GI Bill fix worries vets’ groups, schools, VA - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

GI Bill fix worries vets’ groups, schools, VA

Legislation aimed at reducing GI Bill overpayments could have disastrous, unintended consequences, causing cash-flow problems for some schools and resulting in some students being barred from attending college if the Veterans Affairs Department is late making a proposed end-of-term payment for tuition and fees.

The fix could be worse than the problem, warned Tom Tarantino, senior legislative associate for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, one of several witnesses at a House hearing who raised doubts Thursday about HR 2301, the Streamlining Education Claims Processing Act of 2011, at a House hearing.

It was an awkward meeting of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s economic opportunity panel because the chief sponsor of the bill is Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., the panel chairman, who said he is just trying to reduce problems now facing veterans if a school is overpaid for tuition and fees because of dropped classes.

The bill, introduced June 22, drew complaints from veterans’ organizations, from two associations representing schools and from VA, which said the idea of waiting until the end of a term to pay tuition and fees to a school might cut down on VA payment errors but would create new problems.

Tarantino said the bill may be “well intentioned” but “the unintended consequences … may completely and totally destroy some veterans’ academic careers and will act as a disincentive for schools to enroll veterans.”

Curtis Coy, VA’s deputy undersecretary for economic opportunity, said the department generally supports the concept but would need time to make it work. Making the change right now would interfere with the processing of current GI Bill claims, something VA is just now bringing fully under control, Coy said.

He warned that late payments could be a problem because a flood of claims would hit at the end of every term. “VA may experience a significant increase in the number of claims submitted, which could negatively impact the average days to process claims,” he said.

Saint Leo University of Florida President Arthur Kirk Jr., who testified on behalf of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said VA might end up making fewer adjustments on payments but the program would become more complicated for institutions and veterans.

“Veterans would face difficulties registering in many colleges without payment in advance or, in places like Saint Leo, without the bill being settled for the previous term before the next term begins,” he said.

It might be possible to change school policies and reprogram computer systems to make the legislation work, but that could be very complicated. For public colleges and universities, it might require changes in state law.

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities warned that some states do not legally permit students with unpaid balances to register until the bill for the previous term is fully paid, which could force some veterans to pay out of pocket while waiting for VA.

Shane Barker, senior legislative associate for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Congress should not pass the bill without “explicit protections for veterans against any hindrances in their ability to continue their education.”

He wasn’t sure that schools would go so far as to actually bar veterans from registering if VA hadn’t paid tuition for the previous term because of the “public relations nightmare” that would ensue for the institutions.

But some schools had threatened to bar student veterans when the Post-9/11 GI Bill had start-up problems two years ago. “It took a concerted effort on the part of the veterans’ community to ensure that each individual school did not hold their veterans accountable for the shortcomings of the VA payment system,” Barker said.

Stutzman acknowledged there are reasons to move deliberately on the bill but said he is not giving up. He suggested VA work with schools to try to come up with a more error-free payment system.

“This will not be the last time we will meet on this issue,” he said.