The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) applauded the work of 20 state attorneys general, who announced this morning that the Web site GIBill.com had officially been turned over to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and that the Web site’s owner, QuinStreet, would pay $2.5 million to states as part of a settlement for fraudulent recruiting practices.
The VFW joined Sens. Dick Durbin, Tom Harkin, Richard Blumenthal, and Kay Hagan; state attorneys general Jack Conway, Beau Biden, and Lisa Madigan; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Assistant Director of Service Member Affairs Holly Petreaus; VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould and veterans' advocates this morning to announce the settlement at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“Since the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill took effect in 2009, the VFW has had a vested interest in ensuring our veterans have access to the quality education they earned,” said VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci, an Iraq War veteran who used his G.I. Bill benefits to earn his college degree. “The VFW was one of the first organizations to call attention to these kinds of misleading and dubious practices, designed to lure veterans into programs that will not help their career aspirations, and we’re proud to see that states have taken decisive action.”
For nearly a year, the VFW has said that potential student-veterans are often inundated with incomplete and, sometimes, downright inaccurate information when they seek to take advantage of their earned education benefits. Companies like QuinStreet maintain entities intentionally designed to look like official government resources purporting that student-veterans can only use benefits at schools who pay for sponsorships.
In addition to action from state attorneys general, the VFW has also voiced its support to VA’s efforts to copyright the phrase “G.I. Bill” to offer protections to beneficiaries of the benefit, similar to existing copyrights that protect Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries from fraud.
The VFW is also working diligently to improve consumer education tools for student-veterans to ensure that VA and the military can level the playing field by offering quality information to potential student-veterans by supporting legislation that would improve pre-enrollment counseling as well as consumer protections for veterans who believe they have been victims of fraud, waste and abuse.
“Before we ask our troops to make life-or-death decisions on the battlefield, we provide them with the best training, equipment and information to make the right choice. This is why we have the most competent and professional military in the world,” said Gallucci. “If we prepare our student-veterans with the same vigilance, the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill will mold our nation’s next Greatest Generation, as we intended.”
The VFW helped to draft a recent presidential executive order to improve current G.I. Bill protections, and the VFW continues to vigorously push both the House and Senate to move on pending legislation that will improve consumer information and consumer protections for student-veterans.
(Image: Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conwey demonstrates the version of GIBill.com that sparked he and 19 other state attorneys general to investigate QuinStreet during today's press conference at the National Press Club. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)
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