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DEMOCRATIC PRESS RELEASE

September 16, 2008

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House Veterans’ Subcommittee Raises Concerns about VA Approach to Implementing New G.I. Bill Benefits

Herseth Sandlin Calls for Development of a Comprehensive Contingency Plan for VA Employees to Process New Benefit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, September 11, 2008, the House Veterans’ Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, led by Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), conducted an oversight hearing to receive the implementation plan for the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008 (Post 9/11 G.I. Bill). The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill was signed into law on June 30, 2008, and will go into effect on August 1, 2009.

“The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill will provide our veterans the educational entitlements needed to attend a college or university of their choice,” said Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin. “Certainly, this legislation makes significant improvements but we must remain vigilant to ensure Congressional intent is fully implemented and the VA is afforded the resources to meet the needs mandated by Congress. Today’s hearing will give the Subcommittee the opportunity to better understand the VA’s implementation plan as required by Public Law 110-252.”

Associate Deputy Under Secretary Keith Pedigo presented a strategy that “relies on contractor support to build upon and accelerate what we had developed as our longer term strategy to employ rules-based, industry standard, technologies in the delivery of education benefits.” Pedigo also presented an acquisition timeline with a goal of awarding a contract “in the very near future.”

Committee members attending the hearing raised a number of concerns with the initial plan, including a lack of accountability over the contractor, lack of a contingency plan, and doubts about meeting the very tight timeline.

Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin expressed concern over the quick decision to outsource the processing of G.I. Bill claims when the VA had not yet developed contingency plans if the contractor was unable to meet the goals of the project. “Why did the VA immediately opt to employ a contractor to develop a rules-based software program? It does not seem that the VA even considered hiring new veterans to help fellow veterans process G.I. Bill claims in the short term as they worked to develop an IT solution over the long term.”

Bob Filner, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, stated that VA employees are better equipped to handle the education benefits because they are familiar with Department of Defense documents that need to be reviewed to establish veteran benefit eligibility, trained to use various Department of Defense databases to locate and confirm information, familiar with the appeals process, and trained to contact State Approving Agencies, colleges, universities, and veteran service organizations.”

Chairman Filner planned to request that members of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs receive more information about the bidding process used by the VA to hire a contractor for the project. “I want to see the original list of companies that bid on the project, the four finalists, what they bid to complete the project, and I also want to know which company will be awarded the bid before it is officially announced. I will be requesting this information from Secretary Peake in the near future,” announced Chairman Filner.

Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin questioned if the VA had begun to work with the Department of Defense in the need to efficiently share military service documents to ensure that the proper benefits are awarded to veterans. She also called for the VA to quickly develop a comprehensive contingency plan that could be executed solely by VA employees, if the contractor fails to meet the statutory requirements. She plans to review the contingency plan at an upcoming oversight hearing.

Witness List:

Panel 1

Keith Pedigo, Associate Deputy Under Secretary, Office of Policy and Program Management, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Accompanied by
Keith M. Wilson, Director of Education Service, Veterans Benefit Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Prepared testimony for the hearing and an audio recording of the hearing is available on the internet at this link: http://www.veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?newsid=297.

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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