truly grateful to you
for the work that you do on behalf of our veterans and for the
collaborative nature of this morning's hearing. We look forward
to hearing from each of you in the weeks and months ahead about
the ongoing collaboration around VR&E. And I would like to
thank the Ranking Member as well, and all of the Members who
asked excellent questions.
All Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend
their remarks, and include additional materials. Again, I thank
everyone for coming. And without objection, this Subcommittee
stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:12 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of William Streitberger
Good morning, Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today to discuss Evaluating the
Effectiveness of VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E)
program. I am deeply honored and privileged to appear before you today
not only as the Executive Director of the VR&E program but as a proud
recipient of this benefit and alumnus. I would not be testifying before
you today had it not been for the tremendous contribution this program
has had on my personal and professional life. Today, I am excited to
share with you VR&E's historic modernization efforts to provide program
participants with the benefits they have earned in a manner that honors
their service.
VR&E Program Overview and Management
The mission of the VR&E program is to assist Servicemembers and
Veterans with service-connected disabilities and barriers to employment
prepare for, find, and maintain suitable employment. Rehabilitation
services provided to VR&E participants fall under one of the following
five tracks:
Reemployment with Previous Employer: For individuals who
are separating from active duty or in the National Guard or Reserves
and are returning to work for their previous employer.
Rapid Access to Employment: For individuals who either
wish to obtain employment soon after separation or who already have the
necessary skills to be competitive in the job market in an appropriate
occupation.
Self-Employment: For individuals who have limited access
to traditional employment, need flexible work schedules, or who require
more accommodation in the work environment due to their disabling
conditions or other life circumstances.
Employment Through Long-Term Services: For individuals
who need specialized training and/or education to obtain and maintain
suitable employment.
Independent Living Services: For individuals who are not
currently able to work and need rehabilitation services to live more
independently.
Ninety-six percent of program participants are currently in the
Employment through Long-Term Services track. Given that most Veterans
in the VR&E program require significant support and re-training to
obtain a suitable job, it stands to reason that this is the most widely
used employment track. The services provided under this track include
payment of all training costs, associated fees, books, supplies, and
other required resources that are necessary for achievement of a
suitable career goal.
Generally, Veterans must complete a program within 12 years from
their separation from military service or within 12 years from the date
VA notifies them that they have a compensable service-connected
disability. Depending on the length of program needed, Veterans may be
provided up to 48 months of full-time services or their part-time
equivalent. These limitations may be extended in certain circumstances.
Currently, there are nearly 1,100 professional Vocational
Rehabilitation Counselors (VRC) who deliver services through a network
of nearly 350 field locations reporting up to their Regional Office
(RO) of jurisdiction. These offices support Servicemembers and Veterans
where they are located which currently includes 56 ROs, the National
Capital Regional Benefits Office (NCRBO), approximately 142 VR&E out-
based offices, 71 military installations for the Integrated Disability
Evaluation System (IDES), and 104 VetSuccess On Campus schools/sites.
VR&E works with VBA's Office of Field Operations to provide
oversight, policy guidance, communications, and advice to the field
structure. As the Executive Director of VR&E, I communicate with the
field on a daily basis and am heavily involved in all aspects of VR&E
program field operations. Since coming on board in September 2018, I
have instituted a comprehensive Change Management strategy to support
Servicemembers, Veterans, family members, employees, and key
stakeholders through the modernization process. I have traveled
throughout the country conducting modernization townhalls to share
VR&E's vision for program excellence and to engage in discussion with
both VA Central Office and operational staff on key topics of interest
and concern and solicit critical input to help guide and shape the
future of our program. These listening sessions have included customer-
centered design focus groups with student Veterans who have been
instrumental in informing and shaping the modernization process. I will
continue to do this at every possible opportunity. VR&E has a Field
Advisory and Change Committee (FACC) that is actively involved in
rolling out the vision and messaging key changes and new initiatives.
FACC meets once each quarter.
There are three significant initiatives currently underway to
strengthen VR&E's ability to monitor and ensure proper program
execution and compliance. First, in partnership with our District
Offices, the VR&E program office (in VACO) will expand its ability to
provide program oversight by 80 percent, in partnership with our
District Offices. Our new model will ensure collaborative oversight of
each RO, every fiscal year. Second, VR&E's Quality Assurance (QA)
Transformation will increase program effectiveness and efficiency
through new instruments tailored to better evaluate compliance and
performance using an issue-based scoring methodology, a statistically
valid sampling methodology, and a revised QA Web system where both the
local and national reviews will be completed in the same system to
allow for comparative analysis. QA modernization will enable us to get
a more accurate picture of the performance of our program and the areas
needed for targeted training of staff at the national, RO, and
individual level. Third, technology initiatives will increase our
capability to monitor and assess program operations, enforce
compliance, expand access controls, drive higher quality outcomes, and
eliminate service delivery inconsistencies.
VR&E Program Outcomes
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, our highly skilled and dedicated
counselors assisted 15,997 Veterans to achieve a positive outcome. This
is an increase of 3 percent from Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 and includes the
following:
10,735 Employment rehabilitations
597 Independent Living rehabilitations
794 Education rehabilitations
603 Maximum Rehabilitation Gain (MRG) - employed
3,268 Maximum Rehabilitation Gain - employable
MRGs account for where VR&E contributed substantively to a
Veteran's success in achieving employment or continuing education,
where the goal may differ from the original rehabilitation plan
objective.
In addition, VR&E continued to engage, address, and resolve the
number of program participants in a case status that has been open for
more than 10 years. Since this initiative started in July 2015, program
participants in this status decreased by 63 percent. This has helped in
increasing the achievement of more positive outcomes.
VR&E has implemented a new program metric in FY 2019-the VR&E
Program Growth Rate, which measures the percentage of Veterans who have
been determined to be entitled to the program and enter a plan of
services. This metric will help us focus on increasing participants in
the program. To support increased program growth, we are preparing to
deploy Artificial Intelligence capabilities to streamline appointment
scheduling, reminders, and simplify other communication touch points.
This is one of many optimization advancements we will discuss today.
FY 2019 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Vetsuccess on Campus
(VSOC) program. The VSOC program began as a pilot in 2009; since then,
the program has undergone multiple expansions. The most recent occurred
in FY 2018 when an additional 8 VSOC counselors were assigned to 10 new
schools in the country. The VSOC program now has 87 counselors, who
serve 104 Institutions of Higher Learning across the country. In FY
2018, over 86,000 student Veterans, Servicemembers, and dependents
attended a VSOC school and had access to a VSOC counselor. VSOC
counselors provided services to 44,687 of these students.
VR&E continues to collaborate with the Department of Defense to
provide VR&E services to Active Duty, Reserve, and National Guard
Servicemembers through the IDES program. There are 145 IDES counselors
at 71 military installations across the Nation. These counselors
provide early intervention counseling and other available services to
IDES participants and other wounded, ill, and injured Servicemembers.
In collaboration with the U.S. Army's Warrior Transition Command, staff
members jointly visit select IDES sites to improve the referral process
and services at these military installations. The Committee's long-term
support for automatic VR&E entitlement for wounded, ill, and injured
Servicemembers is greatly appreciated.
VR&E also continues to collaborate with the U.S. Department of
Labor and the public workforce systems in each state and territory.
Together, we work to ensure that enrolled Veterans receive labor market
information to assist them in making informed decisions about selecting
their rehabilitative training program. This referral process assists
each Veteran in getting the best information and service available
through each of these partners.
VR&E continues to support transitioning Servicemembers, Veterans,
and qualified dependents who are eligible for VA education benefits.
This program (Educational and Vocational Counseling) is authorized
under title 38, United States Code, Chapter 36, and offers a wide range
of services, including but not limited to adjustment counseling,
vocational testing, educational and career counseling, and VA benefits
coaching. These services are available to most Servicemembers within 6
months of their anticipated discharge, Veterans within 1-year post-
discharge, or any Servicemember, Veteran, or dependent that is eligible
for specified VA education benefits. VR&E is collaborating with the
Office of Transition and Economic Development (TED) to create a new
strategy and vehicle for contracted title 38, chapter 36, services
currently managed by VR&E, which is responsive to the needs of student
Veterans and transitioning Servicemembers. Chapter 36 benefits offer a
wide range of educational and vocational counseling services to
Servicemembers, Veterans, and dependents who are eligible for one of
the VA's educational benefit programs.
Also, we have consistently heard Veterans say that they did not
remember hearing about the VR&E program in their Transition Assistance
Program (TAP) classes. While the TAP curriculum includes content on
VR&E services, we recognize that we need to improve upon how this
content is delivered. In previous testimony
Ms. Margarita Devlin, the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for
Benefits, informed this committee that VA will be improving upon the
TAP curriculum with the ability to add additional time based on the
2018 National Defense Authorization Act. VR&E Service is collaborating
with TED to ensure that we incorporate Veteran feedback into the
improvements to the VR&E program content.
Training for VR&E staff is a major focus; four new counselor
training, instructor-led, and Web-based sessions have been conducted
this fiscal year. Approximately 156 new counselors who were hired have
attended these sessions. The training focused on policy and procedures
and was designed to enhance the knowledge and skill sets of the newly-
hired counselors.
VR&E Longitudinal Study
VR&E service has continued tracking Veteran cohorts in the
congressionally mandated 20-year longitudinal study. This study of
Veterans who began their VR&E programs in FY 2010, 2012, and 2014 has
provided an abundance of information including detailed analysis of
cohort trends and Veteran satisfaction with VR&E services. From last
year's iteration of the study, we found that nearly 90 percent of
participants for all cohorts reported moderate to high program
satisfaction; women make up a larger percentage of the program
participants (17-20 percent); and about two-thirds of cohort members
have a service-connected disability rating of about 60 percent or
higher. The study also revealed that almost one-quarter or more of
participants in each cohort have a primary rating for posttraumatic
stress disorder, and around 90 percent of Veterans who have achieved
rehabilitation from an employment plan were employed in the past year.
The study further indicates that Veterans who successfully complete the
VR&E program report more positive economic outcomes to include higher
employment rates, number of months worked, annual earnings, annual and
individual income, and home ownership, as compared to those Veterans
who discontinued their participation in the VR&E program over time.
Rehabilitation remains one of the most dominant variables driving
positive financial outcomes. Therefore, we know that keeping our
Veterans in the program until completion, is a key factor to their
success. Our ``Modernization and Transformation'' efforts will greatly
assist in improving rehabilitation outcomes.
VR&E Modernization & Transformation
VR&E has embarked on a comprehensive multi-year modernization
effort to improve customer service by streamlining processes and
modernizing systems. VR&E Service, in conjunction with the Office of
Business Process Integration and the Office of Information and
Technology (OIT), has developed and is moving forward with an
overarching plan to incrementally modernize VR&E by streamlining
several of the administrative functions with existing technology
solutions to include implementation of the Case Management Solution
System (CMSS). CMSS will replace VR&E's existing 20-year old legacy
system, Corporate Waco, Indianapolis, Newark, Roanoke, Seattle
(CWINRS). Requests for information from industry in FY 2018 yielded
valuable information on commercially available products. VR&E will
leverage Software as a Service which will enable VR&E to grow with
technology and re-engineer processes to support digital and paperless
initiatives. We anticipate award before the end of FY 2019 to acquire
these capabilities.
Concurrently, VR&E is pursuing a wide-reaching modernization effort
that will include numerous opportunities to incrementally leverage
existing people, processes, and technology to more efficiently prepare
us to seamlessly transition into the new CMSS. These include:
Virtual Assistant: Artificial Intelligence platform which
will enable routine bidirectional electronic communication with
Veterans through either text message or email. This technology is
readily available in the marketplace with similar applications
successfully employed in other industries such as Medical, Hospitality,
and Banking.
VA Video Connect: The new VA Video Connect application
for tele-counseling connects Veterans with their counselors from
virtually anywhere, using encryption to ensure a secure and private
session. The app makes VR&E appointments more convenient and reduces
the travel time for Veterans, especially those in rural areas. It
allows quick and easy access from any mobile or Web-based device
(desktop, smartphone, or tablet). Tele-counseling is a service delivery
option that provides the capability to meet Veterans on their terms,
creating greater flexibility, convenience, and access. Since deployed
in November 2018, VR&E has seen an increase in usage of over 200
percent averaging over 1,000 VA Video Connect appointments per month
using this updated platform. It is clear that Veterans and VR&E
counselors are embracing the functionality and flexibility that this
option provides.
e-Invoicing: The Invoice Payment Processing System (IPPS)
is an electronic invoicing platform which will enable vendors to
receive electronic authorizations from and submit electronic invoices
directly to VR&E. Once implemented, this capability will standardize as
well as streamline the invoice payment process, significantly reducing
the amount of time needed to receive, process, and pay vendors.
Paperless Claims Processing: This will enable VR&E to
store electronic records within the Veterans Benefits Management System
(VBMS) eFolder, enabling electronic access to Veteran case files,
moving VR&E toward a paperless work environment. The initiative began
in Quarter 1 of FY 2019. Shipping of closed files to the scanning
vendor will enable these files to be digitized, labeled (taxonomy), and
stored electronically in the VBMS eFolder. It also supports VBA's
ability to test this process for VR&E records, system functionality,
and will minimize impact on employees serving participants in an active
case status. Once scanned, files will be easily accessible and readily
available for case management in a fully-electronic claims processing
environment. This builds upon existing investments in VBA's
modernization efforts.
Centralized Mail: Will expand and enhance available
features of the current centralized mail process utilized by
Compensation Service to develop a separate digital portal for VR&E
mail. Centralized Mail will streamline the receipt, processing, and
filing of received mail potentially reducing mail processing time by 75
percent. Physical mail will be received in a central location, scanned,
and then disseminated to the receiving VR&E office through the
dedicated VR&E Centralized Mail portal.
As VR&E implements these changes, counselors will be able to manage
workload more efficiently and effectively, allowing more time to
provide high-quality counseling and employment services to VR&E
participants.
Concluding Remarks
Mr. Chairman, VR&E Service, leadership, and the field continue to
move in the direction of modernizing and transforming this very
consequential program. With the implementation of these initiatives
between now and Quarter 1 FY 2021, VR&E will strive toward both
substantially improving and enhancing the VR&E program. With the
implementation of each component, we will assess the impact and
improvement on the delivery of vocational rehabilitation services to
our Servicemembers and Veterans with service-connected disabilities.
My vision is to continually challenge the status quo, to think
differently to provide Veterans with the benefits they have earned in a
manner that honors their service, in the way they want to be served,
that VR&E be a modern 21st Century facilitator of economic opportunity
for Servicemembers, Veterans, and their families - the crown jewel of
VBA's benefits portfolio.
This concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to
answer any questions from you, the Ranking Member, and other members of
the Subcommittee.
Prepared Statement of Patrick Murray
WITH RESPECT TO
Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Program
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis and members of the
Subcommittee, on behalf of the men and women of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars (VFW) and its Auxiliary, thank you for the opportunity to present
our views on this important benefit.
The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service (VR&E)
provides critical counseling and other adjunct services necessary to
enable service-disabled veterans to overcome barriers as they prepare
for, find, and maintain gainful employment. VR&E offers services on
five tracks: re-employment, rapid access to employment, self-
employment, employment through long-term services, and independent
living.
The VFW views VR&E as a critical tool in promoting success for our
veterans. It is at the forefront in ensuring veterans can remain in the
workforce and stay employed in meaningful careers. Once a veteran
receives a disability rating, and cannot continue along their original
path in the workforce, they must choose a different route for their
career. This is where VR&E is critical because it helps veterans remain
employed by providing training and education for an alternative career.
A vital part of the VR&E program is the counselors who assist
veterans with their claims. The counselors are the key component in
assisting veterans with their rehabilitation plan for VR&E. However,
for VR&E counselors, training and standardization is the largest area
of improvement needed for this program.
Far too often VFW service officers encounter veterans who are
eligible to receive VR&E benefits but were originally denied by the
VR&E counselors. The subjectivity of approving eligibility leads to
veterans being denied the benefit, when in fact they should have been
approved immediately. There needs to be a more standardized way to
approve the eligibility of veterans, and further training of
counselors, so recipients do not have to fight for a benefit they
deserve.
Additionally, while the counselors should guide their clients
towards making sound financial decisions with their VR&E benefit, we do
not feel the counselors should deny claims based entirely on if there
are cheaper alternatives. The counselors should work with their clients
to prevent waste and abuse of the benefit, but veterans should be
allowed to have some agency in where they receive their training. VR&E
is not a blank check, but counselors should factor in the entirety of
the training received and not simply the overall cost. The VFW was
recently informed of a veteran facing difficulty with VR&E claims
processing. The counselor is pressuring the student to attend a public
non-profit university because it is cheaper than the private non-profit
university the veteran would like to attend. Approving or denying
claims based on cost does not serve the best interest of veterans who
use the VR&E program.
VA budget documents state that the VR&E program will meet and
sustain the congressionally mandated goal of 1:125 counselor-to client
ratio. However, the latest data in the VA budget document also shows
that from 2016 to 2018, the number of VR&E participants fell from
173,606 to 164,355--more than a five percent decrease. During that same
period, VR&E's caseload also dropped from 137,097 to 125,513--an 8.4
percent decline. It would appear that VR&E is able to meet the 1:125
goal by serving fewer veterans. We understand that there have been
major changes and upgrades to the entire program, which would enable
veterans who were unable to use or were unaware of their VR&E benefits.
VA must consider whether more staff is needed to meet such increased
demand.
The VFW supports adding more VR&E counselors on military
installations, and also on college campuses. The Veteran Success on
Campus (VSOC) program is an incredibly valuable resource for those
utilizing the VR&E benefit at colleges. Currently, there are VR&E
counselors on 71 military installations and 104 VSOC representatives on
campuses. Given how positive the feedback is from both universities and
students, the VFW urges Congress and VA to expand this program to as
many locations as possible.
While VR&E is an employment program, it is commonly used for
training on college campuses. The processing of VR&E claims to
universities is where we hear about a lot of VR&E problems. The
processing of chapter 31 claims takes months to go through the system
leaving some universities without payment for multiple semesters. In
some cases, students are not allowed further enrollment until payments
are made, and in others, students are being counseled to voluntarily
not enroll until the delayed payments are made. The delays in
processing VR&E payments are negatively affecting users of this
program. This problem must to be rectified immediately.
Another obstacle in utilizing the VR&E program is the 12-year
delimitating date for eligibility. Counselor have the ability to waive
that requirement, so it is not as much a barrier for acceptance, as it
is a barrier for veterans seeking to apply. A common complaint we hear
from our members when we recommend VR&E is that do not think they are
eligible because they are past the 12-year window. We urge Congress to
pass H.R. 444, which would eliminate the 12-year delimitating date for
eligibility and provide veterans vocational rehabilitation for life.
Service-disabled veterans must be authorized to receive access to VR&E
services at any point during their employable lives when service-
connected disabilities interfere with their employment, but also as the
economy changes to learn new employable skills.
Another improvement the VFW would like to see is expanded tracking
of veterans who complete their VR&E goals. Attaining employment after
completing the program is important, but sustaining that employment is
equally important. Tracking the long term success of veterans can help
to build improvements into the program to better help current and
future VR&E users. We suggest adding to the VR&E program a follow on
service that checks in with VR&E participants at certain dates once
they have completed the program, to ensure the program was ultimately
successful.
Finally, the VFW calls upon VA to better explain VR&E and its uses
before service members separate during the Transition Assistance
Program (TAP). A consistent complaint from our members is they were
unaware of the VR&E program, and who is eligible for it. A lot of
disinformation is spread by word of mouth, and there is a lot of
confusion about eligibility, and exactly how the program can be used.
Some veterans are approved to use VR&E to attain advanced degrees, and
others are denied the same opportunity. The flexibility of VR&E is one
of the best parts of the program, but not having standardized usages
leads to a lot of confusion and resentment towards VA. A more robust
discussion of the program within TAP classes would help mitigate some
of the confusion surrounding VR&E and may guide more veterans towards
using it if there is better information presented earlier.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. Again, the VFW thanks
you and the Ranking Member for the opportunity to testify on these
important issues before this Subcommittee. I am prepared to take any
questions you or the Subcommittee members may have.
Prepared Statement of Derek Fronabarger
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and distinguished members
of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity, thank you for inviting Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) to
testify on the effectiveness of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program.
Wounded Warrior Project's mission is to honor and empower the
wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans of the Post-9/11
generation. Through community partnerships and free direct programming,
WWP is filling gaps in government services that reflect the risks and
sacrifices that our most recent generation of veterans faced while in
service. Through more than a dozen direct-service programs, we connect
these individuals with one another and their communities; we serve them
by providing mental health support and clinical treatment, physical
health and wellness programs, job placement services, and benefits
claims help; and we empower them to succeed and thrive in their
communities. We communicate with this community on a weekly basis and
are constantly striving to be as effective and efficient as possible by
matching our programs - and our advocacy before Congress - to meet
warriors' needs.
Forming Our Perspective on Veteran Employment
Overview
Currently, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reports an
unemployment rate for veterans of 3.8 percent \1\. Although this
historically low level of unemployment reflects a positive trend across
the general veteran population, based on data from our WWP Annual
Survey and feedback from our warriors, WWP recognizes that employment,
education, and debt remain areas of need for warriors registered with
our organization. As discussed in more detail below, our internal data
indicates that warriors who are wounded, ill, or injured have
additional challenges when faced with the military to civilian
transition, and especially in entering into a productive long-term
civilian job.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/vet.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While our population is resilient and able to adapt to life's
challenges, sustainable employment is widely regarded as the key to a
healthy military to civilian transition. VA's Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment Program (VR&E) helps disabled veterans in that process.
Although there are challenges with VA's VR&E Program, there are also
areas where there has been much improvement. This testimony will cover
our own demographic, the history behind the VR&E Program, current
information technology (IT) improvements, and our recommendations for
improvement.
Wounded Warrior Project's Employment and Education Demographic
Each year, WWP administers the largest survey of warriors who
served on or after September 11, 2001. In 2018, over 33,000 respondents
completed the survey, which asks a range of questions to help us better
understand the population we serve and adapt our programs,
partnerships, and advocacy to meet their needs.
In Focus: Alumni Education
Among 2018 WWP Survey respondents, 55.8 percent indicated they were
currently enrolled in an institution of higher education and utilizing
the Post-9/11 GI Bill, whereas 27.9 percent of our warriors surveyed
indicated they were enrolled in VR&E. Our population has a higher than
average usage of the VR&E program compared to the general veteran
population. With approximately 900,000 student veterans currently using
the Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill and 125,513 veterans enrolled in
Chapter 31 VR&E benefits, around 14 percent of the veteran population
is utilizing the VR&E benefit. We attribute this increase of usage in
our population to our mission to assist the wounded, ill, and injured
veterans of this generation. Additionally, the WWP survey indicates
that the warriors we serve are utilizing the VR&E benefits at higher
rates year over year, whereas the usage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is
decreasing each year (see Figure 1).
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
As warriors pursue higher education for employment, some are
incurring student loan debt. We know through our WWP Alumni Warrior
Survey that finical difficulties can have a negative impact on
veterans. The biggest trend that we have seen in student loan debt in
our constituency is those with $30,000 or more in student loan debt
increasing steadily since 2016. In 2016, 28.2 percent owed more than
$30,000. In 2018, 32.5 percent owed more than $30,000 (see Figure 2)
\2\. Specifically, regarding WWP alumni that are currently enrolled in
VR&E, we see that over 33.6 percent have student loan debt of over
$30,000 (see Figure 3).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/183005/2018-wwp-
annual-warrior-survey.pdf
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Focus: Alumni in the Work Force
Among all warriors that participated in the survey, 55.1 percent
are employed in paid work. Paid work can be considered either full-time
or part-time. Eleven percent of our warriors indicated that they were
unemployed. This is a decrease from 2016, where 13.2 percent indicated
they were unemployed. While we recognized that our unemployment rate is
higher than the Bureau of Labor and Statistics findings (BLS), this can
be attributed to all respondents in our survey report having a
disability status whereas the BLS information includes all veterans.
Sixty-two percent of our alumni report having a VA disability rating of
80 percent or more, which can lead to a higher rate of unemployment.
Notably, unemployed warriors indicated the primary reason for not
entering into the workforce was:
61.7% - Medical/health conditions (or treatment) prevent
them from working
15.6% - Retired
13.8% - In school or in a training program
3.9% - Would have liked to work but have become
discouraged about finding work and did not look for work in the past 4
weeks
3.0% - Family responsibilities
2.0% - Other (non-service-connected disability) medical/
health condition (or treatment) prevents them from working
In our survey, we asked the 61.7 percent of warriors that indicated
``medical or health conditions prevented them from working'' to list
factors that made it more difficult for them to obtain employment. The
top findings included \3\:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/183005/2018-wwp-
annual-warrior-survey.pdf
33.6 percent indicated that it was due to ``mental health
issues'' and
30.1 percent indicated that it was ``difficult for me to
be around others.''
As VR&E expands its role in ensuring veterans are employed for the
long term, those with potential mental health concerns might benefit
from additional counseling in civilian workforce assimilation.
Recommending veterans with mental health challenges work with a
specialist that focuses on integration into the civilian work
environment can be as beneficial as physical rehabilitation is for
those with physical wounds. Below are comments made by our warriors
regarding problems adapting to the civilian workplace:
I only feel comfortable in combat. I do not feel
comfortable in civilian life or trust it.
I think the most challenging thing is where in the
Military you have a certain routine that everyone is used to and then
you get out here in the civilian world, and there's a whole Whirlwind
of changes and getting acclimated as well as trying to find common
ground with people you'll be exposed to on a daily basis.
Dealing with civilians & finding work that is flexible
enough to permit me to go to my appointments.
Regarding difficulty in employment, it is not that no one
will hire me because of my injury or disability, but because they later
will force me out of the job for that reason because I need to go to
the hospital or appointments so much for my disabilities.
Meeting Needs Through WWP Programs
Wounded Warrior Project's Warriors to Work Program assists veterans
searching for jobs after military service, with a particular emphasis
on providing assistance at transition. This program provides a range of
services designed to meet veterans wherever they are in their job-
seeking process. We assist warriors with resume building, job
placement, interview skills, and skill translators. WWP recognizes that
meaningful employment is critical to a successful transition from
military to civilian life. Service-connected disabilities often make
finding meaningful and long-lasting employment difficult. As WWP
programming is designed to fill gaps in government services and raise
awareness for federal, state, and local resources that exist, Warriors
to Work staff members regularly recommend the Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment Program to those whose disability affects their long-
term employment.
Overview of Chapter 31, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
Program:
Under Chapter 31 of Title 38, the VR&E program is intended to be an
entitlement program that provides employment opportunities through job
training and other employment-related services, to include education,
job search services, and small business start-up funds. The goal of the
VR&E program is to evaluate and improve the veteran's ability to
achieve a vocational goal; provide services to qualify for suitable
employment; enable a veteran to achieve maximum independence in daily
living; and, enable the veteran to become employed in a suitable
occupation and to maintain suitable employment as outlined in 38 U.S.C.
Sec. 3104; 38 C.F.R. Sec. 21.70(a). Development of an Individualized
Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP) is required for each veteran
eligible for rehabilitation services under Chapter 31, 38 C.F.R. Sec.
21.80(a). An IWRP is prepared in each case when a veteran will pursue a
vocational rehabilitation program or an extended evaluation program.
The plan will be jointly developed by VA staff and the veteran, and the
terms and conditions of the IWRP must be approved and agreed to by the
Counseling Psychologist (CP) or the vocational rehabilitation
specialist (VRC), and the veteran. In FY18, 165,943 veterans received
evaluation and counseling services with a total of $1,431,562,000 spent
on the VR&E program \4\.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34627.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While the VR&E program is primarily an employment service, in the
case where a disabled veteran is unable to work, the VR&E program
provides independent living (IL) assistance, which is aimed at making
sure that eligible veterans are able to live independently to their
maximum capacity. For up to 28 months, individuals in the IL assistance
program may be entitled to assistive technology; specialized medical,
health, and rehabilitation services. Enrollment into the IL assistance
program is capped at 2,700 participants per year.
To be eligible for assistance under VR&E, a veteran must have at
least a 10 percent VA disability rating and found to have a ``serious
employment handicap,'' or at least a 20 percent VA disability rating
and found to have an ``employment handicap.'' Once qualified for
services through VR&E, a veteran may be placed into one of five
different tracks:
Employment through Long-Term Services - The Employment
through Long-Term Services is for veterans who require university-level
education or vocation training to become employable. This track is
currently the most frequently used track.
Self-employment *- While not utilized as much as some of
the other programs, the Self-employment program assists veterans in
starting their own company with start-up funds, equipment, training,
and business plan review.
Rapid Access to Employment - Considered the quickest way
to employment, the Rapid Access to Employment track relies on a network
of vetted employers to place veterans directly into the job field.
Reemployment - If a disabled veteran wishes to and is
capable of reemployment in a job they had before their disability
occurred, but current working conditions are not suitable for their
disabilities, the Reemployment track can assist with employer
disability training and adaptive equipment for the veteran.
Independent Living - If the disabled veteran is
considered unemployable, the Independent Living track can assist by
offering the veteran 28 months of assistive technology and training on
independent living skills.
While VR&E benefits are typically limited to 48 months, these
tracks can be extended. Additionally, veterans may change tracks if
their disability worsens, which is critical for veterans with medical
issues that evolve over time.
It is the responsibility of VA to ensure it has made reasonable
efforts to inform and assure the veteran's understanding of the
services and assistance that may be provided under Chapter 31 to help
them maintain satisfactory cooperation and conduct, and to cope with
problems directly related to the rehabilitation process, especially
counseling services.
History of Chapter 31, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
Program:
In 1918, P.L. 65-178, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act provided
retraining assistance for disabled veterans who served in the U.S.
military and naval forces and was administered by the Federal Board for
Vocational Education. In 1921, administration of the program was
transferred to the newly created Veterans' Bureau. In 1943, P.L. 78-16
was enacted which broadened eligibility and authorized up to four years
of educational assistance to restore employability to disabled
veterans. While in the intervening years the scope of the program has
been modified and expanded, in 1999, the name was officially changed to
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment in order to emphasize the
program's focus on employment rather than education. The goal was to
inform veterans that education was a tool available to those in the
VR&E program, but employment was the ultimate goal. In 2003, the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, via the 110 recommendations made by a
task force and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), formed the
separate employment tracks and indicated that better measures and
monitoring with a focus on employment could improve the performance of
the program.
The VR&E program is administered by the Under Secretary of Benefits
at VA. There are two primary individuals working the day to day
operations of the VR&E program. The VR&E Service Director determines
policy and priorities and the Deputy Under Secretary of Field
Operations manages and allocates employees to 56 regional benefits
offices. VR&E uses a decentralized approach that has over 350 local
offices and 1,335 staff, including Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors
(VRC), Employment Coordinators, and support staff.
In practice, VR&E staff workload is dictated by the number of
veterans applying for VR&E benefits, the number of those veterans who
enter into the program, the number of new cases versus the completion
of current ongoing cases, the change in military strength overall, and
the influx in military service-related injuries and illnesses. These
are the areas that VR&E leadership should track to judge potential
influxes or lapses in case workload.
Current IT and Case Management System Updates
Recently, WWP spoke with the office overseeing the VR&E program at
the VA headquarters regarding its new Case Management System, which is
replacing its Corporate Windows Remote Shell System (WINRS). We were
very pleased with the current progress of the IT transformations, and
the innovate approach this office is taking to address known shortfalls
in the VR&E program.
VA will implement seven separate modernization initiatives starting
in the first quarter (Q1) of FY19 with scheduled completion in the
fourth quarter (Q4) of FY21. Currently, the VR&E program has
implemented the first four of the seven initiatives. These seven
initiatives are:
Initiate eFolder (Q1 FY19) -Will ensure that VR&E begins
using an eFolder to electronically store documents that were formerly
completed using paper.
Scan Surplus Cases (Q1 FY19) -Will scan closed cases into
the eFolder, so there is a digital archive of all cases.
E-Invoicing (Q1 FY19) - Will create a standardized
invoice processing system which will drastically reduce the
administrative burden currently placed on counselors and administrative
staff.
Virtual Assistant (Q2 FY19) - A virtual assistant program
that will assist in scheduling appointments via text messages, emails,
and other platforms to ensure counselors can better utilize their time.
Centralized Mail (Q4 FY19) - Will eliminate the need for
manual processing in receiving mail and streamline the intake of paper.
Active Folder Scan (Q4 FY19) - Will allow paper reports
to be uploaded into the eFolder to helpfully transition to a paperless
operation.
Case Management Solution Service (Q4 FY19) - Will utilize
all former changes to re-engineer processes to serve veterans better.
Of these seven initiatives, WWP is particularly excited for the
Virtual Assistant and E-Invoicing provisions. The Virtual Assistant is
an artificial intelligence platform which will enable VA to communicate
with the veteran through text messaging or e-mail. One aspect that WWP
finds innovative is the ability for veterans to confirm their
appointment via text or alter the appointment through the Virtual
Assistant.
WWP spoke with Vocational Counselors around the country. They
indicated that the E-Invoicing initiative would drastically reduce
administrative functions and allow counselors more face-to-face time
with veterans. Additionally, warriors going through the VR&E program's
Employment through Long-Term Services suggest that delayed payments to
educational institutions have an extremely negative impact on their
performance. These delays are disruptive to the veteran's educational
and employment goals. It is our hope that the new E-Invoicing provision
will cut down on instances where veterans are denied college supplies,
books, and even barred from classes, due to delayed invoice payments or
errors on behalf of the VA.
Additionally, VR&E will be introducing a Tele-counseling ability
using VA's Video Connect Software. WWP is pleased that VA has
incorporated this tool as well. We find that at times, it can be
difficult for veterans to drive to a local office due to time
constraints or location. Using Tele-counseling will drastically reduce
``no-shows'' and allow counselors to have more interaction with the
veteran. VA has also incorporated Dragon Speech Recognition software
for counselors to dictate their notes in a timelier manner. VR&E's
approach in using Software as a Service (SaaS) such as the Dragon
Speech Recognition and Virtual Assistant is an innovative approach that
we recommend VA adopt more widely. SaaS software can many times be more
cost effective, easy to update, and easy to change as technology
evolves and becomes more complicated. We applaud VR&E for being one of
the first VA offices to utilize commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
products to more efficiently achieve positive results for veterans.
WWP is optimistic for the current IT and Case Management Software
updates that VA has and will continue to implement in the upcoming
fiscal year. We find it encouraging that many of the provisions
outlined in this section were recommendations made by VSO testimony in
previous years.
VR&E 20 Year Study
In 2008, Congress enacted P.L. 110-389, the Veterans Benefits
Improvement Act of 2008. This legislation required VA to conduct a 20-
year longitudinal study of veterans who entered into one of the five
VR&E tracks. Three cohorts from FY10, FY12, and FY14 were chosen to be
a part of the study. The intent is to determine long-term employment
outcomes after a veteran exits the VR&E program.
In a GAO report from 2014 titled, VA Vocation Rehabilitation and
Employment - Further Performance and Workload Management Improvements
are Needed (GAO-14-61), GAO advises VA to increase their management and
data collection on this 20-year study.
These annual reports help organizations like WWP identify areas
where we might need to focus information for our constituents. In 2016,
VA released information showing that 81.2 percent, or 111,270
individuals, participating in Chapter 31 education benefits are OEF,
OIF or OND veterans \5\. This information helps WWP understand where
potential lapses in care might be and how we can assist.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Longitudinal
Study (PL 110-389 Sec. 334), 2017.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommendations for Improvement
Raise Awareness and Improve Clarity/Intentions
The process to enroll in Chapter 31 educational benefits appears
significantly different between locations where the program is offered.
While one veteran is entitled to participate in a graduate degree
program, another veteran will be authorized for an associate degree
program even though both veterans have similar backgrounds and goals.
This is primarily due to an ambiguous and seemingly subjective process
for the establishment of the entitlement. WWP recommends that the VA
and the VSO community educate veterans on the intent of the program
before applying for VR&E benefits. This benefit is an employment
benefit that utilizes education as one of its many tools for
employment. For the Employment through Long-Term Services to be
considered the correct track, the veteran's disability must be
interfering with their ability to obtain employment and their education
benefits already depleted. This program is not an additional education
program to assist the veteran in obtaining a masters or higher
education degree debt free. However, if a counselor deems that a master
or higher education degree is in the best interest of the veteran due
to their disability, then they can authorize the veteran to enroll in
classes.
Additionally, there is anecdotal evidence of applicants being told
to a) apply to less expensive online programs; b) denied approval with
little explanation, and c) refused utilizing of the program for a
graduate level degree even if it is in the best interest of the
veteran. We have also heard from VRCs that inappropriate staffing is a
continual issue, especially in large population locations, and
counselors are continually pressured by leadership to lower the average
cost of each veteran using the program. A common complaint we have
heard from veterans is the inability to switch to another counselor if
they feel their current counselor is not assisting with reaching their
employment goals. These are all issues that we recommend VA address
with internal policy changes.
Increase Subsistence Allowance
WWP requests that VA align its subsistence allowance to those
outlined in Chapter 33 of Title 38. While a subsistence allowance is
necessary for a veteran to complete the Chapter 31 employment goals, a
common complaint is the amount does not translate equally among rural
areas versus city living. The VR&E subsistence allowance of
approximately $900 per month does not have the same financial
assistance power in Los Angeles, CA as it does in Charleston, SC. We
have heard of reports where veterans discontinue their participation in
the program due to financial difficulties. In the 2014 GAO report, 18
percent of veterans who withdrew from their employment services cited
``financial difficulties.'' Another 27 percent indicated ``family
obligations,'' which could be considered financial difficulties as well
depending on the situation \6\.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ https://www.gao.gov/assets/670/660160.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to our 2018 Warrior Survey, the top three most common
forms of debt are car loans, credit cards, and mortgage debt (see
Figure 3). A veteran experiencing financial hardship regarding their
car or home loan will affect their ability to attend VR&E courses or
counseling. Because ``financial difficulties'' are common with those
enrolled in VR&E, we recommend a pilot program to assist veterans
deemed to be at risk of financial hardships to receive financial
literacy classes through VR&E. If a large population of veterans is
discontinuing their participation due to financial hardships, a program
to address financial issues before they become catastrophic could
increase the veteran completion rate.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Counseling and Financial Assistance
As outlined by the comments our warriors made regarding the
workforce (see ``In Focus: Alumni in the Work Force''), warriors often
feel challenges in transitioning from the military to the civilian
workforce. They can feel left out or unwelcomed, and at times,
isolated. Because of this, WWP recommends a pilot program offering
mental health counseling to those with invisible wounds and general
classes on adapting to the civilian workplace for all veterans
receiving VR&E counseling. WWP also recommends that VRCs emphasize the
need to attend medical appointments while participating in the program
because sufficient health maintenance can become more challenging upon
entering the workforce.
Additionally, due to the high amount of student loan debt for those
with disabilities rated at 100 percent, WWP recommends that VR&E
counselors include Department of Education Student Loan discharge
information for any veteran who is 100 percent VA disabled.
Change the Program Name
WWP recommends VA change the name of Chapter 31, Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment Program. We recommend VA remove the word
``Rehabilitation'' and replace it with something more appropriate for
21st-century life. At the present time, the word ``rehabilitation'' or
``rehab'' is associated with programs for those seeking assistance for
substance abuse. In 1918, when the VR&E program was launched,
``rehabilitation'' was defined as:
Noun 1. Rehabilitation - the restoration of someone to a
useful place in society
-the treatment of physical disabilities by massage and
electrotherapy and exercises \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ https://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Rehabilitation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, that same term is defined by the same dictionary as:
Noun 1. Rehabilitation - the action, process, or result
of rehabilitating or of being rehabilitated: such as:
-the process of restoring a person to a drug- or alcohol-free state
-process of restoring someone (such as a criminal) to a useful and
constructive place in society \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rehabilitation
While the word ``rehabilitation'' was appropriate in 1918, it is no
longer widely used in the same fashion today. To alleviate confusion
among those not familiar with the program, including prospective
employers, Congress should consider a new name that more appropriately
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
conveys the nature of the VR&E program to civilians in 2019 and beyond.
Improve Staffing Model
Current statute requires VA to maintain a VR&E Counselor to veteran
ratio that does not exceed 125 veterans to one full-time employee \9\.
While VA has hired additional counselors, and the improved IT and Case
Management System are promising, we recommend that Congress and VA
reevaluate what an appropriate ratio is. It might be that with more
complex cases going through VR&E 125 is too many or that with the new
Case Management System and other IT changes, Vocational Counselors are
able to serve more veterans at one time and not become overburdened.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ P.L. 114-223
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Improve the Self-Employment Track
The VR&E Self Employment track is for veterans who have limited
access to traditional employment and might need a flexible work
environment to accommodate disabilities. Assistance may include
business plan development, training in operations of small business,
and most importantly, access to start-up funds for a small business.
Access to capital is considered one of the biggest barriers of entry
for starting a small business. While we agree that the Self Employment
track is not suitable for everyone, we do feel that it is currently
underutilized due to the complexity and risk in establishing a
successful employment outcome for someone wanting to start their own
business.
Wounded Warrior Project recommends a closer look into this track to
find ways to work with other federal organizations, such as the
Veterans Employment and Training Service office at the Department of
Labor and the Small Business Administration to promote this track to
more veterans while ensuring proper spending of public dollars.
Improve Employment Placement
The ultimate goal of the VR&E program is to provide long-lasting
employment. There is a direct correlation between job satisfaction and
the likelihood of resigning from a job within 12 months. According to a
national survey of American workers, 40 percent of employees who
reported an expectation to leave their job within the first 12 months
cited that they were ``less than satisfied'' with their employment
\10\. We also know through our survey that veterans are gravitating
towards federal, state, and local government jobs \11\. In 2015, 32
percent of all new government hires were veterans \12\. While veterans
are applying for these open positions in record numbers, we have heard
from VRCs that it can be difficult finding federal employment for
participants. This can be due to the complexity of applying and
obtaining employment in the federal government. WWP recommends a pilot
program to streamline veterans who are in the VR&E program into open
positions at VA. By working with VA's internal Human Resource Office,
the VR&E program can direct veterans into healthcare related fields
with the goal of filling critically needed VA positions. Currently,
there are 45,239 open vacancies at the VA \13\ and around 125,000
participants in the VR&E program. This seems to be a natural fit for
those looking for employment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ http://www.hrcouncil.ca/documents/LMI--satisfaction--
retention.pdf
\11\ https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/183005/2018-wwp-
annual-warrior-survey.pdf
\12\ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hiring-retention/2016/11/
veterans-made-32-percent-new-government-hires-2015/
\13\ https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5104
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Closing Remarks
While Chapter 31, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program
have some exciting changes in the form of how it administers the
benefit, there remain concerns and areas for increased investment and
focus. In FY18 there were:
27,194 new enrollees,
66,772 participants who carried over from FY17,
597 were added into the Independent living program,
10,735 were in a non-education employment program,
794 were in an education program,
603 gained employment,
3,268 were considered employable but did not have a job,
and
15,550 were discontinued
Most concerning is the 15,550 veterans that were discontinued from
the program and the 3,268 veterans that were considered employable but
had not received a job yet. While the new case management system will
likely assist the Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors with bandwidth
issues, we hope that VA does not increase case workload, but instead,
focus on lowering these two data points and addressing more deeply the
needs of veterans seeking work. While there will always be veterans who
do not perform at the standard needed to remain in a program, this
amount seems unusually high. It is our assumption that some of the
veterans that were discontinued were due to issues that could have been
resolved if the counselor had the time to understand the individual
frustrations or limitations of the veteran.
Wounded Warrior Project thanks the Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity, its distinguished Members, and all who have contributed to
the policy discussions surrounding this issue. We share a sacred
obligation to serve our nation's veterans, and WWP appreciates the
Subcommittee's effort to identify and address challenges and successes
we see within VAs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program.
Prepared Statement of Jeremy M. Villanueva
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis and Members of the
Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting DAV (Disabled American Veterans) to testify
at this oversight hearing of the Subcommittee of Economic Opportunity
regarding the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program
of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
DAV is a congressionally chartered national veterans' service
organization of more than one million wartime veterans, all of whom
were injured or made ill while serving on behalf of this nation. To
fulfill our service mission to America's injured and ill veterans and
their families, DAV directly employs a corps of more than 260 National
Service Officers (NSOs), all of whom are themselves wartime service-
connected disabled veterans, at every VA Regional Office (RO) as well
as other VA facilities throughout the nation. Together with our
chapter, department, transition and county veteran service officers,
DAV has over 4,000 accredited representatives on the front lines
providing free claims and appeals services - including for VR&E
programs - to our nation's veterans, their families and survivors.
We represent over one million veterans or survivors, making DAV the
largest veterans' service organization (VSO) providing claims
assistance. This testimony reflects the collective experience and
expertise of our thousands of dedicated and highly trained service
officers who provide free claims and appeals assistance to hundreds of
thousands of veterans and survivors each year.
Our mission begins with the principle that this nation's first duty
to veterans is the rehabilitation and welfare of its wartime disabled.
This principle envisions vocational rehabilitation and/or education to
assist disabled veterans to prepare for and obtain gainful employment
so that the full array of talents and abilities of disabled veterans
are used productively.
In fact, all of DAV's National Service Officers have received or
are currently receiving services through VR&E as part of the DAV
National Service Officer Apprentice Program through a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with VA's VR&E program.
I testify before you today, not just as an advocate for disabled
veterans but also representing a successful outcome of VR&E. As a
veteran of the United States Marine Corps I had utilized my educational
benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill and attained a bachelor's degree
at California State University of Bakersfield in 2013. However, due in
part to my disabilities, I could not obtain gainful employment that
utilized my college education. When I was hired by DAV in 2014, I was
enrolled in VR&E, provided a vocational plan that took into
consideration my service-connected conditions and assisted in my first
16 months of employment as a National Service Officer (NSO) where I
personally assisted veterans with their VA claims, to include applying
for VR&E benefits. I completed the DAV NSO Training Program in October
2015 and was promoted to DAV's office at the Board of Veterans' Appeals
in July 2016 where I represented veterans before Veterans Law Judges to
help secure their earned benefits before being appointed to my current
position on DAV's legislative staff. I am an example of how VR&E can
help a veteran find the path to economic success that is best suited
for that individual.
VA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
The VR&E program, also known as the Chapter 31 program, assists
veterans and service members with service-connected disabilities and an
employment barrier to prepare for, obtain, and maintain suitable
employment. Veterans with at least a 20 percent disability evaluation
or a 10 percent evaluation with a serious employment handicap meet the
eligibility criteria. VR&E provides comprehensive services to include
vocational assessment, rehabilitation planning, and employment
services. For veterans with service-connected disabilities so severe
that they cannot immediately consider work, the VR&E program offers
services to improve their ability to live as independently as possible
within their families and communities.
VR&E administers these benefits through a decentralized service-
delivery network comprised of nearly 360 offices throughout 56 regions,
each anchored by an RO. As of the end of fiscal year (FY) 2018, VR&E
was comprised of a workforce of 1,645 staff, including Vocational
Rehabilitation Counselors (VRC), Employment Coordinators, support
staff, and managers.
VR&E's workload is driven by a number of factors, including: (1)
the number of veterans applying for rehabilitation benefits and
services; (2) the number of veterans who enter into the development and
implementation of a rehabilitation plan; (3) the associated growth of
disability claims consistent with the ongoing reduction of the claims
backlog; (4) changes to total volume of military separations due to
military end-strength policy; and (5) frequency/severity of service-
related injuries/illnesses. Once a veteran or service member applies
and is determined eligible for services based on service-connected
disability rating and honorable discharge, the veteran meets with a VRC
to complete a comprehensive vocational assessment. The VRC will then
make an entitlement determination based on the counselor's interview
that determines whether the veteran's disabilities impair their ability
to find and hold a job. If the veteran or service member is not
entitled to VR&E services, the counselor will assist with any necessary
referrals for other services such as referrals to state vocational
rehabilitation programs, local employment agencies, or other local or
state training programs.
The cycle of an active VR&E case may extend up to and beyond six
years. This is necessary to provide adequate training for veterans so
that they can obtain employment that accommodates their disabilities
and provides a career foundation that is appropriate to their
education, abilities, and ambition. In addition, counselor follow-up
after securing an occupation is crucial to ensuring the veteran is
employed and will stay employed.
When service-disabled veterans seek to reintegrate, they should be
knowledgeable about not only what educational and occupational benefits
are available but which one is right for them. While the GI Bill
focuses on education and training, VR&E counselors work with veterans
to develop an individualized development plan following one of five
tracks:
Reemployment - for veterans who served in active military
service or in the national guard or reserves, and are now returning to
employers for whom they worked, prior to going on active duty;
Rapid Access to Employment - for individuals ready to
seek employment after separation and have the necessary skills to be
competitive;
Self-Employment - for individuals who have job skills to
start a business;
Employment through long-term services - provides an
extended period of training and rehabilitation services to ensure that
veterans acquire the skills necessary to obtain and maintain suitable
employment;
Independent Living (IL) - for individuals unable to work,
provides support to achieve maximum independence in daily living and,
whenever possible, increase the individual's ability to participate in
an extended evaluation to explore the potential to return to work
While many veterans will utilize the GI Bill and thrive, there are
many who would be better served by one of VR&E's five tracks. The
importance of the veteran knowing which option they would be better
suited for cannot be understated.
In 2008, Congress passed the Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act,
which required VA to conduct a 20-year longitudinal study of veterans
who applied for and entered into a plan of services in the VR&E program
in fiscal years (FY) 2010, 2012, and 2014. These three cohorts are
being followed annually for 20 years each. Survey data collection
started in 2012 for the first two cohorts and in 2014 for the last
cohort. The primary focus of the VR&E Longitudinal Study is on the
long-term employment and standard of living outcomes for VR&E
participants after they exit the program.
The preliminary results from these studies are showing that VR&E is
an effective program that enhances the economic outlook for the
veterans who utilize it. In the VR&E Longitudinal Study Annual Report
2018 for FY 2017, it reported that approximately 90 percent of veterans
who have achieved rehabilitation from an employment plan were employed
in the past year for all three cohorts and that amongst Cohort 1 and
Cohort 2, the rate of homeownership was higher than the general
population of the United States (70 percent and 67 percent versus 64.2
percent, respectively). Combine this with reported incomes that are at
least $18,000 dollars higher than for those who discontinued the
program, VR&E is proving to be a valuable resource to America's
disabled veterans.
But there are some areas to improve upon. Rural and economically
disadvantaged veterans continue to have barriers to access to benefits.
Despite data showing how beneficial VR&E can be, participation rates in
the programs are down even as the target population is growing. We are
concerned that VA's hiring of new counselors to strengthen the program
and increase services to disabled veterans, is being negated by
utilizing these counselors to do administrative tasks. In addition,
VR&E is suffering from a lack of resources and funding.
DECREASE IN PARTICIPATION
VA's Budget Request for FY 2020 states that the VR&E program will
meet and sustain the congressionally mandated goal of 1:125 counselor-
to client ratio. However, the latest data in the VA budget document
also shows that from 2016 to 2018, the number of VR&E participants fell
from 173,606 to 164,355--more than a five percent decrease. During that
same period, VR&E's caseload also dropped from 137,097 to 125,513--an
8.4 percent decline. It would appear that VR&E is able to meet the
1:125 goal by serving fewer veterans. VA's Principal Under Secretary
for Benefits acknowledged the decrease before this Subcommittee during
a hearing in April 2019 and indicated VBA could not explain why this
occurred. We are concerned that the lack of counselors over the years
has finally caught up to VA and participation in VR&E has dropped
because of this. We question if VR&E has instituted any new policies or
practices that have deterred disabled veterans from seeking these
services and what action is VA taking to increase awareness of the
availability and benefits of VR&E services.
We are troubled that this decrease comes at a time when the latest
VR&E Longitudinal Study finds that the number of participants had been
increasing with each cohort. Cohort II (FY 2012) is 43 percent larger
than Cohort I (2010) and Cohort III (2014) is 95 percent larger than
Cohort I. Also, the study notes that the all three cohorts consist of
younger veterans who are more likely to have served during the Gulf War
II era, with two-thirds of these veterans having a service-connected
disability rating of 60 percent or higher.
The decrease in participation is particularly concerning when
viewed with the current statistics released by the Bureau of Labor and
Statistics. In March 2019, the Bureau released its report that showed
of Gulf War II era veterans, 41 percent had a service connected
disability rating and, of that 41 percent, 50 percent had a rating of
60 percent or higher. And participation of that era of veteran is
growing. Beginning in 2016, Gulf War Era veterans became the largest
veteran cohort. Additionally, across all generations, the rate of
service-disabled veterans who are unemployed has remained statistically
higher than veterans with no disability, 5.2 percent compared to 3.5
percent.
COUNSELOR-TO-VETERAN RATIO
The transition of service-disabled veterans to meaningful
employment is strengthened by VA's ability to provide vocational
rehabilitation and employment services in a timely and effective
manner, but the demands and expectations being placed on the VR&E
service are exceeding the organization's current capacity. DAV's
Resolution No. 191 supports strengthening the VR&E service to meet the
demands of service-disabled veterans by providing increased staffing
and funding, a timelier and effective transition into the workforce,
and placement follow-up with employers for at least six months.
Public Law 114-223 calls for VR&E not to exceed 125 veterans to one
full-time employee (FTE). In the FY 2020 VA budget request, an
additional 70 VRCs were requested to provide comprehensive
individualized services in geographical areas where the ratio exceeds
125:1. In 2018, VR&E's rolling average counselor caseload ratio was
131:5.
While the request for 70 additional FTE is encouraging, the total
FTE for that time period only rose by four. According to the Summary of
the Budget Request, the total FTE increase between 2018 and 2020 is 18
FTE and only four between 2019 and 2020. We question where the
additional 70 counselors will come from and if VA is adding counselors
at the expense of other staff? Additionally, VA noted in its assessment
of the recent tele-conferencing pilot program that VRCs who
participated in the program ``had to assume duties that were generally
completed by Program Support Staff-the scheduling of appointments,
monitoring of attendance, sending 10-day letters, and completing
closure activities for those applicants who did not show for their
scheduled appointments.'' Increasing counselors but losing other
essential staff undercuts the benefit of achieving the 125:1 ratio.
TELE-COUNSELING
In early 2017, the VA initiated a pilot program in the St.
Petersburg RO with 3 VRCs that used secure video teleconferencing
technology to enable them to remotely counsel veterans. VR&E's tele-
counseling application was developed through a partnership with VHA's
VA telehealth services. The purpose of the pilot program was to give
veterans who have busy schedules, live in rural locations, and/or face
transportation challenges easier access to VR&E benefits and resources.
This initial pilot included 196 VR&E applicants and VA reported the
following findings:
82 of the 196, or 42 percent of the potential
participants, indicated an interest in taking part in the pilot;
Of the 58 percent who were not interested in
participating, the most commonly stated reason was lack of access to a
computer or internet; the next most cited reason was the preference to
have an in-person meeting with their VRC;
Of those who participated in a tele-counseling session,
the average travel time saved was four hours. Of note, seven
individuals that were not determined to be entitled would have had to
drive between four and six hours roundtrip just to be told they were
not entitled to VR&E benefits.
This past March, VR&E expanded tele-counseling services nationwide
to over 1,000 counselors. We are encouraged that VR&E has taken steps
to reduce travel requirements to both veterans and VRCs alike,
facilitate better case management, and help veterans to obtain their
benefits more efficiently. It should be noted though, that this program
should remain an option for veterans and not standard protocol. The
pilot program showed that there were significant numbers of veterans
who preferred face-to-face meetings with their counselors. In addition,
VA needs to address the ``digital divide'' issues so that rural and low
income veterans who do not have access to reliable internet or
computers are not excluded from participation. A collaborative effort
between Microsoft Corp and VA to extend broadband internet connectivity
to underserved rural veteran communities is one example of how the VA
can address this issue. Extension of broadband services is essential to
the success of not only tele-counseling but also tele-health.
VETERANS ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ADMINISTRATION
In order to further strengthen VA's education, economic
opportunities and transition programs, to include VR&E, DAV supports
the creation of a fourth administration within the VA, which would be
comprised of VBA programs currently under the purview of the Office of
Economic Opportunity (OEO). The new Veterans Economic Opportunity and
Transition Administration (VEOTA) would include critical programs such
as VR&E, the GI Bill and the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) for
transitioning service members.
At present, VA is comprised of three administrations: VBA, VHA, and
the National Cemetery Administration. VBA includes not only
compensation and pension programs for veterans, but also education
programs, VR&E, home loan, veteran-owned business programs, and the
broadly defined transition program, which is shared with DOD and the
Departments of Labor (DOL) and Homeland Security. All of these programs
are currently overseen by the OEO, which is to be led by a Deputy Under
Secretary. However, that position has been left vacant for years and it
does not appear that the vacancy will be filled any time soon.
Currently, the OEO programs inside VBA must compete for resources
and focus with the Compensation, Pension and Insurance programs, of
which compensation is by far the largest and tends to dominate the
attention of VBA leadership and personnel. Because of the scale and
scope of the claims and appeals processing reforms in recent years, it
has been challenging for VA's economic opportunity (EO) programs to
compete for adequate funding, specialized resources, and other
prioritization. For example, while VBA has boosted resources to support
the modernization and streamlining of the claims and appeals process
for the past several years, other important programs such as VR&E have
actually seen a stagnation of resources and oversight. Between 2014 and
2018, VR&E participation increased by approximately 17 percent while
the funding rose less than two percent.
For VR&E to fully reach its potential it needs a leadership
structure that's success rests solely on the success of the economic
opportunity programs. The creation of this fourth administration would
provide greater accountability to Congress when problems such as low
participation rates and the misallocation of resources come to light.
In addition, by having an Under Secretary who is held accountable for
the actions and success of VR&E and other EO programs, greater
oversight can be accomplished and results improved.
Mr. Chairman, VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program
has shown time and time again that it is a useful resource for service-
disabled veterans who are looking to utilize their given skills and
talents to improve their quality of life. We look forward to working
with this Subcommittee to make sure that VR&E continues to ease and
expand access to this important resource for America's disabled
veterans. This concludes my testimony on behalf of DAV. I would be
happy to answer any questions you or other members of the Subcommittee
may have.
Prepared Statement of Steven Henry
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and distinguished members
of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) appreciates this
opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee about the effectiveness
of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment programs (VR&E).
Vocational rehabilitation has been an integral part of this
nation's commitment to veterans with disabilities since Congress first
established a system of veterans' benefits upon entry of the United
States into World War I in 1917. VR&E, which is sometimes referred to
as the Chapter 31 program, provides services to eligible service
members and veterans with service-connected disabilities to help them
prepare for, obtain, and maintain suitable employment or achieve
independence in daily living. Unfortunately, because VR&E is such a
small program, it receives a lot less attention and much less funding
than other programs in the Veterans Benefits Administration like
disability compensation.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, VR&E had 132,218 veterans who
participated in a rehabilitation plan, \1\ including those who began a
plan in that year or previous years. About three-quarters (76 percent)
of the veterans participating in VR&E have a serious employment
handicap, which must result in substantial part from a service-
connected disability. These veterans, when participating in the
program, may receive additional supportive services, which include
extensions of entitlement and adaptive equipment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ https://www.benefits.va.gov/VOCREHAB/docs/2017LongStdy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PVA believes that the effectiveness of VA's VR&E programs could be
greatly improved through a number of changes that include greater
outreach to veterans to raise awareness about the benefit; continued
collaboration with outside agencies and programs; and increased follow
up time with participants.
Lack of Communication and Outreach to Veterans
PVA has found that VR&E usage throughout our membership is rather
low. We do not believe that this is due to a lack of interest, but
rather a lack of understanding of how the program works. One PVA member
recently noted that he learned about the program only after he had
returned to the workforce following his injury. Another was vaguely
aware of the program but thought he was no longer eligible even though
he actually retained eligibility. These are common occurrences, and
it's possible that the program is being overshadowed by the Forever GI
Bill which is widely advertised through a multitude of venues.
We often hear how great and beneficial VR&E is; however, there is a
clear lack of communication and outreach to all disabled veterans. In
FY 2018, roughly 4.75 million veterans had service-connected
disabilities, \2\ but less than 3 percent of them utilized VR&E
services. If you were to ask the average veteran about VA benefits,
most could explain key elements of the disability compensation program,
but very few know basic facts about VR&E.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ https://www.va.gov/vetdata/docs/QuickFacts/SCD--quickfacts--
FY2018.PDF.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VA must do a better job explaining the advantages of participating
in VR&E to veterans with service-connected disabilities. Unfortunately,
many younger disabled veterans see VR&E as strictly an employment
program and feel they are better suited for the Forever GI Bill. VA
should conduct a national outreach effort, perhaps in collaboration
with veterans service organizations, regarding VR&E services.
Ensure Access to Services
A veteran's eligibility period for receiving services from VR&E is
for a 12-year period beginning on either: (1) the date of separation
from military service, or (2) the date the veteran receives a VA
disability rating. To receive services, a veteran must need vocational
rehabilitation to overcome employment barriers due to a service-
connected disability. A veteran's entitlement to participate in VR&E
services is 48 months.
For veterans who have incurred a catastrophic disability, the 12-
year delimiting date may not be sufficient to allow them to meet their
vocational rehabilitation goals. Furthermore, many of these veterans
have disabilities that may continue to evolve and worsen over time,
which may cause them to need additional assistance. Veterans with
service-connected disabilities must have access to the vocational
rehabilitation services that allow them to continue to work throughout
their lives.
Although a VR&E counselor may waive the 12-year limit for veterans
with serious employment barriers, veterans living with the wounds,
injuries, and illnesses associated with military service should have
certainty that if they need assistance in staying in or returning to
the workforce in the future that this program will be there to assist
them.
Limiting eligibility harms veterans, particularly those with
catastrophic disabilities by failing to foster the conditions necessary
to allow them to be a part of their communities and contributing
members to our nation's economy. Ensuring continued access to VR&E
services could help veterans with disabilities fulfill their full
potential and we greatly appreciate this Subcommittee's recent approval
of H.R. 444, the Reduce Unemployment for Veterans of All Ages Act of
2019, which seeks to lift the arbitrary 12-year time limit.
Continue Collaboration with Public and Private Partners
As a result of the barriers to employment faced by our members, PVA
launched its own vocational rehabilitation and employment program in
2007, Paving Access for Veterans Employment (PAVE). With offices in
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Long Beach, Richmond, San Antonio, Minneapolis,
and San Diego PAVE serves all veterans nationwide using a hybrid,
integrated approach to assist veterans and transitioning service
members who face significant barriers to employment, as well as their
spouses and caregivers.
PAVE offices were originally co-located in VA medical facilities,
increasing the collaboration between VR&E and PAVE personnel and
ensuring a stronger safety net for veterans with disabilities. Due to
space constraints at VA medical facilities, this is no longer the case,
and only the Richmond and San Antonio PAVE staff work side-by-side with
VR&E. PVA has seen a decrease in referrals from VR&E since when we had
to move staff to other locations.
PAVE provides clients with one-on-one career counseling and
assistance. The program's services are available to any veterans with
disabilities, including those whose disabilities are not related to
their military service. PAVE counselors offer proactive, rapid
engagement to ensure newly injured or ill veterans quickly learn about
the services and supports available to help them return to work.
Importantly, the program is a partner for life to ensure clients'
continuing success. All services are provided at no charge.
Continuing to foster new partnerships to ensure that veterans with
disabilities, particularly those who have catastrophic disabilities,
can be successful in returning to work is needed to stretch VR&E's
existing resources. For example, PAVE counselors have noted that they
can more quickly begin providing vocational assistance because there
are fewer procedural hurdles to clear for eligibility. Another
important aspect of these partnerships is the ability of private
partners to serve veterans who are ineligible for VR&E services, along
with the caregivers and family members of all veterans who may need
these services. Thus, these partnerships allow more veterans to receive
high-quality assistance.
VA's VR&E program must also continue to foster relationships with
other government programs that have responsibilities to help veterans
with disabilities obtain and retain employment. For example, the
Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS)
administers programs that play a key role in assisting veterans with
disabilities in obtaining employment. We are pleased that VR&E now
reports that 100 percent of VR&E clients are referred to the state
workforce system and the assistance available through federally-funded
Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists. We urge
continued and increased collaboration and an evaluation of the success
of these referrals for VR&E clients.
Collaborating with public and private partners is an important way
to ensure that veterans with disabilities will be able to receive the
services and supports needed to allow them to build successful
employment outcomes. VR&E must continue to do community outreach to
find experienced, credible partners to meet gaps that will result in
more veterans with disabilities being placed in competitive, integrated
employment sooner. Sometimes, as was the case when PAVE moved out of VA
facilities, out of sight can mean out of mind.
Increase Follow Up Time
VR&E counselors typically follow veterans for 60 days once they are
placed in a job. After that time, VA will close the veteran's case, and
the placement will be deemed a success. We are concerned, however, that
60 days is not enough time to determine whether or not a veteran who
has a catastrophic disability has successfully adjusted to working as a
person with a disability.
Most people find it at least somewhat challenging to settle into a
new job. For someone who has acquired a disability, there are
additional challenges that must be met including those related to
needed accommodations, evolving medical needs and appointments, and
other disability-related matters that can unfold over a period of time.
Furthermore, employee probationary periods may be longer than 60 days,
in some federal positions probationary periods can last up to a year or
even longer.
PVA believes that, at the very least, VR&E should study whether or
not the current tracking standard of 60 days is sufficient follow up
time. For employees with probationary periods over 60 days, longer
follow up time may allow for problems that could lead to dismissal to
be addressed, resulting in the veteran remaining employed. Regardless
of the length of a probationary period, if any, it makes sense to
increase the follow-up time to ensure that the veteran has the
supports, if needed, to ensure a successful transition to the
workforce. That's why our PAVE counselors conduct ongoing follow up for
veterans placed through their program.
Long-term support may be needed to help a veteran with a
catastrophic disability to not only successfully transition back to the
workforce but also to remain in the workforce. If a veteran is not
successful in the workplace, they may suffer setbacks to include a
belief that work is not possible, even when the problem was lack of
support. Not all jobs turn out to be the right fit, but no veteran
should feel that their only option is to leave the workforce when the
proper supports and assistance would allow him or her to be successful.
America cannot afford to waste the talent of these veterans who have
much to offer to our society.
Enhance Independent Living
Despite best efforts, veterans who have significant disabilities
may be unable to enter the labor market. In 1980, Congress passed a
pilot program designed to assist these veterans by providing them with
needed services and resources to increase their independence and
ability to participate in their families and communities. Through the
Independent Living program, VA can guide these veterans in the
development of goals and provide the information, referrals, and
continuing case management needed for success in achieving them. A
number of creative alternatives to employment preparation can be
recommended, purchased, or approved by a veteran's counselor to enhance
a veteran's quality of life.
VA's Independent Living (IL) program was initially limited to 500
veterans. Over time, the program proved to be a critical option for
improving the rehabilitation experiences of catastrophically disabled
veterans. Congress raised that number a couple of times, and currently,
2,700 veterans are permitted to begin the IL program each year. This
limit can be waived to accommodate veterans who have been adversely
affected by a natural or other disasters, as determined by the VA. \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ See 38 U.S.C. 3120(e)(2). This change was made by Section
701(c) of P.L. 112-154, Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp
Lejeune Families Act of 2012.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PVA believes the cap should be raised so VA can accept any veteran
who could benefit from the program. Also, VR&E counselors must be well-
versed in the Independent Living program to ensure that those who are
eligible and who would benefit most from participation are given the
opportunity to do so. Once a veteran is in the program, counselors must
also closely track referrals for VA service and benefits to ensure that
those referrals are addressed. Otherwise, the program will fail the
veterans it serves, and their independence will be compromised.
In sum, without the proper services and supports, veterans with
catastrophic disabilities are in danger of falling out of the workforce
permanently. Such a loss means decreased financial security and social
opportunities. VA's VR&E program provides critical access to needed
services and supports for veterans with service-connected disabilities.
An investment in VR&E is an investment in helping veterans with
disabilities return to work and ensuring their long-term rehabilitation
and success.
PVA thanks the Subcommittee for the opportunity to express our
views and we welcome any follow-up questions you may have.
Prepared Statement of Tanya Ang
Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Bilirakis, and Members of the
Committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the Department
of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
(VR&E) program. Veterans Education Success works to advance higher
education success for veterans, service members, and military families,
and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill and other
federal education programs. We strongly believe holistic support and
access to high-quality post-secondary education and training for
workforce development provides opportunities for those who have served
our country to successfully transition from military service into the
civilian workforce and continue to be strong contributors to our
nation's economic wellbeing. We believe that VR&E is one of VA's most
effective program to accomplish such.
VR&E is designed to provide support for veterans and servicemembers
with service connected disabilities the opportunity to receive the
necessary support to ``prepare for, obtain, and maintain suitable
employment.'' \1\ The benefits provided by this program are
significant; yet, despite its important role, it often flies under the
radar by policymakers. It is appropriate and necessary for the
Committee to continue to give VR&E the attention it deserves.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment (VR&E) Longitudinal Study (PL 110-389 Sec. 334): Annual
Report 2018 for FY 2017. https://www.benefits.va.gov/VOCREHAB/docs/
2017LongStdy.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over the last ten years as I have worked with military-affiliated
students, and the institutions of higher learning that support them,
I've heard consistent feedback about the program and veterans' concerns
in three areas I would like to bring to the Committee's attention: (1)
Technology, (2) Staffing, and (3) Inconsistency of counseling and
direction provided by Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors.
These 3 areas of concern also arose during the May 2018
Congressional hearing about the program. Witnesses testimony included
the insufficient client-to-counselor ratio, the proposed cut of
approximately $59 million dollars to the program for the FY 2019 VA
Budget, and the lack of training and consistency for counselors.
Since that time, we want to acknowledge that VA has been proactive
in addressing a number of these concerns, including increasing the
amount of funding requested in the FY 2020 budget proposal. Most of
that requested increase is aimed at hiring 70 more counselors to meet
the statutory mandate of no more than 125 clients per counselor and for
the continued roll out of a modernized case management system that
automates invoice payment processing in the early part of FY 2020. They
have also employed a tele-counseling pilot program and other technology
to create ease of access. \2\ VES supports VA's requested funding for
FY 2020 and urges Congress to approve it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. FY 2020 President's Budget
Request. March 11, 2019. https://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/
fy2020VAbudgetvolumeIIIbenefitsBurialProgramsAndDeptmentalAdministration
.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While we are hopeful for what appears to be a positive path forward
for the program, we believe there are still areas that deserve
attention and need to be addressed.
The Need for a Modernized Case Management System
The last time the case management system for VR&E was updated was
over two decades ago, in 1997. Complaints from both students and school
administrators have revolved around the challenges School Certifying
Officials (SCOs) have faced with, what one school administrator
referred to as, the black hole of certification. This is not surprising
as it is still a paper-based file system.
Students have gone up to six months without receiving payments,
causing undue financial hardship. When SCOs contact VA Regional Offices
for updates, they are left with little information and much frustration
as they work to find ways to provide answers and support for their
student veterans struggling to stay in school.
In 2015, the VR&E office was authorized to work with the VA Office
of Information & Technology (VA OI&T) to modernize their case
management system. In spring of 2018, after approximately $12 million
was spent on trying to update the system, the program was scrapped. \3\
Since then, VA has been working to effectively update the system and,
according to VA officials, plans to roll it out this fall.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity Hearing, ``A Review of VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Program'' https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=sxQ8Wuktal4&feature=youtu.be
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given the recent challenges VA OI&T has experienced with its last
attempt to modernize this system and the rollout of sections 107 and
501 of the Harry W. Colmery Act, we urge careful Congressional
oversight. We remain cautiously optimistic about previewing this system
in the coming months.
Insufficient and Inadequate Veteran Resource Counselors
Veteran Resource Counselors are crucial to the success or failure
of the program, yet many barriers currently exist to prohibit them from
achieving the level of success they could. With the modernization of
the case management system, we believe some of these barriers should,
in theory, be removed since it will automate some of the administrative
burden. That said, we still remain concerned about the following
issues:
Client-to-Counselor Ratio - We applaud VBA's concerted effort to
reduce the number of clients per counselor but question the current
legislative mandate of 125 clients to one counselor. The program is
set-up to offer individualized plans specific to the needs and
challenges of each client. This type of support is necessary to help
the veteran successfully accomplish his or her goals, yet the time it
takes to provide such support and follow-up can be labor intensive. \4\
We believe it would be beneficial to further explore if the current
client to counselor ratio is effective. We encourage the Committee to
consider decreasing the Congressionally mandated ratio to something
more along the lines of 85 clients for each counselor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ The American Council on Education. ACE;s 2015 Servicemember and
Veteran Academic Advising Summit Report. 2015. https://www.acenet.edu/
news-room/Documents/2015-Veterans-Programs-Summit-Report.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Challenges with Conflicts of Interest - We are also concerned about
the recent news of James King, a VR&E Counselor who pleaded guilty in
October 2018 to bribery, fraud and obstruction for demanding and
receiving bribes from three for-profit schools in exchange for
directing disabled veterans to those schools, in a kickback scheme. \5\
In addition to lying about the types of training his clients were
receiving, Mr. King threatened one veteran that his benefits would
lapse if he did not attend one of the three schools Mr. King was
conspiring with. Additionally, he forced a student to pursue training
in a vocational program he was not physically able to perform due to
his service-connected disability. This individual had communicated his
desire to pursue training to become a baker, yet that path was not
financially beneficial for Mr. King.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ The U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Veterans Affairs
Official Pleads Guilty to Bribery, Fraud, and Obstruction in $2 Million
Scheme Involving Program for Disabled Military Veterans. October 26,
2018. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-veterans-affairs-
official-pleads-guilty-bribery-fraud-and-obstruction-2-million
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While this example is clearly egregious in nature, it highlights
the importance of ensuring counselors are not in positions where there
is a clear conflict of interest. We would encourage Congress to ensure
stronger conflict of interest provisions and oversight.
Concerns about the Power of Counselors and Inadequate Requirements
of Quality - The story of Mr. King also highlights the amount of power
and influence counselors have in approving or disapproving a veteran's
educational path. In the past three years, I have worked with at least
three students who were admitted into top tier universities. They were
also accepted into low-quality schools that did not produce the same
outcomes, but because that institution accepted one credit of PE from
the student's Joint Services Transcript, the counselor forced the
individual to choose the lower quality school because it would be more
cost effective.
While the VR&E program is focused primarily on vocational training
and is not an education benefit, the student was going to receive
higher quality training that would lead to more opportunities within
the career field they were pursuing. It took months of petitioning to
get each of those students into the higher quality programs. These are
not isolated cases. Many examples exist of disabled students steered
away from Ivy League and top-notch colleges - which would significantly
enhance their career trajectory - and instead towards low-quality
schools that are much less respected on the job market.
Not all counselors will railroad students in this manner, but they
all possess the power to do so if they choose. This highlights the need
for ensuring consistency in guidelines and expectations for counselors,
in particular requiring counselors to consider the quality and future
earnings trajectory of a college, as there are wide differences among
colleges. We would encourage the Committee to require quality
considerations in VR&E college selections, using, for example, GI Bill
Comparison Tool metrics. We also believe students should have a more
prominent voice in the selection of the institution or program they
choose to pursue.
Veterans have also complained about inconsistency in what they are
allowed, or not allowed, to pursue related to education. One student
might only be allowed to pursue a two-year degree while their peer is
approved to pursue a doctorate degree. While this program is indeed a
rehabilitation program to allow veterans the opportunity to get
necessary training for their specified career path, veterans should
have the opportunity to use their full 48 months to pursue training
that will allow them to increase their ability to be a substantive
contributor to the American economy.
Proper Training and Consistent Expectations - Additionally,
counselors should continue to receive ongoing training. In his May 2018
testimony, former Director Jack Kammerer referred to a Competency Based
Training System the Department was planning to roll out during the 2019
fiscal year. \6\ The concept sounds promising, but we would encourage
VA to ensure the trainings incorporate comprehensive information for
all five tracks in the VR&E program and require annual training to stay
abreast of current issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Statement of Jack Kammerer, Director, Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment, Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of
Veterans Affairs Before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. May, 18, 2018. https://
docs.house.gov/meetings/VR/VR10/20180517/108251/HHRG-115-VR10-Wstate-
KammererJ-20180517.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack of All Trades, Master of None - In a Government Accountability
Office report, veterans cited challenges with their counselor's
inability to help them translate their military service into federal
civilian employment and frustration that a counselor did not adequately
describe the physical challenges of the job given the veteran's
physical disabilities. \7\ Veterans using the VR&E program are
supported by their Counselors to develop individualized plans following
one of five tracks: Reemployment, Rapid access to employment, Self-
employment, Employment through long-term services, and Independent
Living. The counselor is expected to be a subject matter expert on each
of these tracks. That is an impossible standard to meet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ U.S. Government Accountability Office. Report to Congressional
Committees, ``VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment: Further
Performance and Workload Management improvements Are Needed.'' 2014.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/670/660160.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By analogy, if a veteran visits a VA Health clinic for a specific
health issue, they visit a specialist. An orthopedic surgeon is not
going to be able to effectively help a patient who is having
respiratory issues. Why not apply the same standard to veterans who
need vocational rehabilitation?
In some of the regional VR&E offices, counselors are assigned
subject matter experts for one area. In other offices, there is concern
about maintaining continuity of counselors and the impact it can have
on persistence and successful completion of a program. \8\ While there
is no clear-cut answer on how to address this issue since what works in
some offices may not work in others, we agree with the GAO report
recommendations on conducting field research to identify and publish
promising practices for client support for each of the field offices.
VA also agreed with this recommendation. We believe it would be helpful
for this Committee to learn if this was completed and what the outcomes
were. Subject matter expertise is worth the Committee's consideration.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Ibid
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Recommendations
As Congressman Arrington mentioned in his opening statements for
the May 2018 hearing, VR&E should be the ``crown jewel'' of programs,
yet it unfortunately falls short in ways the Post-9/11 GI Bill does
not. \9\ When the Forever GI Bill was passed in 2017, Congress removed
the 15-year delimiting date and included restoration of entitlement to
students whose schools closed. We agree with our colleagues at Veterans
of Foreign War, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Disabled American
Veterans who have called for the removal of the 12-year delimiting
date. \10\ Those using VR&E should also have the same restoration of
entitlement their peers receiving the Post-9/11 GI Bill enjoy. They
pursue programs of study based on the guidance and direction of their
counselors and only have one chance to do so. It is unacceptable that
severely injured veterans do not get their benefits reinstated when a
school closes, leaving them with wasted benefits, nothing to show for
it, and no ability to fulfill the mission of the program - vocational
rehabilitation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic
Opportunity Hearing, ``A Review of VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Program'' https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=sxQ8Wuktal4&feature=youtu.be
\10\ The Independent Budget Veterans Agenda for the 116th Congress:
Policy Recommendations for Congress and the Administration. ``Enhance
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services.'' http://
www.independentbudget.org/pdf/TIB-EAE3-Enhance-Vocational-
Rehabilitation-and-Employment-Services.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Create Rate Parity - Currently this program has two different
subsistence rates. One is at the rate of the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit
and one is at the rate of the Montgomery GI Bill benefit. Veterans in
the same program of study could have vastly different benefits. This is
confusing since, unlike the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Montgomery GI
Bill, VR&E is one benefit program. It also creates a larger
administrative burden and challenges for VA as they navigate what
subsistence rate the veteran is eligible for. This can be challenging
for a veteran and discourages them from taking advantage of a program
that could have positive lifelong impacts. Moving the subsistence rate
to one rate reduces bureaucracy, eliminates confusion, and creates
better parity for service members and veterans with service-connected
disabilities.
Transparency - Finally, VR&E does not have the same transparency as
the Post-9/11 GI Bill. No information is available on the Comparison
Tool related to where veterans pursue post-secondary education using
VR&E. Additionally, it is challenging to find current and pertinent
information other than in annual reports. Having access to this
information would be helpful for outside organizations who are also
supporting those using this program, as well as for disabled veterans
seeking information on the college outcomes of their peers.
I appreciate the Committee's continued commitment to this program
and look forward to answering any further questions you might have.