Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Post-9/11 GI Bill going smoothly, VA says

Department of Veterans Affairs officials expressed confidence that the Aug. 1 launch of the Post-9/11 GI Bill will go smoothly, with the first benefits checks to be cut by the Treasury Department on Aug. 3.

Testifying Thursday before a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee panel, the VA’s education service director said about 84,000 applications have been received, with 47,000 already processed and awaiting final certification of enrollment and calculation of tuition and fee payments.

Keith Wilson, the VA official responsible for the program, is optimistic partly because a test of the accuracy in processing claims found 92 percent were done correctly, and most of the errors “were fairly benign.”

“There was no situation when anyone was declared eligible when they were not and vice versa,” Wilson said.

The picture sounds a little too rosy for some lawmakers.

“I think I would feel more comfortable if VA came to us with problems,” said Rep. John Boozman of Arkansas, ranking Republican on the veterans’ affairs subcommittee on economic opportunity. The panel asked Wilson and other officials involved in implementing the new education program for a status briefing.

Wilson said one potential problem — a tidal wave of applications — has not happened, for reasons that are unclear. VA officials anticipated 460,000 people would use the new GI Bill this year, including about 328,000 for the fall semester. After some initial problems, VA is processing more claims each day than it receives, he said.

Boozman suggested this might be temporary if veterans are waiting for the last minute to apply.

During the hearing, Wilson noted that two important Post-9/11 GI Bill milestones are approaching.

First, VA is expected to announce next week the names of 700 institutions that will participate in the so-called Yellow Ribbon Program, in which the institution and VA agree to cover tuition costs in excess of the tuition cap set for each state based on the in-state undergraduate rate at the most expensive four-year college or university in the state. In most cases, this will allow GI Bill users to pay no tuition at participating institutions — mostly private schools but also graduate schools at public institutions and undergraduate education for nonstate residents.

Then on July 6, VA will start accepting enrollment certifications from institutions, which are needed to begin processing payment claims.

Final processing of claims cannot begin until the state tuition caps for the 2009-10 school year are set, Wilson said. That is not expected until about Aug. 1, the official effective date of the new program.