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Friday, July 15, 2011 | Hurlburt Warrior | Page 11
GI Bill pay delay threat from new reform bill eases
As Congress moves
closer to protecting veterans
at private colleges in
seven states from a sharp
drop in Post-9/11 GI Bill
benefits, the Department
of Veterans Affairs has
softened its warning that
the relief move will cause
significant payment delays
for many thousands of GI
Bill users this fall.
VA officials still see payment
challenges ahead if
the Restoring GI Bill Fairness
Act becomes law this
year. The House approved
its version of the bill, HR
1383, in May. The Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee
endorsed a companion
bill, S 277, on June 29. A full
Senate vote is expected
next.
A few months back,
VA officials had opposed
the bill. Keith M. Wilson,
director of the VA’s education
service, testified that
providing relief from a new
Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits’
cap to 30,000 students already
enrolled in private
colleges would require
that the VA process those
payments manually rather
than through a redesigned
computer software
program.
The administrative
burden of doing this
would “lead to a significant
increase in the
average processing time
for all claims during the
critical fall enrollment period,”
Wilson told a House
subcommittee.
But VA officials now
estimate that fewer than
6,000 of the 30,000 students
attending private colleges
in Arizona, Michigan, New
Hampshire, New York,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina
and Texas will need
relief from the benefit cap
to avoid a sharp drop in GI
Bill payments. This 80 percent
drop in the estimated
number of student vets who
would benefit from the relief
bill, and therefore would
need to have their GI Bill
payments manually processed,
lessens the threat
of widespread delays this
fall, agreed Joshua P. Taylor,
the VA’s press secretary.
But passage of the
relief bill still will pose
challenges.
“VA has been working
with the House and Senate
for some time to solve issues
created for this group
of students at higher-tuition
schools in certain states,”
Taylor said. “It is important
that we make sure any
change in law that would
provide (cap) relief doesn’t
have the effect of disrupting
administration of the program
for the larger group
of GI Bill beneficiaries.”
VA officials know what’s
in the legislation, Taylor
added. But “we cannot
Debbie Harrell
implement changes in the
system based on potential
changes in the law. At this
point, the processing of fall
enrollments has already
begun, which complicates
the situation. We would
have to process all those
claims manually now and
until the (relief) legislation
expires.”
Wilson first spoke of
30,000 students potentially
impacted because he
lacked cost data to make a
more accurate call, Taylor
said. The 30,000 is total
number of Post-9/11 GI Bill
“trainees” who attended
private colleges in the
seven states from August
2009 to July 2010.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.,
chairman of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee,
introduced the Restoring
GI Bill Fairness Act to
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Tom
Philpott
address
a problem
created
by the
Post-9/11
Veterans
Educational
Assistance
Improvements
Act
enacted
last January.
That bill improved the
new GI Bill in several ways,
all to take effect in fall of
2011. This includes allowing
benefits to be used for
non-degree education and
vocational training, and
simplifying a complex payment-setting
scheme.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill
will continue to cover full
tuition and fees at any
public college or university.
But the wide variance in
entitlement for students
attending private colleges
will end. Benefit ceilings
set in every state, based on
tuition and fees at the most
expensive state college or
university, will be replaced
by a single $17,500 annual
cap. Starting next year, that
cap will be adjusted annually
by the percentage rise in
education costs nationwide.
But the new cap left
private college students in
seven states facing hefty
unplanned out-of-pocket
costs. Individual schools
can address this by participating
more deeply in the
Post-9/11 GI Bill’s Yellow
Ribbon feature. That feature
requires VA to match
in higher payments any
portion of uncovered tuition
that a private college or
university agrees to waive.
At schools not planning
to strengthen Yellow
Ribbon participation, the
Restoring GI Bill Fairness
Act would prevent GI Bill
payments from falling for
veterans already enrolled
until they get their degree
or exhaust their benefit.
HEALTH COSTS TAR-
GETED — A new report
from the Congressional
Budget Office brightens
the bull’s eye on military
personnel accounts for
trimming future defense
spending, and it takes special
note of rising health
costs linked to military
retirees.
TRICARE, the military’s
triple health care
option, is becoming more
attractive to beneficiaries
every year because of “low
out-of-pocket expenses”
and the rising cost of health
See gi bill page 12