VFW’s Education Package Among Veterans’ Legislation Moved by the House

This morning the House Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a mark-up, passing three major pieces of veterans’ legislation supported by the VFW, including a veterans’ education package directly inspired by VFW advocacy efforts. The three bills were the Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act, or H.R. 4057; the Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act, or H.R. 5948; and the Military Family Home Protection Act, or H.R. 5747.

The VFW applauded the passage of H.R. 4057 in particular after leading the charge to introduce legislation that would offer improved consumer information to potential student-veterans on how to best utilize their G.I. Bill benefits and take action against schools, if they feel they have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse. In January, the VFW composed a letter calling on Congress to improve consumer information and consumer protections for student-veterans, building consensus among various sectors of higher education and among other veteran advocates in support of the concepts.

“In response to Senate reports on squandered G.I. Bill dollars and threats from Congress to scale back the benefit, the VFW knew we had to take steps to protect the educational opportunities we had secured for today’s warfighters,” said VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci, who had testified on the issue extensively in the past. “Our military is recognized as the most professional and most effective fighting force in the world because we give our troops the best training, equipment and information before we send them into battle. Unfortunately, when we send our veterans off to school, we fail to prepare them similarly for what lies ahead. If the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is going to be the generationally transformative benefit that we want it to be, we have to do better by our student-veterans.”

Gallucci went on to say that the information student-veterans currently receive can many times be inaccurate, misleading or downright false, making H.R. 4057 a responsible step to improving the information flow to potential student-veterans.

The committee amended all three bills extensively during today’s mark-up, adding provisions from more than a dozen other bills passed by each of the subcommittees during the series of mark-ups hosted just before the Fourth of July recess.

H.R. 4057 was amended to also include another bill that VFW and American Legion worked together to draft and amend, the HIRE at HOME Act (H.R. 4115), introduced by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio. Stivers’ bill ensures that states consider military training for professional licenses in medical and commercial driving fields. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., introduced an amendment to HIRE at HOME this morning, adding dental hygienists and radiological technicians to the list of covered professional licenses, and also clarified how the Department of Labor should share information collected from states on licensing gaps with the Department of Defense to improve training.

The committee also added language from two other VFW-supported bills ensuring safe housing standards for homeless veterans and commissioning an Open Air Burn Pit exposure registry with VA.

H.R. 5948, which ensures proper oversight of VA fiduciaries, was amended to include provisions from 10 additional bills that would prohibit the burial of Tier III sex offenders at National Cemeteries, ensure National Cemeteries respect the wishes of grieving families, extend VA’s medical exam contracts, ensure responsible advocate access to the VA’s Case Management System, mandate that VA disclose data breaches to veterans in a timely manner, formally honor the Patriot Guard Riders for protecting the burial privacy of grieving families, and designate 2012-2013 as the “Year of the Korean War Veteran.”

The final package for H.R. 5948 also included another bill that the VFW worked closely with Stivers to establish a “Place of Remembrance” at Arlington National Cemetery for unclaimed and unidentifiable remains of fallen troops. Stivers, an Iraq veteran who continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, wants to ensure that unclaimed fragmented remains, formerly discarded in landfills, would receive proper burial honors moving forward.

H.R. 5747, which offers improved housing protections for deployed service members, surviving spouses and disabled veterans, was amended to also include refinancing rights for active duty and deployed military personnel under the Servicemembers Civil Rights Act, and offers up to four weeks of additional leave for workers who need to seek medical treatment for service-connected disabilities but are no longer covered by the Family Medical Leave Act.

All three veterans’ bills will now be reportedly favorably to the full House of Representatives for consideration. Your VFW will continue to track each of the bills closely, updating this blog regularly with details.

The VFW testified recently on nearly every piece of legislation that passed as part of today’s committee mark-up. To view recent webcasts of VFW testimony on the issues addressed today, click on the links below:

• March 9, 2012 - VFW testifies on education and medical leave

• April 26, 2012 - VFW testifies on burn pits and safe housing 

• June 6, 2012 - VFW testifies on National Cemetery issues, medical exam contracting, and case management access

• June 21, 2010 - VFW testifies on state licensure, military refinancing and home protection

To read VFW’s full testimony from each of these recent hearings, click here. 


(Image: The House Veterans Affairs Committee hosts a mark-up of pending veterans' legislation in the committee's chambers in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)

VFW Applauds State Attorneys General for Protecting Student-Vets

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.)

ICYMI: VA and Labor Officials Update Congress on VOW Act

In case you missed it:  Yesterday the House Veterans Affairs Committee hosted a hearing to discuss the implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act. Your VFW was on hand to hear VA and Department of Labor officials discuss progress in implementing provisions of the comprehensive veterans’ employment law, which the VFW helped Congress to pass late last year.

VA Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans Employment and Training Services Junior Ortiz appeared before the committee to explain how their agencies have collaborated to implement new programs established by the VOW Act.

To view a full list of yesterday's witnesses and to read their prepared remarks, click here. To view an archived webcast of the hearing, click here.

One of the VOW Act’s key provisions was the establishment of the Veterans Retraining Assistance, or VRAP, program, which offers one year of Montgomery G.I. Bill-style education benefits to unemployed veterans between the ages of 35-60 who are ineligible for other VA education benefit programs. In April, VA commissioned a web site to highlight programs like VRAP, and started accepting applications for the program on May 15 – two weeks ahead of the scheduled May 30 due date.

Hickey said that to date VA has received more than 12,000 applications to participate in the program, crediting the initial results to extensive outreach through the VFW and more than 200 nonprofit community organizations, as well as in military publications and local public service airtime.

House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Ga., expressed concerns about VA and VETS outreach to veterans’ employment representatives at DOL employment one-stop centers across the country.

Ortiz admitted that VETS did not conduct early outreach because policies were not in place until early May. However, the department was able to quickly deliver accurate information to each one-stop, and hosted a successful webinar for workforce development staff prior to VRAP implementation on May 15.

During the hearing Hickey addressed concerns on over-enrollment in the initial roll-out of VRAP, explaining that if 45,001 veterans registered for the 45,000 available slots, the extra veteran would still be verified through the program and informed that he or she would be eligible to receive compensation for training starting Oct. 1, when an additional 54,000 slots become available.

Hickey also explained that to date, only 23 percent of veteran applicants have been turned away from the program, but that of this 23 percent, applicants were either not veterans or were eligible to use another VA education program. She then explained that VA was providing veterans with their notice-of-eligibility for those other VA education programs “in the same breath” as their denial for VRAP, allowing veterans to enroll in a program and receive their VA education benefits in a timely manner.

Since it was signed into law, veterans’ advocates have been skeptical about the one-year cap on benefits. Ortiz explained that veterans who enroll in the program will receive extensive follow-up from VETS to help find jobs once they exhaust their benefits, complete a career training program, or simply terminate enrollment.

The VFW will continue to monitor implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, and we encourage veterans to log on to benefits.va.gov/VOW to learn if you are eligible to participate in any new programs. Check back regularly for updates.

(Image: Yesterday's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Department of Labor and VA implementation of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act. Photo by Ryan Gallucci.)

WATCH: VFW Testifies on Protecting Student-Veterans

UPDATE: The archived webcast from Wednesday's hearing is now available. to view the webcast, click here. VFW testimony starts at the 15-minute mark. To read VFW's prepared remarks in full, click here. 

The VFW testified on Wednesday at a House VA Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity hearing on the implementation of the recent executive order to better protect student-veterans. The hearing took place at 2 p.m. in the committee's chambers, room 334 of the Cannon House Office Building.

To view a full list of witnesses and to read their prepared remarks, click here.

The executive order, entitled “Establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses and Other Family Members,” comes after VFW legislative efforts called on the House, Senate and White House to improve consumer protections for veterans who seek to use their earned GI Bill benefits. VFW Commander-in-Chief Richard L. DeNoyer applauded the executive order in an official statement two weeks ago.

“The VFW has worked very hard to get these protections created, and the president’s executive order will go far to crack down on the predatory recruiting practices and poor performance of all schools who participate in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, but our fight isn’t over,” he said.

Over the past eight months, reports from the Senate and GAO have indicated that student-veterans may be victimized by schools that fail to deliver on their educational promises, creating a perception in Washington that military and veterans’ education dollars are being wasted, because student-veterans are not receiving the education they were promised.

“Veterans make responsible life and death decisions on the battlefield every day, but reports indicate that they aren’t making the same quality decisions about the schools they choose to attend on the G.I. Bill,” said VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci, who is scheduled to testify on behalf of the VFW. “The difference is preparation and information. We prepare our battlefield leaders to make these tough choices and we provide them with quality, accurate information. We fail to prepare our student-veterans for the life-changing decisions they’re about to make, and the information we make available is incomplete, inaccurate and sometimes downright misleading.”

At the hearing, Gallucci discussed why the VFW believes the executive order will serve as an important first step in ensuring student-veterans have all the information they need to make a responsible educational choice, and have proper recourse should they become victims of fraud, waste or abuse.

In January and February, the VFW worked to build consensus among veterans’ advocates and higher education, calling for improved consumer protections. Today, both the House and Senate have introduced bills to improve the landscape for student-veterans. The VFW believes the president’s executive order should serve as the impetus for Congress to quickly move legislation, ensuring consumer protections are written into law.

In his prepared remarks, Gallucci goes on to say that executive action is limited to current law and available resources, which is why the VFW believes legislative solutions remain the best option.

(Image: Screen grab from Wednesday's webcast of the House VA Subcommittee hearing on the president's recent G.I. Bill executive order.)

VFW Builds Coalition to Support Student-Veteran Success

VFW staff in Washington have been busy over the last month, building a robust coalition, pushing for student-veteran success in higher education. The coalition, comprised of 10 organizations vested in supporting student-veterans, recently sent a series of letters to leaders in the House, Senate, and the Obama Administration, calling for improved consumer education for potential student-veterans and a streamlined method of recourse for veterans who feel they were victims of fraud, waste or abuse while using their benefits.

The VFW first scored a major victory for student-veterans in 2008, pushing for the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which now offers unprecedented educational opportunities to veterans of the current conflicts and the dependents of career service members. Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that some of today’s newest student-veterans may lose their benefits by enrolling in schools that fail to confer relevant educational credentials.

While some continue to point fingers at certain sectors of higher education, the VFW has chosen to look at the root causes of the problem – a potentially uninformed consumer inundated with bad information and no process for recovery. Over the last few months, the VFW has learned that enough quality information is available for veterans to make informed decisions about how to best use their education benefits, and both the Department of Education and VA have already taken steps to collect more. Unfortunately, most of this information never reaches student-veterans. Plus, if veterans feel they have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse, conflicts are resolved on an ad-hoc basis, with little knowledge or interaction from VA.

Under Chapter 36 of the G.I. Bill, VA is obligated to make educational and vocational counseling available to service members, potential student-veterans, and dependents eligible for any chapter of the G.I. Bill. Unfortunately, very few student-veterans are aware that this benefit exists, and even fewer choose to take advantage of it. In its current form, veterans must first discover that such counseling is available, fill out the requisite paperwork, mail it to their nearest VA regional office and wait for a response. This labor-intensive “opt-in” process resulted in only 6,400 veterans receiving counseling in 2011, compared to more than 800,000 veterans utilizing G.I. Bill benefits.

With so much at stake for these future leaders, the coalition has asked for an overhaul to VA’s educational counseling procedures, mandating VA to actively contact veterans eligible for such counseling, asking those who wish to waive the benefit to “opt-out.” On the back end, the coalition has asked that VA leverage its resources to create a formal complaint process to address student-veteran issues, allowing VA and other agencies responsible for student-veteran programs to take action.

In addition to the VFW, the coalition includes some of the nation’s leading veterans’ advocates, including the American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Student Veterans of America; as well as a diverse group of advocates in non-profit and for-profit education including American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers, American Council of Education, Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, National Association for College Admission Counseling, National Association of State Approving Agencies, and the University of Phoenix.

The VFW believes that by ensuring veterans understand their benefits and can take action when a school breaks the rules, student-veterans will be able to use their G.I. Bill effectively, molding the next generation of American leaders, as we intended. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

(Image: Coalition letter recently sent to House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Ranking Member Bob Filner, D-Calif., asking for improved consumer education and recourse for student-veterans.)