Transcripts For CSPAN3 Veteran Education Programs 20171212

The implementation of a 2017 law that reauthorized and expanded Education Assistance programs for u. S. Military veterans. Live coverage here on cspan 3. I want to thank you for joining us. We will begin our first oversight hearing on the implementation of hr3218 the veterans assistance education act of 2017. This bill was designed, rather signed into law by president trump. Its a great example of what congress can do when we put the american people, and in this case, our Veterans First and foremost. In addition to the efforts of chairman roe, the bill was a result of many of our bsos, two of whom are joined with us today on the panel. This was the first major improvement to the gi bill since 2011. It encompassed measures brought to the committee. We can be proud of this achievement to pass the forever gi bill. The subcommittees work has just begun. Its critical that we work in tandem with the va, with veterans groups and other stakeholders as the department begins the implementation of this revised bill so we can insure its ruled out seamlessly. Many of you can remember the significant delays that beneficiaries experienced back in 2009. I actually wasnt here then. Im told there were delays then and we dont want that in this round of implementations. And this happened after the passage of the post 9 11 gi bill. Im sure, again, we can agree that such delays cant happen again. Its our job to identify any problems and solve them and have a smooth implementation, Cost Effective for all stakeholders. I would be remiss if i didnt acknowledge efforts to schedule regular calls with the Committee Staff on both sides of the hill to update them on the implementation, however, i think its important that we have these hearings so that we can discuss as Committee Members. We as Committee Members can lend our support and help to you and others in the department as you work to implement this reform package. I do have concerns about the focus this process is getting from the va Senior Leadership. We have found Education Programs are often overlooked as a whole. I understand the team has many priorities but i hope they understand it will be no small feat to execute such a large Reform Initiative such as this bill which will result in over 3 billion worth of changes to the gi bill. Our investments and the taxpayers investments and the impact that the forever gi bill will have on our future success of student veterans is, im sure you will agree an extremely important endeavor and weve got to get it right. So i urge the secretary in this administration, do whatever they have to do to give folks the resources, especially the i. T. Resources in this case. That they need to roll this package out effectively without major hiccups. Again, like we experienced in 2009. Before i yield to Ranking Member rourke, i want to focus in on the i. T. Measures i just listed. I have questions about this. Since joining this committee, its always been clear that vas i. T. Systems are often so convoluted that when Congress Makes changes to the gi bill, or reform needs to be updated the patchwork system of upgrades is not able to keep up which can cause significant delays for student veterans. The subcommittee has been told during multiple hearings in the past that the plans for these systems would insure agility so that the va could quickly address changes that were made in the law as we have seen, however, that just hasnt been the case. Directing i. T. Systems to Education Programs is not often a focus of the department. I hope this practice does not continue, especially for something as important as the forever gi bill. I look forward to working with the committee to insure these resorts ar resources get to where theyre needed. Theres not too much i can add to your excellent opening comments, but to thank you and the majority staff and the minority staff for insuring we have a successful hearing today for those about to testify for our colleagues and their questions. I think all of us want to make sure the forever gi bill is implemented successfully and that we anticipate any concerns ahead of time and work constructively together to see how we can insure that those are resolved. Like the chairman, i see the biggest challenge being one with i. T. So appreciate the fact that general worley is he and he has brought someone to answer those questions and suggest how we Work Together to insure that this goes smoothly and seamlessly for transitioning Service Members and for veterans. I want to thank the Veterans Service oerrganizations that ar here today. I look forward to hearing what they have to say. I yield back. I want to thank the Ranking Member. I invite our first and only panel to the table. With us today, we have general robert worley, who is accompanied by mrs. Chairman bode. Mr. Lloyd thrower, acting Information Technology account manager for the benefits portfolio within vas office of information and technology. Mr. William hubbard, Vice President of Government Affairs and mrs. Kathleen mokeler. So thank you guys for being here today. Before we begin with your testimonies, i ask that the witnesses, if you would please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear under penalty of perjury the testimony youre about to provide is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Thank you, please be seated. Let the record reflect all witnesses answered in the affirmative. Your written statements will be made part of the record. All of you will be recognized for five minutes for your oral statements. General worley, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, im pleased to be here today to discuss vas work on the veterans Educational Assistance act of 2017. Also referred to as the forever gi bill. Accompanying me today is mr. Lloyd thrower, office of Information Technology and ms. Bode, deputy director. On august 16, 2017, the president signed into law an act which makes sweeping changes, which corrects inequities, expands benefits and changes the way we view the gi bill for the future. Its the most comprehensive set of changes to education benefits since the enactment of the post 9 11 gi bill in 2009. The act has become known as the forever gi bill because of its most recognized feature, a removal of a 15 year time limit feature. To use their post 9 11 gi bill benefits. Other important futures of the law are that it restores benefits to veterans who are impacted by School Closures since 2015. Expands opportunities for s. T. E. M. And i. T. Training. Provides increases for funding for state approved agencies. The importance and complexity of the act led va to establish a cross functional Program Executive office within existing resources. Responsible for leading and coordinating all forever gi bill implementation activities. Also in record time, va awarded a 12 month contract that provides further support through the addition of expertise in i. T. , training and communications. The law requires a significant i. T. Effort with 22 of the 34 provisions requiring modifications at an estimate of 70 million. I. T. Has committed to providing a solution to the most pressing of the provisions which change the way va pays monthly housing benefits. Va will assure continued timely processing of additional claims related to the act and will stand up new initiatives such as the edith norris rodgers s. T. E. M. Scholarship by using experienced teams and hiring 202 additional temporary employees in the field. Va has taken significant steps since the laws signing, first focusing on the 15 provisions that were effective on date of enactment and executing a multifaceted Communications Campaign to highlight the improvement to affected beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Va has promoted the act through a new web page, social media, variety of outreach activities. Traditional media as well as frequently asked questions. Va has been posting multiple updates on its facebook page, and in november va held a forever gi bill twitter townhall reaching over 170,000 users. And participated in a Satellite Media tour, conducting interviews with 23 radio and television stations reaching 4 million listeners. We have sent out three mass emails to 1. 2 million stakeholders and have conducted multiple briefings to School Certifying official and veterans organizations. Many provisions target beneficiaries. Va is targeting notification. We have identified and notified nearly 8,000 education beneficiaries that may be eligible for restoration of entitlement under the School Closure provision. In just under one month, va has already received over 400 applications and has restored 1,800 months of entitlement to over 200 beneficiaries. In just under four months, va has moved out quickly and is working hard on successfully implementing all of the provisions of the act on time. There is great deal of work remaining, with 13 of 34 provisions effective on august first of 2018. The va has started revising regulations, developing policy, designing training, preparing communications and more as we move forward. We look forward to continuing to work with all of our partners and stakeholders on these efforts. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, mr. Chairman, i look forward to responding to any questions the committee may have. Now, well recognize mr. Hubbard. You are recognized for five minutes. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member rourke and members of the committee, thank you for inviting student veterans of america to testify on the implementation of the forever gi bill. With nearly 1,500 chapters representing over 1. 1 million student veterans were pleased to share the perspective of those directly impacted by the subjects before this committee. Signed into law this august, hr3218 made history. As one of the most significant pieces of Higher Education legislation to occur this century, millions of service affiliated students will have greater access to education and training, thanks to the efforts of our committee and 115th congress. We would like to share brief history from our perspective on the legislation, which was a case study and partnership and discussion. We launched a special focus on the importance of sustainability in programs, driven by outcomes and fueled with data driven decision making. The forever gi bill includes dozens of solution oriented provisions, such as the work study authorization, science technology, removal of the time limit on the gi bill and many other provisions. Which increased access to education. The new law will also address inequities of the earned benefit and looked forward to the future well beyond our own generation. As leading advocates for the bill, were committed to the complete and timely implementation of this law. With that interest in mind, we thank the committee for this opportunity to highlight several key areas of success as well as some which have room for improvement. We applaud the department of Veterans Affairs for their dedicated staff for d demonstrating and implementing the gi bill. Especially their effort to make those affected aware of upcoming opportunities. Until forever gi bill, student veterans attending schools with unexpected closures were the only students in Higher Education with no reasonable recourse to recoup their benefits. The most prolific examples include the closures of i. T. T. Tech. Unfortunately, thousands of student veterans were adversely affected due to the poor performance of these schools and we applaud va for producing an application for these students to apply for restoration of their benefits. We are concerned that so few students have applied under the School Closure provision. Since the notice for va went out to these students, like our concerns with reaching eligible purple heart recipients, the integrity of individual Contact Information within the va system may not be reliable. We encourage va to partner with external organizations to reach out to the widest audience possible. Turning to the edith norris rodgers scholarship, this originated from the 113th congress, a bipartisan bill c. We were a proud partner in the advocacy of this and we were delighted to see it become law. As the forever gi bill was being developed it became clear that the implementation costs,pl wou be a significant driver of cost. We have Major Concerns on whether or not the office is implementing this law are receiving adequate resources to execute this overhaul. The bill recognizes a shift for veterans and education in general. Its more apparent today than ever. The gi bill is a successful story because it has demonstrated results. As president Thomas Jefferson in 1808 the same prudence which in private life would prohibit us paying our own money for unexplained projects. With the implementation of forever gi bill we raised the question who should be allowed to play in gi bill land . Many banks do not qualify for these loans due to the strict standards leading to outcomes impressed by the standard. Perhaps the same should be thought about for the gi bill. We thank you for inviting us to testify and look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you so very much. I recognize mrs. Mokeler for five minutes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member rourke, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. The Tragedy Assistance Program for survivors thanks you for the opportunity to talk about issues important to the families we serve. The families of the fallen. While the mission of taps is to offer comfort and support for surviving families, we are also committed to improving support provided by the federal government for the families of the fallen. Those who fall in combat, those who fall from invisible wounds, and those who die from illness or disease. Taps appreciates the attention the committee has paid to making sure that veterans and surviving family members have benefits that give them access to quality education. Taps provides specialized support through our web education portal regarding the education benefits available for the children and spouses of americas fallen heroes. Taps Staff Members work with each individual to maximize the Financial Support they can receive to complete their education from both government and private agencies. This also allows us to hear from survivors where they encounter problems and stumbling blocks in the process. We are most grateful for the provisions included in the veterans Educational Assistance act of 2017 that supports survivors and most appreciate t ative of the opportunity to comment. We have heard from many surviving spouses concerning the implementation of the forever gi bill. They are most appreciative of the enhanced benefit, many have concerns. We have worked with the va to solve many of them. First of these is the date. The date found on a va certificate of eligibility that informs the individual of the date they are no longer eligible for education benefits. As of early december, eligible students are still receiving the letters with the 15 year delimitating date. Some students are aware of the date, they are reluctant to actualize their plan until they have the correct information on their certificate of eligibility. Taps did query the va office of Economic Opportunity about this discrepancy. The office offered that while i. T. Upgrades are in process, the system does not currently allow the letter to go out without a delimitating date. We appreciate the steps that this office has taken to develop a work around, including enhanced training to Call Center Personnel to insure recipients that there is no delimitating date. Sending letters informing spouses that there is no delimitating date. And manually changing new certificates of eligibility until they find a permanent solution. As said before, the success of the implementation is the tient dependent on changes to the i. T. System. While mandatory training for School Certifying officials is included in the bill, we are concerned about the schools being fully aware of the changes coming in august 2018. Information is being pushed out by the va. We hope there will be coordination within the schools so that the person actually talking to the students is aware of the changes. Taps biggest concerns with all the changes being implemented is there will be delayed payments. Even with the few changes that went into effect this fall, there were issues with schools demanding payment from the students because of delayed va payments. Students receiving va payments were not allowed to attend classes. Register for spring 2018 or use campus facilities because the va payment was delayed. In some cases, students were put on payment plans they could not afford or forced to take out Student Loans with egregious origination fees in order to continue the education program. Taps would recommend that students receiving va payments have the same protection as those who receive title iv funding such as pell grants and federal Student Loans who are not penalized for late payment. Taps believes the best way to do this is through a legislative change. We have been in discussion with majority staff to assist these students. The proposed legislation would give the va the ability to disapprove any course of education unless the Educational Institution providing the course permits individuals to attend or participate in courses pending payment by the va. And accepts a certificate of eligibility as promise of payment. Continued cooperation between the va, the committee, and interested vsos, msos, and survivor advocates is essential to make the implementation of the forever gi bill a success. Taps will continue to provide for feedback to both the va and the committee on the experience of survivors. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Youre welcome. I thank the panel for their testimony today. I recognize myself for five minutes. First question is for general worley, first of all, thank you for your service. General, on a Conference Call last week. SubCommittee Staff were informed that the department will still have letters and certificates of eligibility that will be sent out to the chapter 33 beneficiaries that show that their gi benefits expire. Despite the change made in section 112 of the forever gi bill. On the call the proposed work around wasnt to fix the system, but to send the beneficiary a separate letter telling them to basically ignore the first letter. What are the departments plans to address the situation, this particular situation, which if not addressed will certainly cause mass confusion for all program participants. You know, its really i cant believe that this is happening. Our soldiers, our veterans deserve better. They deserve certainty. So if you could please answer that question id appreciate it very much. Thank you, mar. Chairman. We appreciate the concern that the committee has on this. Ill start with part a of the answer and ill turn it over to mr. Thrower to talk about part b. So that has thats the initial original claim that comes in and we issue a certificate of eligibility after weve done what we need to do to check eligibility requirements. Those are manually generated. We can and well start this month manually updating those letters so that its clear because there will be well, not for the certificates of eligibility starting now, but we have to check the eligibility and make sure its after january of 2013. And then those letters will be updated accurately to reflect where there is or is not a delimitating date. How much time will that take, to manually update the letters . These letters are partially theyre manually produced anyway, the initial certificate of eligibility. So its a little bit of added time to the claims examiners work to do that. So its not a big impact. The bigger impact that we were concerned about has to do with the enrollment letter, the award letters. Every term someone goes to school they get an award letter that updates them on the amount of benefit they have left and what theyre being paid and housing and so forth. The reason these letters are difficult to change quickly is because theyre integrated and tied in to the code of the long term solution, or automated solution. Ill turn it over to mr. Thrower to talk about what were doing with respect to the award letters. Please. Yes. Thank you. And since our discussions with staffers on friday, we have actually gone back ive been working with my engineering team. And we have built will be delivering a work around. Well be delivering a solution in our march release of lts. The key thing here is making code changes to the logic that generates the letters. Were doing this at the same time, while were in a massive effort, which i discussed with this committee back in june of trying to decommission bdn, which is another system. Part of that patchwork that chathe chairman discussed that were trying to clear up. Were sort of in the process of eliminating the patchwork underneath the hood, at the same time then making changes within lts while were doing that is a problematic and risky thing that were trying to manage that risk. That said, there are a few things were committed to doing and making happen within lts system while were doing the decommissioning work. One of those will be the changes to letters. We will have those down within the march release of lts. Is there a possibility you can contact, obviously, the heroes, to ease their mind . Maybe verbally, over the te telephone or what have you . Maybe not an official notice, but have you considered that as well . Or if you can post it on a website or get it to the congressional offices so that we can get the information if they call in . Absolutely. We can do that. This is late breaking news. Definitely have to get the word out. Social media. We can all help. All right. Absolutely. I dont have much time left. Why dont i go ahead and yield to the Ranking Member. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thanks. I have a number of questions, but i dont know that i understand the answer yet to the question on the 15 year time limit. Are letters going out today still erroneously saying you have to use this within 15 years . Yes. And not a programmer, but i got to think thats and dont go into detail. But i got to think thats not a three month fix. You said by march this will be fixed. I mean, can somebody, as their printed out, manually with a sharpie cross that line out . Or can we do that in a code . It doesnt sit with anyone, probably yourself included, general, is there a way we could do this now instead of within three months . I dont think so. I understand thyou cant change letter quickly. Again, the letters that go out are integrated and part of essentially the automated code. They need to be that way because theyre sending personalized information to each beneficiary related to the benefits of how much theyre getting and those kinds of things. Its not going into a word document and changing a few lines. Its much more complicated than that. Wed love to do it more quickly. But im relying on our i. T. Colleagues to tell us whats within the realm of possibility. Maybe theres someone out there in the private sector or volunteer community who would be willing to take a look at this code and offer their expertise if we are so faxed in being able to change this. Just not to in any way undermine the success youve shown in being able to implement this following the august signing, but this is something i think sticks out for everyone. Another issue that ms. Mokeler brought up, is the delayed va payments, and she suggested using the pell grant model. Any thoughts on that, general worley . I dont have any particular view of that right now, sir. We havent really addressed that issue in my office. Certainly would love to talk more about that. I suspect that could take legislative change to do it that way. We would be happy to work with the committee. Youll give us your feedback on that. And i understand the majority staff may be working on this. We would certainly from the Minority Side want to be able to work on this as well. Make sure were successful. Mr. Hubbard, loved your point about the outcomes more important than the inputs. And weve had this conversation about several programs that come through this committee. I want to make sure that were fully measuring outcomes here as well. You suggested we should have greater scrutiny and Higher Expectations for the Educational Institutions that are participating, any specific recommendations as we continue to perfect this law or administratively anything that general worley could run with . Yes. Thank you for the question. I appreciate that. I think it is relevant and critical. Today, and my colleagues from the va can correct me, but i think its in the realm of 14,000 programs are approved for gi dollars. 14,000. Thats crazy. All of those schools i expect are not delivering good outcomes for student veterans. I know that firsthand. Could probably point out a couple that we all know of. I think the focus on outcomes versus whats going in and whats coming out is critical. What we know is student veterans are winners. And when given the right tools to succeed they do, every single time. Thats something that we have a special focus on as it pertains to things that could be changed. There are internal tools i know the va is taking a look at to increase their standards and really have some rigorous methodology as applied to who is available to get gi bill dollars. I think thats something that perhaps the committee would be interested in taking a look at and work with, certainly, us and many of our partners in the nonprofit space to implement as well. Im going to yield back to the chairman. As i do, i think if were able to follow this very good recommendation i think it has to be tied to some measure of outcomes so we truly understand performance for the different programs. Not just did the student complete the course of study, but then what was their earning potential in the following ten years, or were they able to find a career or a role or function or purpose. I think all those are incredibly important. Thanks for raising that. Agreed. Appreciate that. Mr. Rutherford from the great state of florida. My colleague, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, panel, for appearing here this afternoon. General, id like to begin with you and ask can you tell me how aware have you made the senior Political Leadership at va aware of the challenges that implementation of this legislation has created for you . Ive personally briefed the secretary, just a matter of a few weeks after the the act became law. With those challenges, both the i. T. Assessment of 70 million, and our initial assessment of what would be required in terms of people without i. T. Solutions. Im confident the secretary is aware of those challenges. Weve come a long way since that particular briefing in terms of the office of Information Technology, stepping up to addressing the two most critical initial provisions dealing with housing allowance, which had the biggest people impact. Those are underway along with the massive effort on bdn. And some of that has been absorbed in terms of the funding. We need more funding later. I think the Senior Leadership is aware of the challenges and were getting the support. And the drilldown on the i. T. 22 of 34 elements are going to require i. T. As i heard earlier. Can you talk about has there been anticipation of what the 2019 budget needs to look like to give you the capabilities that you need within i. T. To fully implement the act . Weve had extensive discussions about what it would take to do this. And actually, at the secretarys request, weve actually been looking at alternative approaches of managing this endeavor as well. For instance, one of the most significant things that we will have accomplished in eliminating consolidating, all education servi services, a lot of the patchwork under the hood is we will be given have the opportunity to actually even potentially look at this as a managed service. So were going to be looking were going to have a decision date this spring of where we are with the decommissioning effort. What our options are in the external market. What our options are if we go the inhouse development. I think because of the work were doing and the work under the hood, were going to have a lot more options from an i. T. Perspective of different ways we could solve the problem. Very good. I want to ask, mr. Hubbard and ms. Mokeler. The fact that educational services, the oversight falls within va benefits. Theres been discussion about some unique problems that that creates. Mr. Thrower, before they comment, do you see that as an issue for i. T. That the oversight under benefits as opposed to Education Services . I mean, you work across different chains of command, anyway . I think its a really good fit within benefits. In fact, because of many of the other at least from an i. T. Perspective, i look at many of the capabilities weve delivered over the last few years have been able to have created Certain Services that have been are allowing us to integrate capabilities across the department. The fact that we now, for instance, have an electronic e folder that consolidates and has in one place things like birth certificates, marriage certificates, other critical documents, that is now being that can be used by education benefits, this has been a great benefit to us. Its creating a lot of flexibility we otherwise didnt have. Im out of time. Mr. Chairman, if they could briefly answer, is that a problem for you . I think you actually mentioned a legislative issue that could help with some of this oversight, was that correct . Yes, but that was pertaining to the delay of payment of the va benefits to the colleges who werent allowing the students to take advantage of reregistering for the next semester. Just with that certificate . Yes. Okay. Mr. Hubbard . Its an excellent question. Mr. Rutherford, thank you for addressing it. Im going to disagree a little bit. Ive seen long term the focus on outcomes is lost when Economic Opportunity as an office is buried within benefits. I believe theres an opportunity to perhaps elevate that office as an issue area. And provide some potentially preventative medicine. We know that individuals who have a bachelors degree or higher oftentimes have Great Success in life. Wed like to see more of that. Unfortunately, i think the i. T. Debate highlights the fact that there is some perhaps disinterest within the larger organization, not out of any particular spite, but more by the fact its a huge organization of more than 360,000 employees. When youre talking about a small subset of that, its difficult to get the right attention. I believe theres definitely opportunity to elevate that office. All right. And i agree with your focus on outcomes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I recognize mr. Carrera for five minutes. Thank you, very much. I want to thank the panel for being here. Very difficult issues, but i appreciate you being forthright and honest about the challenges we have in front of us. Im not going to get mad, not going to get angry overt the fat we have letters going out with these mistakes, causing confusion out there with the veterans. 14,000 approves institutions where veterans can get their Education Services. Mr. Hubbard said were not focused on outcomes. Its just a couple days ago i was talking to a gentleman that said, you know, youve got a lot of these openings in california for this huge construction project weve got coming online. We dont have the skill to train individuals building trades. The electricians, specialists, got the president talking about a trillion dollars Infrastructure Project coming online here early in january or february. At least that you wieyll start discuss these projects. Weve got 14,000 institutions and im wondering how many of those are going to prepare our veterans for good education. So where do we go from here . It looks like we have challenges in terms of turning this very complex Agency Department quickly to address these issues in a timely basis. Question to all of you, we thought about possibly employing social media to let veterans know what the real information out there is . What the facts really are . Thank you, congressman. Weve leveraged social media in a huge way with respect to getting the word out. We have a website, as i mentioned in my testimony, we have web pages dedicated to all the provisions. We put things on facebook pretty much daily. What is the outcome been . You know, i have daughter thats 17, ive got kids in their early 20s. And facebook is where they live. Not in web pages but facebook. Have you gotten good response . Im thinking to myself, as youre trying to put out the good information on facebook, accurate information, youre sending out letters that are inaccurate. Creation will be of confusion out there. Somebody sees an official letter from your department, versus something on facebook, maybe we ought to stop sending out those inaccurate letters and focus on social media, getting out the right information. Thats what were doing. The facebook dialogue is continuous. If you would like some of the feedback for that, some of it is disgruntlement quite frankly, the forever part only starts january of 2013. People that became eligible prior to that or were discharged prior to that in some cases, have, you know, concerns about that. So theres an ongoing dialogue of various concerns. Were trying to push out the information correctly. Were fixing the letter problem, the initial letters will be fixed this month. Well have the lodge, fixed for the award letters. Thank you, im running out of time. I wanted to ask you and the rest of the panel to engage with us, with my office, with the others here in trying to figure out how to focus on outcomes. You know, this is not a new problem. Weve heard this over and over again when i was in the state legislature in california. Youre not training our students for the right job openings. And so how can we get to that point where we are training veterans for, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80,000 a year jobs when they come back stateside . Its not rocket science. Its essentially putting one opportunity in front of these veterans. Whatever suggestions you have, please, were here to listen. Thank you, sir. Thank you for that. I think its a great point. We find that student veterans are making good decisions as it pertains to their career paths, when they have the right information. If theyre informed consumers and know what theyre looking for and see the longterm solution to it, its an easy decision. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, theyre not getting the right information. And so thats why were making such a strong push to make sure i guess my question is, ive got six seconds. Why arent they getting the right information, and how can we get them the right information. Another very, very good point. And i think it points to the fact that the transition Assistance Program on the dod side of the house is perhaps worth taking a look at, as well. Mr. Chairman, i yield. I agree with that. Mr. Banks, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General, great to have you back to the committee once again. Back in march, with the help of this subcommittee, i introduced the veterans success on campus act of 2017, which would make a Pilot Program a permanent program. It was rolled into the forever g. I. Bill package, which we were very proud of. I wonder if you could give us an update today, maybe elaborate on the progress the v. A. Has made with the program now that its permanent. Have you seen more veterans using it . I know its only been a short period of time. But have you started expanding the number of campuses. Can you give us an overall update on how thats going . Thank you. As you know, congressman, thats the vre is a separate office from me. But i can tell you that from what i understand now, it codifies, as you have pointed out, a veterans success on campus. Its a highly successful program. I thi i believe its serving over 90 campuses. My understanding at this point is we dont have plans for expanding the program this year. Beyond that, i would have to take back any further status for the record. Can you elaborate on the lack of planning for expansion . As it was clearly a priority in the bill . We understand that, sir. I would have to take that for the record and have the vr e folks respond to that for you. We would appreciate some feedback on that in the future. Appreciate that. Could you also give us provide us more information on the performance of the v. A. Education call center in oklahoma and what type of training they are receiving on the legislative changes that were enacted in the forever g. I. Bill . They have received training on this from the beginning. Fact sheets and so forth in order to be able to respond appropriately. As you know, thats a big lift, with 31 education provisions as part of it. Some of it quite complicated. And so were not only have rolled out the scripts and those kinds of things for them to use, but then continuing to evaluate and improve them as we go along. Okay. Thats all ive got. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Rice, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. So if i can just say, its not the fault of anyone here on the panel. But this is why people have no faith in government. You pass a historic bill like this, and the agency thats charged with implementing it does not have the tools it needs to implement it. And its just insane. I mean, i just dont understand that. You cant change Something Like taking out a 15year provision. I just its so disappointing that maybe this is something we have to address with secretathe secretary. How long have you been implementing it . Over what period . The law was signed on august 16th, 2017. So were about four months into the effort. Have you seen any increase in people applying, understanding that theyre they actually can apply now, thinking that maybe before they couldnt . Or is it too early to calculate that . Well, i guess it depends on which population youre talking about. Some of it is just information to get out, specifically with respect to the no longer having a limiting date for those that exit service after 1 january 2013. Some are very targeted, as i mentioned. Theres two provisions within the School Closure piece. One is retroactive, back to january 2015 so we can try to make whole to some degree those who are affected by School Closure, the itts and corinthians as we mentioned earlier. And we have put out communication to them. We have put out the application, and were receiving those and processing those requests as we speak. And as i mentioned, we have already restored i think it was 1,800 or so months of entitlement to people. So that several of the provisions were moving out and getting ones nearterm taken care of. Many of the provisions are not affective until 1 august of 2018. So it kind of depends, and there are others that are targeted, such as the purple heart recipients and those kinds of things and the fry scholarship. So we have pushed out communication, especially on the nearterm pieces to try to inform people as quickly as possible that they may be impacted by a particular set of provision or set of provisions. And as was mentioned, we have armed up the call center, and were putting it out on all our social media and those types of things. So were trying to get the word out. Just one question. One part of the bill required the v. A. To provide education and vocational Counseling Services for certain individuals at locations on institutions of Higher Learning campuses, as selected by the v. A. How next to this on the sheet that we have it, it says no action needed. So you find that the counseling is sufficient . Or maybe im not understanding that. You may be referring to the provision congressman banks was mentioning about vsoc, the veterans success on campus counselors . So those that, again, at this point im not aware of any plans this fiscal year for expanding the vsoc counselors on campus. Is that one of the things you said you recently spoke to the secretary about the things that you would need to implement this bill. Was that one of them . No, maam. The specific provisions i was briefing secretary shul kin on were all the education the ones that fall within my office, the education servicerelated ones. 31 of the 34 provisions in the law are being implemented by my office. There are three provisions that have to do with vr e, and thats one of them. So so who is responsible for implementing that . Theres a counterpart colleague of mine, mr. Jackhammer is the director. So no one here can answer that. Ill have to take that back to him. Okay. Thank you. Yes, maam. Thank you very much. Ive talked to the Ranking Member, and he agrees we should have a second round. If you guys are okay with that, we want to proceed. So i want to thank you again for being here. And then providing the benefits for our heroes. What they have earned, and deserved has always been my top priority in the United States congress. With that, i want to ask the general, i think its so very important, and i think all of us agree on this, for us and those watching at home to hear how the improvements we made in the veterans Education Assistance act of 2017 are being implemented. Again, miss rice alluded to that, and the status of these reforms. So my first question is related to my bill, the veteran act. Which was incorporated into the overall bill that was signed into law in august. My provision would provide the v. A. Necessary funding and resources to update its Information Technology systems to improve the timeliness and accuracy for processing of claims for educational benefits. My provision directed the v. A. To submit within 180 days after the enactment of this act a plan to implement such improvements. So my question is, can you discuss what efforts, general, thus far have been made in this effort . Are there initial hurdles or barricades to get this section implemented, specifically this section. Is a v. A. On track to submit this plan to congress within the time frame, the 180day time frame of enactment . If you could answer that, i would appreciate it. Mr. Chairman, thats one of many of the provisions i mentioned that obviously require i. T. Effort that will happen in the future. Ill defer to my colleague, mr. Thrower, from the office of i. T. If thats okay. We you know, in terms of how, you know, planning all of the what were doing to automate systems across the board, we have been analyzing the provisions of this act and looking at the status of all systems within the education realm that we manage. We have been building a plan to show the transition that were looking at over the next few years. And we are on track to provide you that report in i believe its february. This february. Is that the 180 days . I believe it is. Within the 180 days . Its pretty close. I would say i think it is within the 180 days. So okay. Well, were going to hold you to that. Let me go ahead and get on to the next question. Can you explain why the vba, again, the general vba Education Services needed to hire 200plus additional temporary workers to manually process claims because the i. T. Systems are not able to automatically process the claims . Yes, mr. Chairman. And theres probably two or three categories. So i mentioned in my oral testimony specialized teams. So there are certain aspects of the act that cannot be processed within the current automation without huge, huge changes. And i would point out that the s. T. E. M. Scholarship is one of those provisions, because its not just nine additional months of benefit. There are parameters associated with the s. T. E. M. Scholarship with respect to who is eligible, how much of a program youve completed. Its a program of greater than 128 hours, and you can only go up to 30,000 per individual. So there are many parameters that are what we would say outside of the system for processing those claims. We need probably around 40 to 50 people as a team, as our estimate right now, just to process who we think would be eligible under that s. T. E. M. Scholarship program. Another one has to do with in the more nearterm, the School Closure act. Were trying to hire 27 people right now, and weve got were in the hiring process as we speak. To work the School Closure pieces of that. These claims coming in are essentially manually processed as we get the applications, theyre evaluated by our people, claims examiners, more experienced claims examiners and processed and put into the system through those means. So there are two or three specialized teams we have to put together that consist or makes up a fairly significant part of that 200. And then the rest of the 200 will be put at our regional processing offices as augmentation to the claims examiners there today in order to provide the manual workarounds that we have to do until the i. T. Comes on board. So its just additional people power, if you will, so that we can try to maintain the timeliness that we have today and not get into delay situations that you may have heard about. So when we implement the i. T. Portion, which is the veterans act, my bill, you think well see improvements. Absolutely. Okay. Because thats youre talking about automating original claims process, absolutely. All right. Very good. Okay. Ill yield to the Ranking Member, mr. Orourke, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And i have a few questions. This will be my last opportunity to do this, because hes moving on to the next stage in his career, but as with many of the members of congress, i have the benefit of being able to work with a military fellow who comes to our office for a year, and helps us to better understand the issues on this committee, on the other committee on which i serve, house armed services. Captain mark walden has just been a pleasure to work with, and gives me a lot of faith and confidence in the quality of americans that we are recruiting and who enlist. And we just wish you much luck in these next steps in your career. And it adds a little bit to the urgency we have in this job, and our responsibility to make sure that were following through on our commitments and our obligations here. So just wanted to publicly acknowledge your service, and thank you for working with us this year. General wuerly, when you were asked about outreach on social media, you had earlier given us the stat about 8,000 beneficiaries that youre trying to reach out to who have been subject to these School Closures. And we want to make sure were connecting them with the resources they need to finish their academic studies. You said 200 or so have been helped so far. What does that tell you . And on this issue and on the issue about having to wait another three months to correct the 15year delimiting statement, help me understand your urgency around these issues, and whether you see this as a problem, if this is what you expected, and that might go some ways towards setting our expectations on the committee. It seems like a low number to me, if there are 8,000 and only 200 have been helped. I would just respond to that by saying, the initial notice went out on november 9th. So were, what, five weeks into the process . In terms of an and, again, that doesnt mean thats the first communication. Weve been trying to flood the pipes with communications across the board on all of these provisions, especially the nearterm ones. But i think its quite frankly, i think its too early to tell whether thats a low number or a high number. We will continue to, of course, you know, take these in, process them as quickly as we can, and if we need more communication or need to reach out to the whoever hasnt responded yet, we will do that. I dont know that its realistic to expect that we would get 8,000 applications, because, quite frankly, the hope is that the information thats out there would be sufficient for people to look at it and make their own choice whether they think theyre eligible or not. We always encourage people to submit a claim, if theres any question as to their eligibility. But with especially with respect to the School Closure. If you have transferred credits to a comparable program, then youre not eligible for restoring your benefit between january 15th and the implementation of the act. So were happy to make that decision once youve given us the information on the application, and inform you of that. But there may be people that understand that, and just dont apply. Were, god willing, all going to be here a year from today, still in these same positions. What will we be likely talking about at that point, if the chairman decides to hold a hearing on this forever g. I. Bill one year after the last hearing . Are we resolved on all of these open issues . Do you have confidence that the 22 of 34 i. T. Modifications will have been completed, the 70 million that you need to do this effectively spent, at least for that part thats been budgeted . What do you think we can anticipate a year from now . I would love in a year from now to certainly have all the letter issues squared away. I dont think what i hope to say in a year, and mr. Thrower can back me up on this. We have done the work to get off of the 50yearold benefits Delivery Network as a platform for paying and doing a number of other things with respect to education benefits. That sections 107 and 501 are fully and purely and perfectly implemented. We wont in a year be able to say that the all the rest of those i. T. Requirements are met. So i hope to be saying in a year we have those funded, and in a time line that oit is working through over the following year. But ill let mr. Thrower comment on that. I think thats a pretty accurate statement. I think, you know, as i say, were looking we have been balance priorities here. We started an effort before this act was enacted to eliminate a major legacy problem within our environment. And so when this act was and, in fact, Education Services is the number one priority within oit, as it relates to the Veterans Benefits administration. And uplifting services. Deal with that legacy issue will provide us a great deal of agility, to be able to make the kind of quick changes youre talking about longterm. Were trying to fix that. That will largely be done at the end of this fiscal year. In the meantime, you know, what we will have accomplished is, you know working together with general wuerly and the education team, we identified those critical things that we absolutely had to do within an i. T. Solution now. Yeah. In order to make this work. And so we have integrated that within the same program that is doing the decommissioning work, which is a balance that we have to make, to be able to do that. We are looking very, very hard at managed services solutions, versus inhouse development solutions. I will say that, you know, we are hoping that, say, october 1 of next year we will have well, next spring well make a decision of which direction we wish to go. We will be in the throes of implementation of all of the other provisions a year from now, down the path that we will have determined in the spring. And probably execute at the beginning of october. Appreciate that. And thanks in advance for all the work that youre going to do on that. And, you know, i, for one, dont have the subject matter expertise on all of this, including the i. T. Fix and other parts of the i. T. Problems. And i just know from past experience that gao has been so helpful to me in understanding and kind of providing a check and a thirdparty scrutiny on the commitments and performance. And i hope that we can get some help from gao, not in any way to say i have a lack of confidence, because i dont. You all have been very helpful and very professional in implementing this. So i just think, given the group of veterans were talking about and the necessity of implementing this successfully, i just want to make sure that we have, you know, the greatest oversight possible that will help us to do our job. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for letting me go over. Absolutely. I understand the doctor doesnt have any questions. Is that right . Okay. Then well move to mr. Corera. No questions . Okay, i have a question. The question is for miss moekler. The schools are demanding payment of tuition and fees and then the v. A. Has delayed in the payments, what have you. What can be done to address this issue so the students are not negatively impacted by school and v. A. Delays . Well, what were asking for are the protections for those receiving v. A. Benefits that are already out there for those receiving title 4 benefits. So if a pell grant payment is late, the student is not penalized. They can still go on, they can register for another semester of classes or what have you. Because whatever certificate of eligibility they get for their pell grant is held as a receipt of payment, as it were. But with the v. A. , many schools do not look at that certificate of eligibility as payment. They want the payment in hand. And so that causes a hardship for many. Yes. So give me an example of the hardship, because this is unbelievable. Its unacceptable. Tell me, whats the penalty in a lot of cases. The student the institution of Higher Learning will start dunning the payment for student and ask them to take out a loan to cover that period between when the university required the payment and when the v. A. Makes the payment. Yeah. And so then the student is stuck with those that bill. And they have that added stress. They do. They should not have. They do. So thats the reallife scenario. And weve got to do something about that. So i appreciate you answering the question. All right. Well, i want to ask the Ranking Member if he had any comments. Otherwise mr. Chairman, i dont. Thank you for helping to hold the hearing today. And thank you all for testifying and for your answers to our questions. Okay. All right. Sorry, sir. Thats okay. There you go. No problem. Okay. If there are no other questions, anyone have any other questions . If there are no other questions, i want to thank the witnesses for their testimony and for answering all of the questions. We all understand the importance that the passage of this forever g. I. Bill will have for future generations of veterans to come. We really did great work in this committee. And i thank the chairman the full committee chairman, as well. Which is why it is so vital, again it is so vital that we get implementation right the first time, as miss rice said. We will continue to work with the v. A. And receive regular updates on how the process is moving along. I ask you, general, wuerly, and your staff, to not hesitate to let us know if youre lacking in the resources you need to get this right. And we will also continue to work with the veterans, the groups like sva, and t. A. P. S. , and rely on you please, who are relying on you, to keep your ears on the ground with any concerns youre hearing from the membership and as you work with v. A. In the coming months and years. I now ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to extend their remarks. Without objection, so ordered. Finally, i would like to take a moment to publicly congratulate mr. Hubbard on his promotion to the rank of Staff Sergeant in the United States marine corps reserves. Congratulations, sir. Thank you, mr. Hubbard, for your continued service to our country, and semper fi. This hearing is now adjourned. Thank you. I need the gavel. Here it is. [ banging gavel ] thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alabama voters are going to the polls today in a special election to fill the u. S. Senate seat that was vacated by attorney general, jeff sessions, last february. Democratic candidate, doug jones, is running against republican, roy moore. Well have live coverage as results come in, starting at 9 30 eastern on our companion network, cspan 2. You can also follow Election Night online at cspan. Org, or with the free cspan radio app. Coming up tomorrow, house and Senate Conferees will be meeting to discuss reconciling the two republican tax reform bills that were passed separately out of each chamber. Live coverage begins at 2 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Also online at cspan. Org, and with the free cspan radio app. Watch cspan3, thursday, at 10 30 a. M. , eastern, for live coverage of the fccs vote on Net Neutrality. The vote is to roll back Net Neutrality roles passed during the obama administration. Live thursday, at 10 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan3, cspan. Org or listen to it live with the free cspan radio app. Cspan. Where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. The center for strategic and International Studies hosted a discussion yesterday about u. S. Investments in the economies of developing countries. Speakers include the egyptianamerican Enterprise Fund chair, james harman, and bowman cutter. They discuss the challenges and successes of their organizations and supporting Economic Development and generating financial returns. This is about two hours. Okay. Lets get started. Im dan rundy. Were going to have a nv