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79–939 2013

INCREASING THE FUNCTIONALITY OF POST–9/11 

GI BILL CLAIMS PROCESSING TO REDUCE DELAYS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (EO) 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013 

Serial No. 113–4 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

( 

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ii 

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

JEFF MILLER, Florida, Chairman 

DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee 

BILL FLORES, Texas 

JEFF DENHAM, California 

JON RUNYAN, New Jersey 

DAN BENISHEK, Michigan 

TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas 

MARK E. AMODEI, Nevada 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio 

PAUL COOK, California 

JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana 

MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine, Ranking 

Minority Member 

CORRINE BROWN, Florida 

MARK TAKANO, California 

JULIA BROWNLEY, California 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona 

RAUL RUIZ, California 

GLORIA NEGRETE MCLEOD, California 

ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire 

BETO O’ROURKE, Texas 

TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota 

HELEN W. TOLAR, Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (EO) 

BILL FLORES, Texas, Chairman 

JON RUNYAN, New Jersey 

MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado 

PAUL COOK, California 

BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio 

MARK TAKANO, California, Ranking 

Minority Member 

JULIA BROWNLEY, California 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

ANN M. KIRKPATRICK, Arizona 

Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records 

of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are also published in electronic form. The printed 

hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to 

prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting 

between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process 

is further refined. 

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C O N T E N T S 

February 14, 2013 

Page 

Increasing The Functionality of Post–9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing To Reduce Delays ........................................................................................................... 1 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Hon. Bill Flores, Chairman, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity (EO) ...... 1 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Flores ................................................................ 29 

Hon. Mark Takano, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Economic 

Opportunity (EO) ................................................................................................. 1 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Takano .............................................................. 29 

WITNESSES 

Michael Dakduk, Executive Director, Student Veterans America (SVA) ........... 4 

Prepared Statement of Mr. Dakduk ............................................................... 30 

Kim Hall, Veterans Program Administrator, Humboldt State University, Vice 

President, National Association of Veterans Program Administrators 

(NAVPA) ............................................................................................................... 5 

Prepared Statement of Ms. Hall ..................................................................... 31 

Hayleigh Perez, Students Veterans Advocacy Group ........................................... 7 

Prepared Statement of Ms. Perez ................................................................... 33 

Hon. Roger Baker, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, U.S. 

Department of Veterans Affairs .......................................................................... 21 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Baker ................................................................. 36 

Accompanied by: 

MG Robert M. Worley II, USAF, (Ret.), Director, Education Service, 

Veterans Benefit Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD 

Letter From: Hon. Bill Flores, Chairman, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, To: The Hon. Eric Shinseki, Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans 

Affairs .................................................................................................................... 40 

Post-Hearing Questions for Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and VA’s 

Office of Information and Technology (OIT) ...................................................... 42 

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INCREASING THE FUNCTIONALITY OF POST– 

9/11 GI BILL CLAIMS PROCESSING TO REDUCE DELAYS 

Thursday, February 14, 2013 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, 

Washington, D.C. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m., in 

Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Bill Flores [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Flores, Runyan, Coffman, Takano, 

Brownley, Titus, and Kirkpatrick. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BILL FLORES 

Mr. FLORES. Good morning. I want to begin by welcoming each 

of our new Members, especially our Ranking Member, Mr. Takano, 

to the Committee. 

I also want to publicly thank Mr. Takano for agreeing to become 

an original co-sponsor of legislation which I have introduced that 

will mandate the contents of the Transition Assistance Program or 

TAP as we know it. 

I realize everyone introduced themselves at the Full Committee 

organizational meeting, but I think it would be—well, never mind. 

Okay. We have got one that we can introduce. 

With that said, I would now like to recognize the distinguished 

Ranking Member. 

I will just introduce Mr. Coffman since we only have one other 

Member to introduce. 

So I will open the floor for Mr. Takano’s remarks. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. FLORES APPEARS IN THE AP- PENDIX]

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARK TAKANO 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Good morning. I would like to thank everyone for joining us 

today. And I would like to thank our witnesses for taking time to 

testify and answering our questions. 

Chairman Flores, congratulations on being the new Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Chairman. I look forward to 

working with you and to helping our veterans and their families 

across our country. 

As our country begins to reduce operations in the Middle East 

and bring more of our troops home, we will need to have the right 

programs to address their needs. 

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We have spent $263 million on the long-term solution and many 

questions still remain regarding the system’s effectiveness, its completion, and our return on investment. 

The system does not yet process all claims from beginning to end 

and there is quite a bit of human intervention necessary to complete claims. 

When the Veterans Administration first began processing claims 

with a short-term solution, it took about 45 minutes to process an 

original claim. Years later, with millions of dollars spent, it takes 

about the same time to process an original claim. 

I do not see the anticipated gains that were visualized when the 

VA and SPAWAR came here to our Subcommittee and testified before us. As always, we are open to ideas on how to improve this 

custom-designed system. 

Besides the cost and problems with the LTS, we need to know 

where completion of the LTS ranks for the VA. Is the LTS first on 

their IT priority list or has it now tumbled to the bottom of the 

list? 

I hope the VA came prepared today to discuss where they are in 

completing the LTS and what will be the remaining cost. 

I know Congress has made some changes to the GI Bill that required the VA to pivot from their original plan to accommodate 

midstream changes. I would like to know the impact of these congressional changes so that we have a complete picture of what has 

transpired since we began working on the LTS. 

The colleges and universities are reporting a number of issues 

with the system. I know that off-ramp problems have been an issue 

and there may be a simple solution to address the over 80 reasons 

that off-ramps occur. 

I look forward to what the NAVPA has to say about how we can 

streamline payments to the colleges. I hope we can figure out how 

we can streamline and improve the functionality of LTS that is so 

fundamental to veterans for their education. 

This was the promise of the act to them when it became law 

under Public Law 110–252 and it is our priority now as Members 

of this Subcommittee. 

I remain very interested to hear from the VA the details of how 

the provisions that have been implemented are performing, how 

soon additional functionality will be implemented and what will be 

the means for reducing processing times and providing improved 

services for veterans. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you for scheduling this hearing and I look 

forward to the testimony and discussion we will have today. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. TAKANO APPEARS IN THE APPENDIX]

Mr. FLORES. I thank Mr. Takano. 

My thanks to each of the Members, and I am looking forward to 

a productive and bipartisan 113th Congress. 

We are here today to review development and implementation of 

the computer system used to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. And 

so a little history is in order. 

In the run-up to the passage of the new program, VA stated unequivocally that the system used for decades to process Montgomery GI Bill claims would not be able to handle the more comVACREP180 with DISTILLER

3 

plex Post-9/11 program. So Congress authorized $100 million to develop a new system, what is now called the long-term solution or 

LTS. 

Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law, this Subcommittee has 

held at least seven hearings on the program including the new 

LTS. Until recently, our understanding was that the system was 

being developed to handle all Post-9/11 claims beginning with an 

original claim through supplemental claims. 

We now understand that the major development effort has focused on automating supplemental claims which compromise the 

bulk of the interactions between the VA, the students, and the 

schools. 

I think in terms of a strategy, that was the proper decision and 

I applaud the VA for that decision. That strategy has resulted in 

over 40 percent of supplemental claims being processed without 

human intervention, but, like most things, it also had negative results because that decision left original claims processing relatively 

un-automated. 

As a result, an original claim still takes about 45 minutes to 

process, a time little changed since 2009. In short, we are supportive of VA’s efforts related to the LTS and our focus today is 

looking towards the future and to finish the full implementation of 

LTS. 

Without making the system and its information more accessible 

to veterans and schools, it is not complete. 

I would add to that the ability to provide a robust analyst function to enable the VA and Congress to make better informed decisions on the education and training benefits in the future. VA has now spent about $236 million on LTS and without adding 

such functions, it would be like buying a luxury car without air 

conditioning, heated seats, and a satellite radio. 

As our witness from the NAVPA says in her testimony, LTS 

must continue to evolve so that it is able to process more complex 

claims and changes. 

I now invite our first panel to the table, and they took the initiative to be there already. 

With us today are Mr. Michael Dakduk, I am not going to get 

that correct, but I am trying, Executive Director of Student Veterans of America; Ms. Kim Hall, Vice President of the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators; and Ms. Hayleigh 

Perez from the Student Veterans Advocacy Group. 

We welcome each of you. And just a reminder, you will have five 

minutes to summarize your statement. 

Let’s begin with Mr. Dakduk. 

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STATEMENTS OF MICHAEL DAKDUK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

STUDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA, (SVA); KIM HALL, VETERANS PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR, HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

VETERANS PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS (NAVPA); 

HAYLEIGH PEREZ, STUDENT VETERANS ADVOCACY GROUP 

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DAKDUK 

Mr. DAKDUK. Thank you, Chairman Flores, Ranking Member 

Takano, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. 

Thank you for inviting Student Veterans of America to testify 

and address the Subcommittee on increasing the functionality of 

the Post-9/11 GI Bill claims processing to reduce delays. 

I served in the United States Marine Corps from 2004 to 2008. 

In 2005, I was in Iraq. In 2007, I was in Afghanistan. I 

transitioned out. I used the Montgomery GI Bill. 

During this time, the movement for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill 

was taking place in the halls of Congress, so I experienced firsthand that transition from Montgomery GI Bill to this new Post-9/ 

11 GI Bill and the delays that come with it. These delays still persist to this day. 

Student Veterans of America is the largest and only national association of military veterans in higher education. We currently 

have over 750 chapters or student veteran organizations at colleges 

and universities in all 50 states and in your districts that assist 

veterans in their transition to and through higher education. 

SVA chapters were organized at four-year and two-year public, 

private, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions of higher learning. 

This on-the-ground perspective which comes from every corner of 

this Nation and our experience in supporting thousands of GI Bill 

beneficiaries provides the framework for our testimony regarding 

the long-term solution and other recommendations regarding improvements for the processing of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

Long-term solution or LTS, a proposed fully-automated, end-toend processing system for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, has been a topic 

of discussion since 2010. And you mentioned the multiple hearings, 

Mr. Chairman. 

While the LTS is a behind-the-scenes IT system being rolled in 

phases, SVA has concerns with the lack of realtime information 

currently being provided to student veterans. 

We have routinely called for a secure Web-based single portal 

system that allows for student veterans to see the status of their 

GI Bill claim in realtime. 

Currently, student veterans are only able to track the status of 

their claims by calling the GI Bill hotline or interfacing with our 

colleagues here, school certifying officials. 

The GI Bill hotline has elongated wait times and during periods 

of heavy call traffic, the automated system instructs the student 

veterans to call back at a later time. This process is highly inefficient and extremely frustrating to veterans. 

The other option is for gaining information on the status of a veteran’s GI Bill claim and often the most consistent is for a student 

veteran to connect with the school certifying official on campus. 

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The school certifying officials have a private and, by most accounts, reliable hotline that they can call on the status of a veteran’s GI Bill claim. However, this is not a long-term solution for 

the timely processing of the GI Bill. 

School certifying officials should have access to a system that allows them to submit certifications of enrollment in a streamlined 

manner and, most importantly, follow the status of a veteran’s GI 

Bill claim in realtime. 

Since school certifying officials interact with the student veterans 

on a regular basis, they are often inundated with questions about 

the status of a veteran’s GI Bill claim. They must be provided with 

the adequate systems to process and view the status of a student 

veteran’s claim in realtime. 

We recommend that school certifying officials and student veterans be provided appropriate realtime access to the status of GI 

Bill claims utilizing 21st century Web-based technology. 

Both the student veteran and school certifying official portal we 

propose is not a concept unknown to the public or private sectors. 

You see it with the United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, your 

bank, insurance claims. 

These can all be tracked or using the Web, you can log in and 

find out the status of your claim. But currently student veterans 

are unable to really figure out what the status of their GI Bill 

claim is. 

Not only are customers notified of estimated time and delivery 

with shipping services like the United States Postal Service or 

FedEx, but when a hiccup occurs in the delivery of a package, the 

receiving customer is notified in a timely manner and given a new 

delivery time. 

This does not work every time. The system is not perfect. But it 

works the majority of the time. 

It is difficult to grasp in a technology-rich society why the time 

in processing of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is still a subject of concern. 

Equally disturbing is the inability of student veterans to access the 

status of their claim in realtime or near realtime. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to testify here today. I want 

to thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Takano, and I 

welcome any of your questions. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DAKDUK APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX]

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Dakduk. 

Ms. Hall. 

STATEMENT OF KIM HALL 

Ms. HALL. Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, Members 

of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators is pleased to be invited 

to provide comment on the topic of increasing the functionality of 

the Post-9/11 GI Bill claims processing. 

NAVPA’s membership is comprised of educational institutions 

from all sectors with an organizational commitment to advocating 

for what is in the best interest of student veterans at our institution. 

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Our expertise lies in the administration of veterans’ education 

programs at colleges, universities, and other education providers, 

and most of our members also serve as school certifying officials for 

VA education benefits. 

Our organization represents close to 400 educational institutions 

nationwide and our leadership is comprised of non-paid staff members. 

The Post-9/11 GI Bill is an incredibly generous and complicated 

benefit program. The level of detailed, often manual work required 

of school certifying officials is frequently overwhelming. 

There are a number of things we believe could be done to ease 

the burden on SCOs and on VA processors to make this a more 

streamlined and manageable process. 

We must have regulations for the GI Bill law passed over two 

years ago, Public Law 111–377. Schools are being held liable for 

overpayments by policies that are not in alignment with existing 

regulations and schools are expected to comply with legislation that 

has been regulated. 

The VA certification data entry system still requires schools to 

upload data multiple times for the same student one student at a 

time. There are no batch uploads. 

Certifying officials are advised to input only one change per day 

for each student to ensure they are received correctly at the regional processing office and the ability to modify, update, or correct 

some inputs is severely limited if not impossible to do electronically. 

Chapter 33 claims processed by the LTS automated functionality 

are now paid very quickly, as soon as five workdays from submission from our observation, but this is still a minority of supplemental claims and includes no original claims. LTS must continue 

to evolve so it is able to process more complex claims and changes. 

Certificates of eligibility are not the same as authorizations for 

payment as used under Chapter 31, military tuition assistance. 

COEs do not represent a guarantee of payment of the said amount, 

but rather a statement of general eligibility for a program. 

The VA still can pay all or a portion of reported charges based 

on a number of possible criteria and situations. 

As long as VA requires schools to report every change in enrollment or charge, waiting until the end of term to submit tuition and 

fees will not help reduce the number of adjustments or amendments required, but will rather compress them into a very limited 

time period. 

Every one of these changes has to be reported individually and, 

as mentioned previously, on separate days to make sure that the 

data arrives at VA intact. 

The RPO should communicate with schools prior to sending 

school debts to the VA’s debt management center for collection. 

There should be agreement on both the rationale and the amount 

of the overpayment before the DMC starts collection processes. 

The VA’s review in 2011 of outstanding 2009, 2010 overpayments 

was obviously flawed as the DMC suspended collection on over 800 

of these debts and many schools reported offsets taken for debts 

that were already paid or previously reassigned to the student by 

the RPO. 

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The U.S. Treasury offset program procedures must be changed to 

prevent multiple agencies from offsetting the same debts simultaneously. 

A system that only allows a weekly update of offset-eligible VA 

debts is irresponsible. This has caused enormous confusion, frustration, effort on the part of institutions to track and reconcile inbound payments and offsets from multiple non-VA related Federal 

sources including the refunds of erroneous or duplicate offsets 

taken. 

It seems unreasonable in this IT driven age that the four regional processing offices cannot see electronic files in each other’s 

jurisdiction. This lack of visibility requires additional form submission by veterans if their initial application was processed and their 

certificate of eligibility issued by one RPO but the veteran decides 

to enroll in a school in a different region. 

The educational call center staff in Muskogee has visibility on 

veteran files from all four regions. Why not all four RPOs so that 

this additional paperwork and delay on claims processing can be 

avoided? 

There is still no school access to real-time eligibility and payment 

data for students using the Post-9/11 GI Bill, our most long-standing request. This significantly impacts schools’ ability and willingness to extend financial protection or courtesy for student veterans. 

Schools’ initial experiences with the Post-9/11 GI Bill including 

the recent debt collection efforts have not served to build confidence in the program or its accurate implementation. Only direct 

access to data will change this. 

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you again 

for this opportunity to contribute these statements on behalf of 

NAVPA. I will be happy to respond to any questions you may have. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF KIM HALL APPEARS IN THE APPENDIX]

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Hall. 

Ms. Perez. 

STATEMENT OF HAYLEIGH PEREZ 

Ms. PEREZ. Chairman Flores and Representative Committee 

Members, thank you for this opportunity to testify before your Subcommittee today. 

I would also like to thank Jason Thigpen, founder and president 

of Student Veterans Advocacy Group, for his leadership and this 

opportunity, as well as the other panel members. 

My name is Hayleigh Perez. As a female veteran who served on 

active duty in the U.S. Army, a wife, mother, student veteran, and 

currently vice president of the Student Veterans Advocacy Group, 

I feel very proud speaking at such a relevant topic. 

The words freedom isn’t free are so very true, yet our veterans 

today seem to be demonized as though we are asking for something 

that is not already ours. 

Our veterans should never have to ask for something or often beg 

for things that were promised to us for the sacrifices made to protect our great Nation. 

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Theodore Roosevelt once said a man who is good enough to shed 

blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal 

afterwards. 

Many veterans are finding it extremely difficult to adjust back to 

civilian life for a multitude of reasons. Let’s keep in mind a big difference with the ten-year war in Iraq and Afghanistan, contrary to 

past wars, is that our servicemembers have survived at a higher 

rate than prior wars. Of course that is a blessing, but it also precipitates a much greater need for preparation and care at home 

that our Nation was not prepared for. 

As a result of the unanticipated transitional difficulties from 

backlog of delayed processing of VA claims, many servicemembers, 

veterans, and families thereof are suffering from unforeseen hardships that could otherwise have been avoided. 

So what is the issue? The processing delays. Student veterans 

are often faced with extreme financial hardships when 

transitioning to school for the first time, starting in programs, 

changing schools or programs. 

And when following up with their paperwork, student veterans 

often realize that they themselves and the university have done everything on their end to ensure a timely claim, though months 

often pass with no payment, no answers from VA as for the reasoning for such delays. 

The way which current VA GI Bill claims are being processed 

needs significant improvement. Many of our Nation’s student veterans are relying on their earned GI Bill benefits for groceries, 

child care bills, and housing. The delinquency by which these funds 

are being disbursed or not disbursed at all are oftentimes life altering, causing some consequences as extreme as veteran homelessness. 

A fellow student veteran wrote to our organization stating there 

is a little known book called When War Comes Home by Aaron 

Glantz. On page 212, Glantz states Members of Congress and bureaucrats at the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs 

may not be attacking our veterans with mortars and IEDs, but 

they are literally killing them with indifference. 

This past semester beginning graduate school, I experienced 

these delays firsthand. When I first contacted VA in January, I was 

told there was not even a record of my attending graduate school 

which I had begun attending a week prior. 

After resubmitting the same documentation that I had sent in 

November of the previous year, I was told to follow-up a week 

later. 

After calling the VA every week for five weeks, I finally got 

through the never-ending hold times and I got to speak to a woman 

by the name of Yvonne. Yvonne could see all of the documents that 

I had submitted both times and within a few minutes was able to 

issue payment for my book stipend and my housing allowance as 

well as my VA certificate. Within a few days, I received these funds 

and was able to continue with school. 

Through research, our organization has discovered that VA is 

using the two different systems that were referred to earlier. I propose and our organization proposes to consolidate these two softVACREP180 with DISTILLER

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ware programs currently being used by VA to one standard program and retrain all of the VA representatives. 

By consolidating the software programs to one standard program, 

the representatives will have equal access to addressing any GI Bill 

beneficiary claim. This would assist in maximizing productivity for 

VA and its representatives and reduce the considerable cost savings measure for both GI Bill beneficiaries and the Department of 

Veterans Affairs. 

Each student veteran should also have a representative assigned 

to them at a local, State, or regional level. By assigning GI Bill 

beneficiaries an individual representative, they can additionally ensure more compliance, accountability, and continuity being met by 

VA. 

Our society today is covered with blank checks it offers to one 

group or another. The difference between student veterans and 

other groups is that they are not asking for anything more than 

they have earned. 

Have we really fallen so far in America that we resolve ourselves 

to believe if we are not personally affected, then it does not matter? 

Well, in many ways, having become disenfranchised with some of 

the questionable actions by our government, I can still honestly say 

that I would sacrifice my life to secure the liberties and freedoms 

we have in America. 

So is it really too much to ask for our government to fulfill its 

obligation as intended to our servicemembers and our veterans? 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF HAYLEIGH PEREZ APPEARS IN THE

APPENDIX]

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Perez. 

Mr. Dakduk and Ms. Perez, I do want to thank you on behalf of 

the entire Committee for your service to our country in these challenging times of war. 

I thank all of you for your testimony, and I have a couple of 

questions that I would like to get through. I am going to recognize 

myself for five minutes. 

Question number one is how does the inability of a school certifying official being able to access and view a veteran’s remaining 

entitlements make it difficult for school certifying officials to counsel a student as required by the principles of excellence required 

by the President’s Executive Order? 

Ms. Hall, this is probably for you, but I will take answers from 

any of you. 

Ms. HALL. You know, to begin with, when you are working with 

a student, especially with the principles of excellence, it is in the 

best interest of both parties to be able to sit down and look at the 

big picture, look at their long-term objective beginning from when 

they start school all the way to their career. And while you are 

doing that, there is a lot of financial planning involved. 

The only way to be able to look at the budget that the student 

has versus the money that they have coming in is based on their 

entitlement, the GI Bill. So the calculation from the monthly 

amount all the way down to the day that they are going to get that 

last payment is reflected in that entitlement figure. 

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And so it is very important at the beginning that not just remaining entitlement, but all of the eligibility for that student, the 

amount of money that they may be getting in a stipend or versus 

their status of enrollment at the university becomes all important 

data in calculating those budgets, those finances, and ultimately, 

you know, the time they start to the end of their degree. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. Thank you. 

Since I have time, I am going to ask another question, and this 

can be for any of you or all three of you if you would like. 

What has been your experience in terms of the complaints you 

are receiving from your members and constituents, by student veterans about the GI Bill processing? What sort of change have you 

seen over the last semester or prior semesters compared to this semester now that this system has been rolled out? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Well, Mr. Chairman, I want to acknowledge that 

since the system has been rolled out, there has been an increase 

in the processing of GI Bill claims, so that should be acknowledged. 

But I would also say that at the beginning of the semesters, that 

is when we see an influx of delays and that is when we receive 

most of our complaints at Student Veterans of America. 

So we have a concern when we talk about troops returning home 

from Afghanistan. And the Department of Defense estimate over 

the next five years that one million troops will remove the uniform 

and make the transition into civilian society, many of them are 

going to use this new Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

So we want to make sure that the Department of Veterans Affairs is prepared to handle that influx of military veterans on college campuses. But at the beginning of semesters is when we see 

a high number of delays. 

Mr. FLORES. To kind of go back to the original question, if you 

look at where we are now versus prior semesters, have you seen 

a change? It sounds like you have got this cycle where at the beginning of each semester, your complaints are higher. Is the trend 

downward or is it the same or what? What do your constituents tell 

you? 

Mr. DAKDUK. I would definitely say since the implementation of 

the Post-9/11 GI Bill the trend is downward. I will acknowledge 

that. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. 

Mr. DAKDUK. But it still is an issue and it is a real issue at the 

beginning of terms. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. 

Mr. DAKDUK. And I would just like to acknowledge this one 

thing, Mr. Chairman. The issue is, is because we cannot see the 

status of our GI Bill claims and our housing allowance comes on 

the tail end of each month. 

Mr. FLORES. Yes. 

Mr. DAKDUK. We do not know if you are waiting six weeks or 

eight weeks to pay your bills. Institutions of higher learning have 

been pretty supportive when it comes to supporting student veterans with their tuition and fees, but landlords are not as supportive when it comes to paying your rent. 

Mr. FLORES. Ms. Hall, any comments? 

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Ms. HALL. Absolutely. The tuition and fee processes, as I stated 

earlier with the overpayment situation, is in a crises mode is what 

I would say at this point. Institutions have extended a courtesy out 

to allow veterans to continue attending school as we wait for the 

VA payments to arrive for tuition and fees. 

We have no way of knowing at the beginning of the term or even 

until we actually receive a payment of how much we are going to 

get for that student’s tuition and fees. And oftentimes it results in 

underpayments and overpayments. And by that time, the student 

is most definitely involved. 

And if there is not a complaint, there should be at that point because the schools are trying to accommodate the VA’s payments as 

they are coming in and—— 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. 

Ms. HALL. —were ending up with all kind of overpayments. 

Mr. FLORES. Just kind of a one-word answer. Better, worse, or 

the same or—— 

Ms. HALL. You know, in terms of the tuition and fees, it is definitely worse. You know, the students do not see it at the very beginning because we are deferring out the tuition and fees. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. Ms. Perez, better, worse, the same? 

Ms. PEREZ. Mr. Chairman, I would say it is the same. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. 

Ms. PEREZ. The student veterans that are reaching out to our organization are the ones who are suffering extreme delays, that are 

being forced out of their homes. They cannot pay for child care. It 

is having huge detrimental effects on their personal lives. And they 

are not able to be successful in their studies. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you. 

Unfortunately my time has expired, so I am going to now recognize the Ranking Member for any questions he may have. 

Mr. TAKANO. I am a new Member of Congress. I am having to 

get my arms around this issue. 

Ms. Perez, can you tell me more about the students who have experienced homelessness and just how—I mean, related to the late 

payments or there are problems with the claims? I want to be able 

to get a firm picture of that myself. 

Ms. PEREZ. As was stated by the SVA, some of these claims are 

backlogged so far that these students are not getting their payment 

on time. They are not able to pay their rent or their child care. And 

some students have had to withdraw from school because of not 

having this housing allowance or this book stipend. 

And in my case, my payment was delayed eight weeks. And I 

know there are several student veterans out there that are experiencing much further backlogs. And if they are not being as 

proactive, they are not able to even find out the status because 

there is nowhere to verify the status of your claim. 

My claim was lost in, I guess, the old system and it was not until 

I finally reached a certain person on the phone that she was able 

to see that I had even turned in the paperwork. So it was almost 

like my claim was in limbo. Had I not reached her and somehow 

she had the ability to access my file in another system, my claim 

would still be sitting stagnant as others’ claims are. 

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12 

Mr. TAKANO. Is there any organization that has quantified people 

who have had to withdraw or have been homeless because of the 

way we process claims? 

Ms. PEREZ. Oh, I think one is too many, sir. 

Mr. TAKANO. I understand. Thank you. I agree. 

Mr. DAKDUK. Ranking Member Takano, there is a major issue 

that Student Veterans of America is working on as we move forward and that is data collection and the lack of data on military 

veterans and family members in higher education. 

We are actually working with the Department of Veterans Affairs on tracking student veteran outcomes. But to your specific 

question, no, we do not have that kind of data. But that has become a major priority for us moving forward. 

Mr. TAKANO. Great. Ms. Hall, have you had to resort to going 

back to paper forms at all or has it pretty much gone to all automation? 

Ms. HALL. What the VA wants, we are fairly automated. But, 

again, it is a very simple piece of software that does not allow for 

much in terms of changes. Once you report one record, it is often 

gone. 

You have a period of time that you have to wait before you can 

make changes to that one record. And even then, some of those 

records you are not able to change. You have to create a whole 

other record in order to make a change in certain instances. 

So the automation is simple. It works. I do not believe that there 

is many universities or colleges that are back to using old enrollment certification papers. 

Mr. TAKANO. You mentioned this issue of only being able to make 

one change a day. 

Ms. HALL. Yes. 

Mr. TAKANO. What is that about? 

Ms. HALL. What that is, is when you are submitting a certification or an adjustment, a change in the units or any type of a 

change to a record, if you do multiple submissions, it gets lost in 

that queue. It does not get to the VA in the order that it needs to 

get in to show how that student has reduced units or even if you 

are talking about money, we report full amounts of tuition and fees 

to the VA. 

And then if there is changes, multiple changes due to add, drops 

in the student’s schedule, you have to do those one day at a time. 

Otherwise, they—— 

Mr. TAKANO. This obviously takes up time and staffing from the 

institution. 

Ms. HALL. Absolutely. To be quite honest, the tax offsets with the 

overpayments are taking up the majority of our time at this point. 

I believe that most of our board members in our organization 

have been focused more on trying to figure out how to relieve some 

of the pressure from the tax offset programs and not being able to 

use as much of our labor and our time doing the school certifications. 

Mr. TAKANO. And have schools resorted to having to ask students 

to pay up front because of the delays in processing? 

Ms. HALL. Well, I do not know if you saw the Florida schools, but 

what is happening is, yes, the debt that the school has incurred has 

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13 

been moved down to the student veterans to pay back so the school 

can make their payments back to the tax offset program. 

I am sorry. Your question again? 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, have institutions begun to ask veterans to pay 

up front because they are experiencing these delays in processing? 

Ms. HALL. Yeah, no. It is probably where we are going. I do not 

believe at this point and time right now that the majority or even 

the minority of schools are asking for students to pay up front. We 

are doing our best to float the students until the VA pays. 

But if the overpayments and tax offsets are not taken care of— 

we are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the schools are 

in debt with the tax offset. So if it continues, then we may have 

no choice but to begin that process of asking the students to pay 

up front. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My time has expired. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Takano. 

I would like to recognize any other panel Members that may 

have questions. Let’s start with Mr. Coffman. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

You know, one thing, and let me throw this out to all the Members, I am old school. I was a Vietnam era veteran. Came out of 

the Army. Transferred to the Marine Corps later on. 

And so I was under that old GI Bill where it was just one check 

that you got and you decided, you know, where it was going to. And 

it was always on time. We never seemed to have the problems that 

the younger veterans have today. 

And so it was enough money to attend a public university and 

to pay for tuition, room and board. I think it fell short on fees or 

something like that. So I was in the reserves and made up the difference there. 

But I am wondering if part of this problem is the complexity of 

this program that we have a stipend for this and then we have a 

check for that. 

And wouldn’t it be better just to give the veterans, Ms. Hall, one 

check and allow them to make the decisions about how to allocate 

it? 

Ms. HALL. That was a great time, wasn’t it? The problem with 

that is that there—you know, right now we are extending, just 

based on that certificate of eligibility, we are extending that courtesy to move out those fees. I do not know that the schools would 

be so generous if the money went to the student. There is no guarantee that the student would bring that money to the university. 

And, quite honestly, I do not know that—I mean, I know the students also have overpayments that they are dealing with, so they 

have the same problems that we are having with the tuition and 

fee check. 

But I believe that it would probably more than likely resort back 

to the way it was in which the students would be held just like a 

traditional student to pay their tuition and fees on time. 

Mr. COFFMAN. I just do not remember a problem. You know, my 

fellow veterans, you know, this is back in the 1970s, I just do not 

remember that anybody had problems in terms of delayed payments. 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

14 

And, you know, people that, you know, serve this country in defense of our freedom make extraordinary sacrifices. I certainly understand individual responsibility and, you know, I just do not remember that there were problems in the old program that I am 

hearing now with this new program. 

And let me defer to the veterans that are here today. 

Mr. DAKDUK. Well, thank you, Mr. Coffman, for that question. 

That is actually something that has been debated for quite some 

time since the inception of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Do we remove the 

institutions from the equation? Do we pay the veterans directly like 

the old program? 

It is something that me and my colleagues at the Veterans of 

Foreign Wars and The American Legion are trying to work on as 

well. And we are thinking about whether that will be the best bet 

moving forward. 

The problem is, is we are trying to figure out if we have made 

these investments in solutions, what is known as the LTS and 

other IT systems, how can we not get this right in the 21st century 

technologically-advanced world we live in? There is no way to create some sort of algorithm or system that can process these claims 

in the adequate manner? 

So it is kind of difficult for us to understand that, but then we 

also realize we are working with the Federal Government. So we 

have talked about and we are trying to figure out whether paying 

the veteran directly will potentially be the best way of solving this 

problem. 

So I want to let you know that streamlining the process of the 

Post-9/11 GI Bill is a priority for Student Veterans of America. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you for your service. 

And I think our time overlapped with the United States Marine 

Corps in Iraq. I was there 2005, 2006. 

Ms. Perez. 

Ms. PEREZ. I am not all that familiar with the old GI Bill, but 

I know, too, Mr. Coffman, there was not the hiccups that we are 

experiencing now. And I have to agree that streamlining the process would definitely propose a solution. 

My husband receives his paycheck on time every month and I 

feel as though we should be able to get this right with the technology that we have before us today, sir. 

Mr. COFFMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Coffman. 

Ms. Kirkpatrick. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Thank you, Chairman Flores and Ranking 

Member Takano. 

And thank you to our veterans. 

I want to tell you that when I first came to Congress four years 

ago, a veteran approached me and he said, Ms. Kirkpatrick, remember this because our veterans have already paid the price, you 

have to fight for them with all your might. And I have never forgotten that and your point is well made that we should be taking care 

of our veterans. 

And I want to ask the two of you what your experience has been 

in the average delay in processing for these claims. Just sort of 

ballpark, what is the average time we are looking at? 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

15 

Ms. PEREZ. Ma’am, I have seen anywhere from two months to 

five months where the semester is almost ending and the student 

is just receiving the first payment. And it is a substantial payment, 

but that did not help them to sustain life through the semester to 

take care of their family. 

It can cause the veteran’s studies to suffer. So to ensure that we 

are successful in the classroom, we need these tools so that we can 

utilize them and put our energy towards becoming productive citizens of society. 

Mr. DAKDUK. Thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick. 

Six to eight weeks from the beginning of a semester or term, that 

is kind of the average timeframe we have seen, especially this last 

term, and the complaints we have received from student veterans. 

As you get through the semester or the term, the VA tends to 

get on it or figure it out at that point or the school certifying officials in the institutions of higher learning are able to work with 

the veterans to come up with some sort of a fix to the issue. 

But I also want to acknowledge Kim and NAVPA and what they 

have been saying around the debt collection issue, the tax offsets. 

That is a real issue. And if we do not get that right with the institutions of higher learning, then it is going to affect student veterans and then institutions are going to have to resort to some 

things that might hurt the student veteran in the long run. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. What do we need to do legislatively to address that in your opinion? 

I will throw that out to the entire panel. Any one of you could 

address that. 

Mr. DAKDUK. Well, I would say that what we are doing right 

now, we have made it a priority to really discuss this issue, potentially hold a hearing on the tax offsets and the debt collection and 

the process that occurs. I think that would be an important next 

step. But we are working with our colleagues at NAVPA and Student Veterans of America has made that a priority to look into this 

issue. 

Ms. HALL. What we are asking right now is a lot of the overpayments have stemmed from the 2009, 2010 year when 9/11 first 

started and we are asking that the collection process be stopped at 

this point so that we can re-look at some of these tax offsets that 

are happening currently. 

There are so many errors in the processing, duplicate payments, 

offsets for students that never attended an institution, and then 

the payments coming back from the Treasury Department are virtually unidentifiable by the schools. 

They are sent back under a Federal tax ID number whereas we 

use facility codes. And so it comes back to the tax ID number. 

There could be multiple institutions within that tax ID number or 

one tax ID number for an entire state with the overpayments. 

So the process right now really needs to come to halt until we 

can go back and re-review some of these offsets to see if there is— 

to find the legitimacy in them and make sure they are accurate. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. And if the process does come to a halt, what 

is your estimate of the timeframe it is going to take to correct these 

measures? 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

16 

Ms. HALL. You know, if we could put and VA could put together 

a solid group that was familiar with the processing of the tuition 

and fees and how the debts were originated, you could go through 

those files fairly quickly, I believe, a month, maybe even weeks to 

get that through that process. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. And in your experience, is the processing 

problem a state-by-state problem or is it a Federal department’s 

problem? 

Ms. HALL. Absolutely Federal. Absolutely, yeah. 

Mrs. KIRKPATRICK. Thank you very much. I yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick. 

Mr. Runyan. 

Mr. RUNYAN. Thank you, Chairman. 

A few things. I think we got it. And I happen to chair the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs with Ms. 

Titus as the Ranking Member. And I think we get these processes, 

same thing with VBMS, on how we are going to figure that out. 

It is a challenge. 

But I think, Mr. Dakduk and Ms. Perez, I think you both kind 

of—Ms. Perez, when you brought up the fact that the hotline actually solved your problem, you know, I am talking about short-term 

solution, and actually person-to-person contact and getting it done. 

In my experience, and I think you will probably be refreshed to 

hear this, my own brother went through this process and it got to 

the point in his academic career that he would call and say I need 

money for food, I need money to pay my rent, can you help me. The 

VA check is coming, but I do not know when. 

So my question goes right now, I know we have a big systemic 

problem to short-term phase, what can the VA do, Mr. Dakduk, to 

make the hotline work? 

I know you said about call volume kind of thing also. And when 

you answer this question, too, I want you to add in, is there a difference between the fall term and the spring term or the winter 

term because of people entering college traditionally September? 

You know what I am saying? 

So there is going to be peaks and valleys in calls. And you obviously already said there is a beginning the semester problem, but 

is there, you know, an enrollment issue at the beginning of the traditional school year versus the rest of the year and what can the 

VA do to make the process work because obviously Ms. Perez says 

when she actually got through to somebody, it was soft? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Thank you, Mr. Runyan. 

You see issues at the beginning of a term. Usually it is a semester because that is how most traditional institutions of higher 

learning are set up. But it fluctuates depending on the type of institution. 

And it is very important not to lump student veterans into traditional students because they are nontraditional students and they 

enroll at multiple times during the year. 

But usually the influx that we have seen in working with the VA 

is during the beginning of a semester. There are some delays that 

may occur throughout a term, but that is the most. 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

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Now, the GI Bill hotline, once you get through, you might have 

some success, but that is the key, getting through on the hotline. 

I made two calls before coming to this hearing to the GI Bill hotline over the past three days. I did one on Monday, and I did one 

on Wednesday or Tuesday and Wednesday. 

And on Tuesday, I called around two p.m. eastern. I did not get 

through. It told me to call back and leave a message and to receive 

a call back from the VA. I hung up. I called back the next day, 

Wednesday at three p.m. It said to call back after hours, leave a 

message, and somebody will call back. 

I did not call back after hours because at five-thirty, six o’clock 

I was on the Metro train on the way home. Seven o’clock I answered some e-mails to catch up on some work. Around eight I ate 

dinner and then I went to bed. 

We do not operate on that same timeline of call back and we will 

respond to you at a certain time. There is no system that we can 

access that you can just find out status of the claim. 

Now, I should take that back and say that there is a frequently 

asked question system that exists on the GI Bill Web site. I simply 

asked one question at the beginning of last year on how many 

months of my Post-9/11 GI Bill I had left because I saved some, 

and I wanted to use it for graduate school after I graduated with 

my undergraduate degree. 

It took 30 days for a response just to say how much time I had 

left on my GI Bill which was roughly eight months. And it was 

wrong. It said I had eleven months. And I found out later that I 

only had eight. So even the response I got 30 days later was wrong. 

So staffing the GI Bill hotline, these are all just short-term solutions. In the long run, we need some Web-based technology that allows the student to see this in realtime. 

Thank you, Mr. Runyan. 

Mr. RUNYAN. Thank you for that response. 

With that, I yield back. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Runyan. 

Ms. Brownley. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. 

And I apologize for missing some of the original testimony, but 

it certainly seems to me that all of you have really laid out what 

the problems are. So we are very clear on what the problems are. 

But the fixes for it, both short-term and long-term, do not seem to 

be quantified or there is not a direction. 

I was in a Committee hearing yesterday on mental health and 

talking about the response time from the time that a veteran would 

call and be attended to and how we have prioritized and made sure 

or making sure working towards the goal of a particular response 

time. 

And I am just wondering, and I know the VA is going to come 

up and testify in the second panel, but from your perspective, what 

has the VA laid out in terms of shorter-term resolutions and 

longer-term resolutions? 

I agree. It seems as though with technology that there should be 

a way in which technology should be able to really assist in this. 

It seems like better partnerships with higher education institutions 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

18 

and communications and not working in silos should be part of the 

solution. 

But I am just wondering are there any specific goals and specific 

plans for short and long-term solutions? 

Ms. HALL. I just want to reiterate I think what Mike has been 

trying to say to you is that really the data portal, the ability for 

the school certifying officials to see the process as it happens in 

realtime is very important. 

I mean, if the technology cannot get the process moving quicker 

and more accurately, then at least we need to be able to see what 

happens so that we can help the students continue to stay enrolled 

in school. 

Ms. PEREZ. Can I add to what Ms. Hall said? With my personal 

experience when I called in, I spoke to four different people prior 

to talking to the woman that was able to fix it for me. So I think 

continuity of training is nonexistent with the people that you reach 

when you finally do get through the hotline. 

And I do have to add that I think the call-back system is beneficial from where we were, where we were sitting on hold for an 

hour. An hour is a long time. I can do a lot of productive things 

in an hour. 

But just continuity of training with the people that you get when 

you do finally get through that hotline, I think, is very, very important. 

Mr. DAKDUK. I think, Ms. Brownley, what we need to do is really 

focus in on this portal. We need to focus in on some sort of Webbased interface where a student veteran can go on and school certifying official and see as well what the status of a claim is. It is just 

remarkable that we cannot do that now. 

I believe the Department of Veterans Affairs when they testify 

will talk about the fourth release and the long-term solution which 

will provide some sort of concept around that. I do not know what 

that is. I do not know what it is going to look like. But if that is 

the last rollout in their phased approach on this long-term solution, 

we have got to make sure we get that part right for the long-term. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Brownley. 

Ms. Titus. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

As a university professor, I have worked with a number of students who are on the GI Bill at UNLV, so I want it to work right. 

And I have heard a lot of their complaints. 

I do think that the VA has a responsibility to do a better job, but 

I can tell you sometimes university bureaucracy is to blame for 

part of the problem. 

So I agree with Ms. Brownley. We need maybe to set some standards that universities have to meet as well at their end to help this 

process work better. 

Also, several of you mentioned, or in your testimony, and in your 

answers, that you are nontraditional students. So a lot of veterans 

going back to school do not go to brick and mortar four-year liberal 

arts colleges. There are lots of other ways to get a college degree 

now, whether it is online or short-term in the summer, you know, 

just different kinds of seminars that you can take. 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

19 

And I wonder, is the experience any different with the different 

kinds of approaches that you can take to a degree? Is it better in 

online programs? Is it better on University of Phoenix? Is it better 

at William and Mary or does it make any difference? 

Mr. DAKDUK. Well, thank you, Ms. Titus. 

First, I want to tell you I graduated from UNLV. I recall seeing 

you several years back when you came with Ms. Berkley—— 

Ms. TITUS. Nice to have you here. 

Mr. DAKDUK. —and Secretary Shinseki at a round table and it 

is great to see you again. 

I will say that there has been a lot of speculation right now in 

not only the halls of Congress, but in the media around the value 

of for-profit institutions of higher learning. 

We have student veterans that attend colleges and universities 

at brick and mortar institutions and online. And what we are working on right now is tracking student veteran outcomes, getting the 

data on graduation rates, persistence, finding out what this data 

actually is. 

There is a gentleman from the University of Phoenix in attendance here today. I met with his CEO. I met with the leadership of 

for-profit institutions, nonprofit institutions, private, public institutions of higher learning. I see student veterans succeeding all 

across the country. That is what I see anecdotally. 

Although there have been reports in the media that student veterans are dropping out at high rates, these reports are unfounded. 

There are no facts to them. 

That is why it is a major priority of Student Veterans of America 

working with The American Legion and VFW and the Department 

of Veterans Affairs, I want to acknowledge that, to track student 

veteran outcomes and get this data to find out how successful student veterans are at different institutions of higher learning. 

I just met with President Barron, the Florida State University 

president. His graduation rate is 87 and a half percent for military 

veterans. But there are very few institutions of higher learning in 

our country that are actually tracking student veteran outcomes. 

That needs to be done so we can find out how successful they are 

and what are the programs and initiatives that are leading to success. That is a major priority for us moving forward. 

Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you. 

And if you are one of our graduates, you make us very proud. 

You have obviously done very well. 

Other comments about the process or the results depending on 

the approach? 

Ms. HALL. Our membership is made up of a consortium of colleges and universities. And I would say that the claims processing 

is the same across the board with all of them. We all experience 

the same problems, the same delays, the same communication 

issues. I would say there is not a wide difference in the processing. 

Ms. PEREZ. Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

I would have to agree with Ms. Hall. Having attended a brick 

and mortar institution as well as an online school, I did not notice 

a difference as far as any of the processing. So I do not think there 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

20 

is data that supports whether one is more easily available versus 

the other. 

Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

Ms. TITUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Titus. 

I appreciate the feedback we have received from the panel. We 

received several noteworthy pieces of information that will be helpful to us as we continue this process. 

I do have one sort of a closing question for Ms. Hall. And that 

is, it seems to me like one of the things we heard is that this process might work better if we went back to the Montgomery GI Bill 

payment processing system which is essentially monthly payments. 

If we were to do that, what is your feeling as far as the schools 

finding that to be an acceptable solution? You would have to take 

your payments on a monthly basis. Is that something you think 

schools would be willing to do? 

Ms. HALL. Are you inquiring about the tuition and fee payment 

being paid on a monthly basis? 

Mr. FLORES. That is correct. That is essentially correct. 

Ms. HALL. You know, I do not think that the amount, the 

amount of the money is—I guess it is the issue. The issue really 

is that we do not know what we are getting from the VA. 

When we certify the tuition and fees, we give them an amount. 

We are not billing the VA. We just tell them this is what this student’s tuition and fee amount is. And it is what we get back is 

what is becoming the issues. We do not know how much money the 

VA is going to pay. 

And oftentimes, we have students, I mean, again, if they did pay 

monthly and we knew they were going to pay a certain amount, we 

could bill them like an authorization, say this is what we have to 

have and we knew that is what we were going to get, absolutely, 

it would work. 

But until we are sure about the money that we are going to get 

and the ability to be able to make changes to that amount, right, 

because the students add, drop all the time, and so as they add, 

drop, the tuition and fee amounts change. 

And so the LTS, the system has to be able to process those 

changes quickly. And just off the top, I would say trying to do that 

on a monthly basis would become very labor intense. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Hall. 

One of the things that came out of the testimony that we received today is that there is one issue that seems to be, let’s say, 

an important issue that might be easily resolved temporarily and 

it has to do with the concerns expressed by the NAVPA. And it 

suggests that there are significant problems with the debt management and collection process. 

And this comment is more for the second panel as they prepare 

to come up. It seems to me and maybe to other Members of the 

Subcommittee, it would be appropriate to temporarily suspend the 

collection of overdue payments until the VA and the schools can 

work together to develop a mutually beneficial solution to this particular issue. 

That way, the schools are not damaged economically or financially rather, and the VA comes up with a system that would actuVACREP180 with DISTILLER

21 

ally enable it to do what it is trying to do in terms of collecting 

debts. 

If there are no further questions, the witnesses are excused, and 

we thank you for your service to our Nation’s veterans and we 

thank the two witnesses that have also served our country. 

Following a short break for biological purposes, I am going to ask 

the second panel to come to the witness table. 

With us today are the Honorable Roger Baker who is Assistant 

Secretary for Information and Technology for the VA and Major 

General Rob Worley, Director of the VA’s Education Service. 

We will resume in about two minutes. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. FLORES. This hearing will resume. 

I would like to thank both of you for appearing today. 

And Mr. Baker is recognized for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF ROGER BAKER 

Mr. BAKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Good morning, Ranking Member Takano and Members of the 

Subcommittee. 

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Department of Veterans Affairs’ efforts to create and implement the long-term solution for processing Post-9/11 GI Bill 

claims. 

Accompanying me today is Mr. Robert M. Worley, II, Director of 

the Education Service. 

And as we take questions, you will see that I tend to lean towards the IT side of things and he will tend to lean towards the 

policy and business side of things. 

My testimony will address the current status of education claims 

processing and the status of the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI 

Bill long-term solution IT system. 

Most importantly, we can report to the Subcommittee and to our 

Nation’s veterans that VA is currently processing supplemental 

claims for Post-9/11 education assistance in an average of seven 

days from their receipt, a remarkable achievement given that today 

we are still in the peak enrollment period for the spring term. 

For comparison purposes, on this date in 2011, that number was 

19 days. In 2012, it was 14 days. Today we have approximately 

80,000 claims pending which is a dramatic decrease from previous 

years at this time, about a 50 percent decrease. 

In January, over 149,000 claims, supplemental claims were processed in one day at the VA as a result of automation. That improvement is largely due to the automation implemented in the 

long-term solution. 

But this does not mean that we think the LTS system or the 

complex processes that it helps automate are perfect. With hundreds of thousands of veterans attending school each semester, 

even a small error rate, and our error rate at this point in time 

is about one percent, means unacceptable delays for far too many 

people. 

But I want to assure you, Mr. Chairman, and every Member of 

this Committee that VA employees, whether a claims processor, a 

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software developer, or a manager, care deeply about doing the best 

job possible for our Nation’s veterans. It is why we are here. 

During my confirmation in the spring of 2009, I consistently 

heard that the VA would fail in the implementation of the systems 

needed to support the Chapter 33 program. And I can use the word 

universal for that opinion. 

Under pressure to implement the new GI Bill on time, we also 

had to transform an 8,000 person IT organization so that it could 

deliver while implementing this critical new program which is why, 

frankly, I am so proud of the results. 

From a forecast of failure, the VA IT organization delivered the 

LTS system under tight deadlines and even took on an extra year 

of development when Public Law 111–377 was passed in January 

of 2011 making extensive modifications to the system necessary. 

The LTS delivered on time from initial capabilities in April of 

2010 through 33 different functional releases and now processes 

over 40 percent of supplemental claims within one day of receipt. 

From an IT perspective, and from a VA perspective, and most 

importantly from a veteran perspective, the LTS is delivering 

value. 

As with any IT system, there are many new features and 

functionality users would like to see. This is as true for the LTS 

as it is for any of the other 1,000 plus IT systems that we operate 

inside the VA. 

Inside VA, we have a disciplined approach to prioritizing our IT 

needs and allocating funding available to those needs. 

For fiscal year 2013, we have focused our resources to fully support the secretary’s goal of eliminating the claims backlog in compensation and pension by the end of 2015. 

In conclusion, our veterans’ hard-earned educational benefits are 

the vehicle by which many of our Nation’s heroes pursue their educational goals and successfully transition to civilian life. 

VA is dedicated to ensuring that veterans are able to make wellinformed decisions concerning the use of their benefits and receive 

a quality education. 

We look forward to working with the Subcommittee to provide 

the best possible support to our veterans and beneficiaries as they 

pursue their educational goals. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. Mr. Worley and I 

would be pleased to answer any questions you or the Members of 

the Subcommittee have. Thank you. 

[THE PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROGER BAKER APPEARS IN THE AP- PENDIX]

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Baker. 

And I will begin the questioning. Several times in the response 

of the VA to our pre-hearing questions, the VA stated that future 

releases and functionalities for the LTS would be subject to priorities and IT funding. 

Can you tell us where the LTS falls in the IT priority list at the 

VA at this time? 

Mr. BAKER. Yes, I can, Chairman. 

If I can give you a little bit of a complex answer and maybe explain a little bit of our prioritization process. 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

23 

For 2013, as we looked at our available funding and the issues 

we had, we decided that we had a lot of automation coming on 

board with the 33 system and that actually moving to utilize those 

automations would take a lot of the fiscal year 2013 year. 

And as you see, the automations and supplemental continue to 

increase our ability to utilize those. And so in fiscal year 2013, we 

have focused our dollars on the compensation and pension side of 

the system. 

Congressman Runyan had referred to the VBMS system, the Veterans Benefits Management System that we are rolling out right 

now. 

We believe that subject to availability of funding in 2014, there 

are improvements that could be made to the system. And we also 

are looking to identify funding inside of our 2013 budget still to 

provide improvements in the 2013 system. 

So the specific answer to your question, Congressman, is it is one 

of the first things we will fund in addition to what we’re doing 

right now when we identify the available funding. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. Thank you. 

Would it be—I am going to ask you the same question I asked 

of Ms. Hall in the prior panel. Do you—in your opinion, would it 

be beneficial to—make the payments under the Post-9/11 GI Bill 

under the similar protocols of the Montgomery GI Bill, essentially 

on a monthly basis? 

Mr. BAKER. Let me defer that one to Mr. Worley. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. General Worley. 

General WORLEY. Mr. Chairman, thank you. 

It would simplify the debt issues that we’ve been talking about, 

and we’d be willing, of course, to work with the Committee on a 

proposal along those lines. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. In your written statement, you listed seven 

impediments that stand between you and 100 percent end-to-end 

automation of GI Bill claims. 

Can you tell us what the plan is to overcome those seven impediments? 

Mr. BAKER. I apologize, sir. 

Mr. FLORES. I think it’s on the PowerPoint that you presented to 

the staff, excuse me. 

STAFF. It’s the last page. 

Mr. FLORES. Last page of the PowerPoint. Sorry about that. 

Mr. BAKER. And I apologize. I am sure that is somewhere in the 

book here as well. 

My staff has laid out a plan and necessary funding to address 

the items around certificates of eligibility and to be able to automate those as well as making certain that we do maximum automation of the supplemental claims. 

I am not as familiar in depth with the pieces of this. I can tell 

you that in particular where certificates of eligibility are concerned, 

there are a number of systems that will need to be improved because the data quality is a key item as we look at certificates of 

eligibility. 

Today the reason that a person is so much in the loop with those 

is that if the data does not appear to be right, for example, about 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

24 

term of service or various items, they will go look in other areas 

to find that information. 

So automating that we believe is going to require more than just 

changes to the long-term solution system itself, but also to a lot of 

the data feeder systems that feed into that to make certain that we 

achieve quality results for these when they go through. 

I do know if there is any of the specific items, Mr. Worley handed 

me the slide, that you would like me to address in here, but the 

staff has laid out a plan for how do we address all of these in an 

automated system. 

Mr. FLORES. I think since I have limited time, I am going to ask 

you, if you would, is to provide the Subcommittee staff with what 

it would take on each of the seven impediments, if you do not 

mind. 

Mr. BAKER. We would be happy to do that. 

Mr. FLORES. And that will, I think, satisfy the rest of that question. 

Do you have the PowerPoint in your package there? If you go to 

page nine, we had a question regarding our, and maybe somebody 

else will take this up because I have limited time, so I will go 

ahead and ask the question, and you can think about somebody 

else picking it up, what I need you to do is put your response in 

plain English for me so we can understand what the costs are with 

the process of automating the processing of original claims. 

So with that, my time has expired, and I will turn the mic over 

to Ranking Member Takano. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I am having trouble understanding the discrepancy in what you 

say is the average turn-around time for processing a claim. 

You say it’s now seven days? 

Mr. BAKER. In supplemental claims, I believe the latest number 

is six days of average time to complete supplemental claims processing from when it’s submitted by the school into the online 

V.A.—ONCE system to when we put in the payment file to go to 

Treasury. 

Mr. TAKANO. The advocates for the students and the student 

vets, are saying that they experience six to eight weeks. 

Are we talking about two different things here? 

Mr. BAKER. In hearing that, my thought was that I think we’re 

talking sample size. For good or for bad, what the V.A. looks at is 

a half a million or more claims that are going through the system. 

Mr. TAKANO. Okay. So what—what—OK, so what percentage of 

the total claims are—how many—what percentage of our student 

vets are experiencing delays of six to eight weeks, would you say? 

General WORLEY. If I could try to comment on that, I don’t have 

a percent of veterans who may be experiencing those delays. 

But we do track a lot of the statistics on days to complete a claim 

of the various benefit types and so forth, because clearly we want 

to do that as quickly and as accurately as possible. 

Today, or just yesterday, I asked for the percent of Chapter 33 

supplemental claims that we have that are greater than 30 days 

old, and the answer to that is about 4 percent of them. 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

25 

On original claims, it’s a higher number, which is, as Mr. Baker 

pointed out; it takes more development in many cases to establish 

the eligibility. 

Mr. TAKANO. Excuse me. So was Mr. Dakduk speaking about 

original claims or supplemental claims? Because I’m now learning 

this new vocabulary of supplemental and original. 

General WORLEY. He may have been talking about both. The 

first step is to get the original claim in, which provides a certificate 

of eligibility and in some cases, those come in without an additional 

supplemental claim, which is an enrollment, which are the actual 

certifications that result in payments to veterans. 

But the first step is to get the certificate of eligibility which takes 

a little bit longer. So it—— 

Mr. TAKANO. I mean, on the supplemental claims, can you give 

me an average number definitively?. I mean, the data must exist 

on when claims are processed or not processed. 

So on original and supplemental claims, I would imagine you 

should be able to provide the Committee with information about 

what percentage of the claims are taking six weeks long. Is that 

possible? 

General WORLEY. Yes, Congressman, that is possible. For original claims, I can tell you today it is about 30 days and that has 

been coming down. That is the average for processing an original 

claim for Chapter 33. And nationwide for all benefits, it is 29 days. 

For supplemental claims for Chapter 33, as was pointed out, we 

are running about six days right now with automation. 

Mr. TAKANO. Now, is it accurate that we spent about $250 million on this new system? It is mind boggling to me that we spent 

that much money on a system. Can you comment on the value or 

the amount of money spent for a custom software system? I may 

not know the market very well, but what can you say about that? 

Mr. BAKER. I can certainly comment to that. I believe the number that we provided the Committee was $263 million—— 

Mr. TAKANO. Right. 

Mr. BAKER. —from start to the point we are right now. As we 

have rolled through building the system, it is a very complex set 

of rules that we process to inside the education system. 

I made the observation to someone while we were on break that 

the difference between a VA and an Amazon is if Amazon finds a 

rule, a business rule that they have that they do not like because 

of what they are doing in the system that would make the system 

hard, they can change the business rule. If it is in the law, we do 

not have that opportunity. 

And so we have built a system that processes claims to the law 

for education claims. 

I can speak a little bit to the IT side of this. I, you know, have 

a fair amount of experience in government. Not many IT systems 

in government deliver to the timelines and with the level of 

functionality that this system has without grossly exceeding their 

budget. And this system has not. 

So the question of is $263 million the right amount of money to 

spend on this, there is a huge difference between the way the government does these things and the way the private sector does. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you. 

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26 

Mr. Chairman, my time has expired. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Mr. Takano. 

Ms. Brownley. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Just to follow-up on that line of questioning then, are there ways 

in which or laws in which we can improve upon the system understanding that, you know, we cannot be as quick as Amazon might 

be able to be, but are there things that we can be doing to improve 

the system under the current sort of architecture of which was created based on a law? 

Mr. BAKER. Thank you, Congresswoman. 

I would just make two observations for you. One is, there are 

parts of the system that, if changes, fit inside of— make the 

changes very quickly. When the law was passed in 2011, there was 

a requirement for a number of changes to occur within 60 days. 

And because those impacted in the area that we call the rules engine, we were able to quickly make those changes and implement 

those within that timeframe. 

As we get to more extensive changes in the law and in the system, it then gets into the basic software of the system, and that 

does take a fair amount of time to change. 

We tried to build the system to accommodate the ability to make 

changes more quickly. But as I said in my testimony in January 

of 2010, that is not a miracle. You know, it will accommodate some 

things more than most IT systems, but certainly not everything. 

And so it really becomes a discussion between the business folks, 

the technology folks, and the folks writing the law of what is going 

to be easy to implement and what is going to be hard to implement 

and then the business choices along that path. 

I cannot give you a more fine-grained answer than that, although 

I will point out that this Committee, actually years ago, did the VA 

a huge favor by consolidating our IT organization into one appropriation. That has allowed us to make the kind of management 

changes that allowed us to deliver this system on time. 

The VA before that could never have delivered this system, not 

on time, not to any budget. They could not have delivered this system. So this Committee has a lot of credit for just putting that in 

place. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you, sir. 

And just another question. It seems as though based on the earlier testimony and your testimony, there seems to be, we have not 

really reconciled, we are not in agreement, let’s just say, between 

the VA and the stakeholders vis-a-vis our response time in order 

to fulfill these backlogs and what the claim time really is. 

And so if we were going to follow what you are saying the data 

is, and I think you mentioned there was a difference in sample 

sizes, then that leads me to think that there are pockets, regional 

pockets that are different, having the different response time if we 

are looking, you know, you are quoting the averages. 

So am I right in that and if I am, are there ways in which those 

can be identified? 

General WORLEY. Thank you, Congresswoman. 

I would address that by saying we are in a period of transition. 

I think many of the horror stories about delays happened in the 

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27 

fall semester of this past fall. The pending claims, if you will, that 

came in peaked at about 220,000. We did not have automation yet 

and we were struggling to keep up at that time. 

As we examined that problem, we turned our focus to the types 

of claims that actually pay our veterans. In other words, the certification of the supplemental claim as we call them. That let some of 

the original claims that were coming in for the certificates of eligibility that did not have an immediate enrollment with them, that 

let some of those claims age. 

Since the implementation of the automation, we have been able 

to, as you heard, process the supplemental Chapter 33 claims very 

quickly and that percent started off at about 25 to 28 percent of 

supplemental claims in the beginning of October. And today it is 

in the mid 40s consistently among all the regional processing offices, which is obviously a consistent growth in the percent that are 

automated. 

So that has allowed us to turn some of the manpower to the 

more aged claims and make sure that those are worked and come 

down. 

With the volume that we deal with, well, unfortunately there will 

be cases where mistakes are made or we do not get to something 

quickly enough. We will acknowledge that and fix it as quickly as 

possible. It is not acceptable to us to have someone waiting eight 

weeks or longer for their claim to be paid. 

Ms. BROWNLEY. Thank you, sir. 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ms. Brownley. 

Mr. Baker, one quick question for you. If we were to choose to 

go to the old Montgomery processing methodology, is it possible to 

change the system to accommodate that and how long would it 

take? 

Mr. BAKER. Congressman, if I could get back to you, I would like 

to have the folks that know the system best give you an answer 

instead of me, if you will, guessing on that at this point. 

Mr. FLORES. Okay. If you would. And we will do that and we will 

also send you some additional questions. We would ask the VA to 

get back to us as soon as possible on that. 

I will now recognize Mr. Takano for any closing remarks that he 

has. 

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this moment. 

I want to express the desire of the minority to work with the majority on helping to serve our veterans better. It is the least we can 

do for the service they have done for our Nation, and it is a great 

privilege to serve on this Committee with you, sir. 

Mr. FLORES. Thank you, Ranking Member Takano. 

I have to concur with your comments. This is fortunately one of 

the Committees where we have good bipartisan relationships, I believe, to work cooperatively for the benefit of our Nation’s veterans. 

In closing this hearing today, I would like to ask the VA in the 

strongest terms possible to fund and develop the functions that 

were listed by today’s witnesses. 

I realize the demands of any IT system budget and development 

are significant, but it does not make sense, I think, that we have 

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come so far and you said fairly clearly about the successes you 

have had, and it seems like it is appropriate to go ahead and try 

to take that to the next level and add the capabilities that will lessen the number of calls to the Muskogee call center and to give our 

veterans and our schools the ability to monitor the benefits and as 

a result, improve the administrative processes for all concerned. 

I believe that this is an important model for other VA benefit 

programs and we intend to visit an RPO soon. And I would like to 

invite the Members and the staffs to join me, to take that trip with 

me, and we will be getting back with each of you very soon on that. 

If there is no further business, this hearing is adjourned with my 

thanks to our second panel, with all of our witnesses. 

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks, include any extraneous material in the record of today’s hearing. 

We are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:26 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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A P P E N D I X 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Bill Flores 

Good morning. I want to begin by welcoming each of our new Members especially 

our Ranking Member, Mr. Takano, to the Committee. I also want to publicly thank 

Mr. Takano for agreeing to become an original co-sponsor of legislation I have introduced that will mandate the contents of the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). 

I realize everyone introduced themselves at the Full Committee organizational 

meeting but I think it would be good to do that again. With that said, I now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member. 

My thanks to each of the Members and I am looking forward to a productive and 

bipartisan 113th Congress. 

We are here today to review development and implementation of the computer 

system used to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims and so a little history is in order. 

In the run up to passage of the new program, VA stated unequivocally that the system used for decades to process Montgomery GI Bill claims would not be able to 

handle the more complex Post-9/11 program. So, Congress authorized $100 million 

to develop a new system, what is now called the Long Term Solution, or LTS. 

Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law, this Subcommittee has held at least 7 

hearings on the program including the new LTS. Until recently, our understanding 

was that the system is being developed to handle all Post-9/11 claims beginning 

with an original claim through supplemental claims. 

We now understand that the major development effort has focused on automating 

supplemental claims with comprise the bulk of the interactions between VA and the 

students and schools. I think in terms of a strategy, and I applaud VA for that decision which, this strategy has resulted in over 40% of supplemental claims being 

processed without human intervention. But like most things it also had negative results, because that decision left original claims relatively unautomated. As a result, 

an original claim still takes about 45 minutes to process, a time little changed from 

2009. 

In short, we are supportive of VA’s efforts related to the LTS and our focus today 

is looking forward towards the future and finish full development of the LTS. Without making the system and its information more accessible to veterans and schools, 

it is not complete. I would add to that the ability to provide a robust analysis function to enable VA and Congress to make better-informed decisions on education and 

training benefits in the future. 

VA has now spent about $286 million dollars on the LTS and without adding such 

functions, it would be like buying a new luxury car without air conditioning, heated 

seats, and a satellite radio. As our witness from NAVPA says in her testimony, 

‘‘LTS must continue to evolve so it is able to process more complex claims and 

changes.’’ 

With that, I recognize the Ranking Member for his opening remarks. 

f 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Mark Takano 

Thank you Mr. Chairman. 

Good morning, I would like to thank everyone for joining us today and I would 

like to thank our witnesses for taking time to testify and answer our questions. 

Mr. Flores, congratulations on being the new EO Chairman. I look forward to 

working with you to help our veterans and their families across our country. As our 

country begins to reduce operations in the Middle East and bring more our troops 

home we will need to have the right programs to address their needs. 

We have spent $263 million dollars on the Long Term Solution (LTS) and many 

questions still remain on the system’s effectiveness, its completion and our return 

on investment. The system does not process all claims from beginning to end and 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

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there is quite of a bit of human intervention necessary to complete claims. When 

the VA first began processing claims with the Short Term Solution it took about 45 

minutes to process an original claim. Years later with millions of dollars spent it 

takes about the same time to process an original claim. I do not see the anticipated 

gains that were visualized when VA and SPAWAR came here to our Subcommittee 

and testified before us. As always we are open to ideas on how to improve this custom designed system. 

Besides the cost and problems with the LTS we need to know where completion 

of the LTS ranks for VA. Is the LTS first on their IT priority list or has this now 

tumbled to bottom of the list? I hope VA came prepared today to discuss where they 

are in completing the LTS and what will be the remaining cost. I know Congress 

has made some changes to the GI Bill that required VA to pivot from their original 

plan to accommodate mid-stream changes. I would like to know the impact of these 

Congressional changes so that we have a complete picture of what has transpired 

since we began working on the LTS. 

The colleges and universities are reporting a number of issues with the system. 

I know that off-ramp problems have been an issue and there may be a simple solution to address the over 80 reasons that off-ramps occur. I look forward to what 

NAVPA has to say and how we can streamline payments to the colleges. I hope that 

we can figure out how we can streamline and improve functionality of LTS that is 

so fundamental to veterans for their education. This was the promise of the Act to 

them when it became law under Public Law 110–252 and it is our priority now as 

Members of this Subcommittee. 

I remain very interested to hear from the VA the details about how the provisions 

that have been implemented are performing, and how soon additional functionality 

will be implemented and what that will mean for processing times and improved 

services for veterans. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling this hearing. I look forward to the testimony and discussion we will have today. 

f 

Prepared Statement of Michael Dakduk 

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano and members of the Subcommittee: 

Thank you for inviting Student Veterans of America to address the Subcommittee 

on ‘‘Increasing the Functionality of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing to Reduce Delays.’’ 

Student Veterans of America (SVA) is the largest and only national association 

of military Veterans in higher education. Our mission is to provide military veterans 

with the resources, support, and advocacy needed to succeed in higher education 

and after graduation. We currently have over 750 chapters, or student veteran organizations, at colleges and universities in all 50 states that assist veterans in their 

transition to and through higher education. SVA chapters are organized at four-year 

and two-year public, private, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions of higher learning. 

This diverse and direct contact gives SVA a unique perspective on the needs and 

obstacles faced by our nation’s veterans as they utilize educational benefits in preparation for their future transition into the civilian workforce. This on-the-ground 

perspective, which comes from every corner of this nation, and our experience in 

supporting thousands of GI Bill beneficiaries, provides the framework for our testimony regarding the Long Term Solution and other recommendations regarding improvements for the processing of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

The Long Term Solution (LTS), a proposed fully automated end-to-end processing 

system for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, being implemented by the Department of Veterans 

Affairs (VA) has been a topic of discussion since 2010. While the LTS is a behindthe-scenes, information technology (IT) system being rolled out in phases, SVA has 

concerns with the lack of real-time information currently being provided to student 

Veterans. We have routinely called for a secure, web-based single portal system that 

allows student Veterans to see the status of their GI Bill claims in real-time. Currently, student Veterans are only able to track the status of their claims by calling 

the GI Bill hotline or interfacing with their school certifying official. 

The GI Bill hotline has elongated wait times and during periods of heavy call traffic the automated system instructs student Veterans to call back at a later time. 

This process is highly inefficient and extremely frustrating to Veterans. The LTS 

should include a single portal where student Veterans can access and view in realtime the status of their GI Bill claims. By providing instantaneous information, student Veterans can make well-informed life decisions based on the timely, or untimely, processing of their GI Bill benefit. We recommend the real-time tracking of 

VACREP180 with DISTILLER

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GI Bill claims be housed in eBenefits, the current single portal system used for all 

VA benefits and claims. 

The other option for gaining information on the status of a Veteran’s GI Bill 

claim, and often the most consistent, is for a student Veteran to connect with the 

school certifying official (SCO) on campus. SCO’s have a private, and by most accounts, reliable hotline for delayed GI Bill claims. However, this is not a long term 

solution for the timely processing of the GI Bill. SCO’s should have access to a system that allows them to submit certifications of enrollment in a streamlined manner 

and, most importantly, follow the status of a student Veteran’s claim in real-time. 

Since SCO’s interact with student Veterans on a regular basis, they are often inundated with questions about the status of a student Veteran’s GI Bill claim. While 

most SCO’s go above and beyond the responsibilities of their position to provide a 

student with an appropriate answer, they are clearly overburdened. They must be 

provided with the adequate systems to process and view the status of a student Veteran’s claim. We recommend that SCO’s be provided the appropriate real-time access to the status of GI Bill claims utilizing 21st century web-based technology. 

Both the student Veteran and SCO portal we propose is not a concept unknown 

to the public or private sector. We liken the concept to that of the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS. All major shipping services have near real-time tracking of 

packages worldwide. Not only are customers notified of an estimated time of delivery, but when a hiccup occurs in the delivery of a package, the receiving customer 

is notified in a timely manner and given a new delivery time. It is difficult to grasp, 

in a technology-rich society, why the timely processing of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is 

still a subject of concern. Equally disturbing is the inability of student Veterans to 

access the status of their claims in real-time. Information Technology systems that 

are customer-service based and oriented toward serving the student Veteran must 

be included in the LTS. 

Student Veterans of America is grateful for the opportunity to provide this testimony. We thank the Chairman, Ranking Member and the Subcommittee members 

for their time, attention, and devotion to the cause of strengthening the GI Bill process. We look forward to continuing to work with this Subcommittee, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and the Congress to ensure the success of all generations 

of Veterans through education. 

Thank you for allowing Student Veterans of America to participate in this important Hearing. 

Executive Summary 

• THE LONG TERM SOLUTION (LTS) SHOULD INCLUDE REAL–TIME, 

WEB–BASED INFORMATION ON THE STATUS OF A GI BILL CLAIM 

• REAL–TIME TRACKING OF GI BILL CLAIMS SHOULD BE PROVIDED TO 

STUDENT VETERANS AND SCHOOL CERTIFYING OFFICIALS 

• THE STUDENT VETERAN GI BILL CLAIMS TRACKING PROCESS 

SHOULD BE HOUSED IN EBENEFITS, THE MAIN PORTAL USED FOR 

ALL BENEFITS AND CLAIMS 

• STREAMLINING THE GI BILL CLAIMS PROCESS WILL INEVITABLY 

TAKE TIME, BUT PROVIDING NEAR REAL–TIME INFORMATION ON THE 

STATUS OF A CLAIM SHOULD NOT 

• PROVIDING UP–TO–DATE GI BILL INFORMATION ALLOWS STUDENT 

VETERANS TO MAKE BETTER LIFE DECISIONS THAT MAY AFFECT 

THEIR ACADEMIC STUDIES, CAREERS AND FAMILIES 

f 

Prepared Statement of Kim Hall 

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, and members of the Subcommittee 

on Economic Opportunity, the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA) is pleased to be invited to provide comment on the topic of increasing the functionality of the Post 9/11 GI Bill claims processing. NAVPA’s membership is comprised of educational institutions from all sectors with an organizational 

commitment to advocating for what is in the best interests of student veterans at 

our institutions. Our expertise lies in the administration of veterans’ education programs at colleges, universities, and other education providers and most of our members also serve as School Certifying Officials for VA education benefits. NAVPA is 

a voluntary organization with a primary mission to provide training and professional development to member institutions, collect and disseminate best practices 

surrounding support for student veterans and military members, and advocate on 

behalf of students and our institutions. Our organization represents close to 400 

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educational institutions nation-wide and our leadership is comprised of non-paid 

staff members. We voluntarily serve NAVPA in an effort to better serve the veterans on our campuses. 

The Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) is an incredibly generous and complicated benefit program. The level of detailed, often manual work required of School Certifying 

Officials is frequently overwhelming. There are a number of things we believe could 

be done to ease the burden on SCOs and on VA processors to make this a more 

streamlined and manageable process. 

Regulations and Policy Guidance: 

We must have regulations for the GI Bill law passed over 2 years ago (PL 111– 

377). Schools are being held liable for overpayments by policies that are not in 

alignment with existing regulations and schools are expected to comply with legislation that has not been regulated. VA attempts to manage the implementation of the 

changes in PL 111–377 via policy statements but these are not well or consistently 

communicated to all educational institutions. We continue to ask for an online archive of all policy and procedural changes since it seems difficult to push information out to the field and schools through VA communication channels. 

VA Once/IT Concerns: 

The VA Once certification data entry system still requires schools to upload data 

multiple times for the same student, one student at a time – there are no batch 

uploads, certifying officials are advised to input only one change per day for each 

student to insure they are received correctly at the Regional Processing Office, and 

the ability to modify, update or correct some inputs is severely limited if not impossible to do electronically. We still must rely on paper forms to report some situations 

clearly or resort to duplicate certifications – one example comes from recent ELR 

guidance reminding schools that they cannot make any changes to a terminated certification and that the only option is to completely recertify the term with explanatory remarks. As a very senior certifying official wrote recently, ‘‘We should be able 

to correct anything that we send to the VA via VA–ONCE to keep it clear and 

clean.’’ Data entry limitations result in a great deal of extra work on the part of 

the already heavily burdened SCO. Limitations on data inputs via VA Once and the 

set of standard remarks available do not allow for all reporting scenarios and needs. 

Payment Processing Issues: 

Ch 33 claims processed by the LTS’ automated functionality are now paid very 

quickly – as soon as five work days from submission from our observation. But this 

is still a minority of supplemental claims and includes no original claims. LTS must 

continue to evolve so it is able to process more complex claims and changes. 

Certificates of Eligibility are NOT the same as authorizations for payment as used 

under Ch 31 or military Tuition Assistance. COEs do not represent a guarantee of 

payment at a set amount, but rather a statement of general eligibility for a program. The VA still can pay all or a portion of reported charges based on a number 

of possible criteria and situations. Many schools are nonetheless willing to defer student bills until GI Bill tuition and fee payments arrive, but some are not. Some are 

even willing to disburse other aid while awaiting GI Bill funds. The number willing 

to do so would likely decrease dramatically if funds were to be sent to the student 

rather than the school, a situation that would result in even less confidence in the 

eventual payment of charges. 

Since SCOs and business offices are expected to know whether they have been 

paid correctly by VA – and must reconcile payments so they know what to do with 

balances on student accounts, they must be taught payment processing rules and 

policies – how to calculate a prorated payment based on a reduction in hours after 

the start of term, for example. Only by understanding this level of detail can the 

school be assured that payments – and debts/overpayments – are correct. 

As long as VA requires schools to report every change in enrollment or charge, 

waiting till the end of term to submit tuition and fees will not help reduce the number of adjustments or amendments required, but will rather compress them into a 

very limited time period rather than submitting them as they occur throughout the 

term. The only way to reduce the reported 50% of the claims backlog that results 

from adjustments is to convince students not to change their schedules. Every one 

of these changes has to be reported – individually – and, as mentioned previously, 

on separate days to be sure that the data arrives at VA intact. 

Overpayments and Debt Collection: 

The RPOs should communicate with schools prior to sending school debts to the 

VA’S Debt Management Center for collection. There should be agreement on both 

the rationale and amount of the overpayment before the DMC starts collection procVACREP180 with DISTILLER

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esses. The VA’s review in 2011 of outstanding 2009–2010 overpayments was obviously flawed as the DMC suspended collection on over 800 of these debts and many, 

many schools reported offsets taken for debts that were already paid or previously 

reassigned to the student by the RPO. 

The US Treasury Offset Program procedures MUST be changed to prevent multiple agencies from offsetting the same debt simultaneously. A system that only allows a weekly update of offset-eligible VA debts is irresponsible. This has caused 

enormous confusion, frustration, and effort on the part of institution to track and 

reconcile inbound payments and offsets from multiple non-VA-related federal 

sources including the refunds of erroneous or duplicate offsets taken. 

Redundant/Useless Reporting Requirements: 

Eliminate useless school reporting requirements such as graduation – data collected through that process is incomplete and providing highly inaccurate view of 

veteran completion rates. Also, while an admirable goal, reporting students on probation so that VA can send a letter reminding them that they have tutoring, counseling, and advising available to them seems a less than optimum use of resources 

since schools already work closely with students on probation status. These VA and 

SCO resources could be better utilized elsewhere. 

Data Sharing: 

It seems unreasonable in this IT-driven age that the four Regional Processing Offices cannot see electronic files in each other’s jurisdiction. This lack of visibility requires additional form submission by veterans if their initial application was processed and their Certificate of Eligibility issued by one RPO but the veteran decides 

to enroll in a school in another region. Veterans cannot reasonably be expected to 

know what RPO their forms are processed in nor that they must notify VA when 

they move from one RPO to another. The Education Call Center staff in Muskogee 

has visibility on veteran files from all four regions – why not all four RPOs so that 

this additional paperwork and delay on claims processing can be avoided. 

There is still no school access to real-time eligibility and payment data for students using the Post 9/11 GI Bill – our most long-standing request. This significantly impacts schools’ ability and willingness to extend financial protection or courtesy for student veterans. Schools’ initial experiences with the Post 9/11 GI Bill including the recent debt collection efforts have not served to build confidence in the 

program or its accurate implementation. Only direct access to data will change this 

Benefit Recommendation: 

There needs to be a change to the net-cost consequences for those veterans at less 

than 100% eligibility for Ch 33 who cannot combine federal or other restricted aid 

programs to get 100% of their costs covered. When VA pays after all others, and 

only a percentage of what remains, the veteran can never get all charges paid for, 

even with multiple available programs. This is unfair to these individuals, primarily 

Guard and reserve members/veterans. Ch 33 rules should allow for payment of the 

veteran’s net-cost not to exceed the full cost multiplied by the veteran’s eligibility 

tier. 

Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, thank you again for the opportunity to contribute these statements on behalf of the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators. Our organization stands ready to assist in all efforts 

to better support the women and men who have served this nation. We thank you 

for your continued leadership on issues of critical importance to America’s veterans. 

NAVPA would be happy to respond to any questions you may have. 

f 

Prepared Statement of Hayleigh Perez 

Chairman Flores and Respective Committee Members, thank you for the opportunity to testify before your subcommittee today. 

My name is Hayleigh Perez. As a female Veteran having served on active-duty 

in the U.S. Army, a wife and mother, a student Veteran, and currently the Vice 

President of Social Media with the Student Veterans Advocacy Group, I feel very 

proud to be here speaking on such a relevant topic effecting thousands of student 

Veterans around our country today. 

The words, ‘‘Freedom isn’t free’’ are so very true, yet our Veterans today seem to 

be so demonized as though we are asking for something that’s not already ours. Our 

Veterans should never have to ask, and sometimes beg for the very things we were 

promised for the sacrifices made to protect our great nation. 

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As in any good business...taking care of those whom take care of you, builds 

strength we all benefit from. While the economy is tough, statistics prove that taking care of our Veterans through the benefits promised to them, yields one of the 

highest return on investments of any others out there...period. By doing so, our Veterans are given the square deal promised to them, which yields such a high return 

that will benefit the rebuilding of our local, state, and national economy as a whole. 

Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘‘A man who is good enough to shed his blood for 

the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.’’ 

Based on research and assessments many universities as well as our organization 

have been able to work on regarding the number of Veterans whom are enrolling 

at a school of higher education due to interrupted studies resulting from active-duty 

service, and those whom are enrolling for the first time, we have determined: 

• Prior to 2011, nearly 75% of student Veterans were using the GI Bill to complete 

their education after interruptions from active-duty service obligations. 

• After 2011, only based on information we’ve collected from various service-members whom have only served in the military after 2008 and recently having completed their active-duty service obligations, approximately 67% of them are attending a traditional classroom setting in a two-year or four-year college for the 

first time. 

According to American Counsel on Education (ACE) research: 

• ‘‘only 64% of Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries who responded to surveys anticipated they could finish their degrees on time. Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, qualified veterans are allowed 36 months to complete their education. To accomplish 

this, veterans specified that courses must be made available when they need 

them and cited the importance of receiving academic credit for military service 

and training. The main two factors that contribute to graduating on time are 

course availability and course credit.’’ 

• Because of the size of their student populations, course availability is a larger 

concern at public universities. Veterans get the courses they need by taking approved classes at accredited schools near their primary institution.’’ 

• According to an ACE survey, only 47% of veterans who made an attempt to 

transfer credits were satisfied with the results. Veterans most often receive course 

credit for degree programs at private schools by finding allies such as academic 

advisors and professors who advocate on their behalf and initiate appeals. This 

helps them transfer more course credit and ensures that they will graduate on 

time.’’ 

There are considerable challenges and obstacles facing student Veterans today different than in times past. Such challenges our student Veterans are facing today 

are a result of the short-sited decisions being made by the Federal, and some State 

governments due to the financial hardships facing our Nation. History has proven 

post-war is the worst recession, and best economical boom our Nation experiences, 

versus other time-periods. Part of such success is due to the positive impact educating our Veterans has on the economy, which is paramount to the growth needed 

today. 

Many Veterans are finding it extremely difficult to adjust back to civilian life for 

a multitude of reasons. Let’s keep in mind a big difference with the ten-year war 

in Iraq and Afghanistan contrary to past wars, is that our service-members have 

survived at a higher rate than prior wars. Of course, that’s a blessing, but it also 

precipitates a much greater need for preparation and care at home our nation 

wasn’t ready for. 

As a result of the unanticipated transitional difficulties from the backlog of delayed processing of VA claims: many service-members, Veterans, and families thereof, are suffering from unforeseen hardships that could otherwise be avoided. 

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES? 

Processing Delays 

Student Veterans are often faced with extreme financial hardships when 

transitioning into school for the first time, starting new semesters, or changing 

schools or programs. When following up with their paperwork, student Veterans 

often realize they and the Universities have done everything on their end to ensure 

timely processing of claims – though months often pass with no payment and no 

answer from VA as to the reasoning for such delay. 

The way by which current VA GI Bill claims are being processed needs significant 

improvements. Many of our nations student Veterans are relying on their earned 

GI Bill benefits for groceries, child care, bills, etc., and the delinquency by which 

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these funds are being disbursed, or not, are often times life-altering causing some 

consequences as extreme as leaving some student Veterans homelessness. 

A fellow student Veteran, Juan M. Beltran from Silver Springs, Maryland wrote 

to our organization, stating: 

‘‘There is a little known book called, When the War Comes Home by Aaron 

Glantz. In his concluding chapters, Glantz speaks to the uphill battles veterans have 

had in obtaining Veterans benefits over the past 60 years, battle that undoubtedly 

continues. 

‘‘Members of Congress and bureaucrats at the Pentagon and the Department of 

Veterans Affairs may not be attacking vets with mortars and IEDs, but they are literally killing them with indifference’’, Glantz writes on page 212.’’ 

This past semester, beginning Graduate school, I experienced this first-hand. 

When I first contacted the VA in January, I was told there was not even a record 

of my attending Graduate school, which I began attending a week earlier. After resubmitting the same documents I sent already sent in November of 2012, I was told 

to follow-up in a week. After calling the VA every week for over 5-weeks I finally 

made it through the never ending hold-time with the VA and spoke to a very nice 

woman by the name of Yvonne, whom located all of the information and forms I’d 

already filed in November of 2012 in addition to all of my inquiries, whereby she 

was able to actually process my book-stipend and housing allowance payments. 

Within a few days I received the funds I was owed, my certificate of benefits from 

the previous school I’d never received, as well as the one I needed for Graduate 

school. 

The prevailing question our organization posed with respect to the similar issues 

thousands of student Veterans have been, and are currently facing was: 

Why was Yvonne able to resolve my GI Bill issues while the 4 other VA representatives I previously spoke with not able to? 

I asked this question of Yvonne when discussing my issues and was told the VA 

Educational Assistance Department is currently using two different software programs that cannot communicate with one another. Therefore, if my information was 

entered into one program but not the other, the representatives working with the 

other software program cannot assist me because they can’t find my information, 

while it all resides within the other software program. 

Potential Solutions 

1. Consolidate the two software programs currently being used by the VA Educational Assistance Program to one standard software program. 

By consolidating the software programs to one standard program, all VA representatives would have equal access in addressing any GI Bill beneficiary claims 

issue, whereby resolving beneficiary problems in a more timely manner. This would 

also assist in maximizing productivity for the VA and its representatives, while reducing the financial burden facing thousands of student Veterans. The outcome of 

applying this would be a considerable cast-savings measure to both the GI Bill beneficiaries as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs, which would certainly help 

reduce spending for our Federal Government. 

2. Re-education and certified training for all VA representatives, in addition to required annual training for changes and updates to the software program being utilized by the VA. 

This is one of the largest observable downfalls with respect to current deficiencies 

in how the VA processes GI Bill education benefits claims. 

3. Education and re-training of all VA representatives on all forms, past, present, 

and future, of the GI Bill (chapter 30, 33, etc). 

Many emails the Student Veterans Advocacy Group receives from student Veterans 

complain about the lack of GI Bill knowledge one would think is necessary in order 

to work in the Educational Assistance Program for the VA. 

4. Each Student Veteran should have a VA representative assigned to them on 

a local, state, or regional basis. 

By assigning each GI Bill beneficiary an individual representative for their claim, 

communication would be far better, and personable as well. Being able to contact or 

email an individual representative would help reduce the debilitating complaints 

currently stagnating the VA. This measure can additionally ensure more compliance, 

accountability, and continuity are being met by the VA. 

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Conclusion 

Our society today is overstated with the ‘‘blank-checks’’ it offers to one group or 

another. The difference between student Veterans and other groups is that they’re 

not asking for any more, or less, than what’s owed them for their sacrifices in-service to protect our nation. We’re not asking for a hand-down, hand-up, or hand-out. 

Rather - we’re merely asking for the benefit we’ve fought for, died for, and earned, 

in defending the freedoms our great nation continues to enjoy. 

Have we really fallen so far from where America once was that we resolve ourselves to believe if we’re not personally affected, then it doesn’t matter? While in 

many ways having become disenfranchised with some of the questionable actions by 

our government I can still honestly say that I would sacrifice my life to secure the 

liberties and freedoms we have in America. So, is really too much to ask that our 

government fulfill its’ obligations, as intended, to our service-members and Veterans? 

To this end, you (Members of the House Sub-Committee on Economic Opportunity 

of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs) have a tremendous opportunity to be 

heroes to the Veterans and families, whom have served our great Nation. With your 

dedication and leadership, our Veterans can be better able to assist in the future 

successes our economy and country so desperately need. 

Character is defined not just by what we say we’re going to do, but what we do 

following what we say. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘‘when making any decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best is the wrong thing, 

and the worst thing you can do is nothing.’’ The right thing to do for our Veterans 

is reflected best through our actions, not rhetoric. 

Very Respectfully, 

Hayleigh Perez 

Vice-President 

Student Veterans Advocacy Group 

Email: hayleighperez@mysvag.org 

Website: www.studentveteransadvocacygroup.org 

Follow the SVAG at: 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SVANC 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Student—Vets 

f 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Roger W. Baker 

Good morning Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano, and Members of the 

Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss 

the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) efforts to create and implement the LongTerm Solution (LTS) for processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. Accompanying me 

today is Mr. Robert M. Worley II, Director, Education Service. My testimony will 

address the current status of education claims processing and the status of the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill LTS. 

Most importantly, we can report to the Subcommittee and our Nation’s Veterans 

that VA is currently processing supplemental claims for Post-9/11 educational assistance in an average of 7 days, a remarkable achievement given that we are in 

the peak enrollment period for the spring term. For comparison purposes, on this 

date in 2011, it took 19 days to process supplemental claims, in 2012, it took 14 

days. As we go through the rest of my testimony, , the most important fact is that 

Veterans are receiving the payments they are due in a timely manner that supports 

their educational efforts. 

As the Subcommittee Members know, the Post-9/11 GI Bill is the most extensive 

educational assistance program authorized since the original GI Bill was signed into 

law in 1944. Secretary Shinseki and the entire Department are committed to making sure all eligible Servicemembers, Veterans, and family members receive this important benefit in a timely manner, so they can focus on what is most important 

– their education. 

Background 

In June 2008, Congress passed the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance 

Act, which established a new education benefit program under chapter 33 of title 

38 United States Code, which VA refers to as the ‘‘Post-9/11 GI Bill.’’ Upon enactment, VA had approximately 13 months to develop a new, highly complex eligibility 

and payment system for claimants eligible to receive benefits under this new program effective August 1, 2009. To meet this challenge, VA initially sought contractor 

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support for development of an information technology (IT) system to process these 

claims. At that time, it was proposed that the contractor would be accountable for 

providing a technical solution and support that would allow VA to provide timely 

and accurate education claims processing by completing original claims within 10 

days, supplemental claims within 7 days, while concurrently achieving a 98 percent 

accuracy rate. However, VA did not receive enough proposals from qualified privatesector contractors to create an IT program. . VA terminated the solicitation process 

and began development of an interim claims processing solution, using in-house resources, while simultaneously developing a long-term, rules-based processing solution in cooperation with the Department of Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWAR). 

Program Executive Office 

To manage the development of the overall process for administering the Post-9/ 

11 GI Bill, VA established a Program Executive Office within Education Service 

comprised of senior business-line managers, management analysts, individuals with 

program and project management experience, and administrative support. This office is responsible for coordination of all projects within the VA comprehensive management plan to successfully implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill. 

Short-Term Strategy 

VA’s short-term strategy to implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill consisted of a twopart IT solution: a fiscal payment system which used the Benefits Delivery Network 

(BDN) to issue payments and a ‘‘Front-End Tool’’ (FET) by VA claims examiners to 

use to augment the manual adjudication of claims. VA’s Office of Information and 

Technology (OIT) designed the interim processing solution functionality in three 

separate phases. Each phase delivered a specific set of functionalities for claims examiners to manually process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims with some IT augmentation. 

The final phase of the Interim Solution was deployed in November 2009. 

LTS Development 

While development of the short-term solution was ongoing, VA partnered with 

SPAWAR to develop a long-term solution for Post-9/11 GI Bill education claims 

processing—an end-to-end claims processing solution that utilizes rules-based, industry-standard technologies for the delivery of education benefits. The Post-9/11 GI 

Bill contains numerous, complex eligibility rules and benefit determinations that led 

us towards inclusion of rules-based technology to minimize human intervention. 

While VA initially planned to release the automated system in four major releases, two additional releases – one full year of systems development—were necessary to implement the changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill required by Public Law 

111–377, the ‘‘Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 

2010.’’ This law expanded the Post-9/11 GI Bill in many ways, to include non-college 

degree programs, modified the statutory tuition and fee payment provisions to allow 

VA to pay all in-state public school costs, and created a national cap for training 

pursued at a private institution. 

During the initial development, VA planned to include the following functionality 

in each respective release: 

Release 1 

• Processing original Post-9/11 GI Bill claims; 

• Automated calculation of award payment; 

• Automated calculation of overlapping term/interval awards; 

• Demographic and service data from the VA/Department of Defense Identity Repository; 

• Conversion and data transfer from the Interim Solution; 

• Processing supplemental claims; 

• Chapter 33 kickers (also known as the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps College 

Funds) and supplemental kickers; and 

• Claims containing award amendments. 

Release 2 

• Award letter generation; 

• Data Warehouse data feed; and 

• Record security enhancement. 

Release 3 

• Interface with VA’s Benefits Delivery Network for automated payments. 

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Release 4 

• Expansion of previously released functionality and Veteran self-service capability to access and view the status of applications online. 

Delivered Functionality 

VA has deployed six major releases of LTS, all of which were delivered on schedule according to the original timeline. Release 1 was deployed on March 31, 2010, 

and included the capability to complete new original claims; automatic calculation 

of awards including tuition and fees, housing, books and supplies, Yellow Ribbon, 

and Montgomery GI Bill – Active Duty and Reserve Educational Assistance Program kickers; and automatic calculation of awards for overlapping terms and intervals. 

VA deployed Release 2on June 30, 2010. This release allowed VA to process 

changes in enrollment information, claims for transfers of entitlement, and to generate various letters to beneficiaries. Additionally, data conversion from the Interim 

Solution FET database to the LTS occurred for Veterans determined eligible but had 

not yet enrolled. Release 2.1 was deployed on August 23, 2010. This release allowed 

us to retire the short-term, or interim, solution by fully replacing the functionality 

of the Interim Solution and associated manual processing tools. 

VA deployed Release 3 on October 30, 2010. This release provided enhanced enrollment processing and an interface with the VA Online Certification of Enrollment 

(VAONCE) system to allow information to pre-populate in LTS, which reduced keystrokes for claims examiners. This release was a critical step toward end-to-end automation. 

Release 4, which was deployed on December 20, 2010, provided the BDN payment 

interface and self-service capabilities for claimants to access and view their enrollment history and entitlement information through eBenefits. Release 4.1, deployed 

on January 16, 2011, converted Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) payments to calendar year 2011 rates. Release 4.2, deployed on March 5, 2011, incorporated 

changes to tuition and fee and honorable service requirements as required by Public 

Law 111–377. Note that the changes included in release 4.2 were accomplished 

within 60 days of passage of the Public Law. 

VA deployed Release 5 on June 4, 2011. This release included other changes required by Public Law 111–377, such as the annual tuition-and-fees cap, housing for 

distance learners, books and supplies payments for active duty Servicemembers, and 

qualifying service for National Guard. Release 5.1 was deployed on October 17, 

2011, and provided the remaining requirements of Public Law 111–377, including 

functionality for processing non-college degree programs, apprenticeship, flight, and 

on-the-job (OJT) training. In Release 5.2, deployed on February 21, 2012, the architecture was expanded to allow for end-to-end automation of supplemental claims. 

Release 6.0 deployed on July 30, 2012 to provide end-to-end automation for supplemental claims and centralized letter-printing capability. It also included an interface with The Image Management System (TIMS), our electronic filing system. However, the automation feature was not fully deployed until September 24, 2012. 

Prior to the LTS initial release, it took claims examiners over one-and-a-half 

hours to process an original claim. Following the release, it takes approximately 45 

minutes to process an original Post-9/11 GI Bill claim. 

Success of LTS 

The Chapter 33 LTS has been a significant success from an IT implementation 

perspective. It was one of the first large-scale system implementations in government to use Agile development methodologies, and the first completely new system 

to be developed under the VA’s Program Management Accountability System 

(PMAS). Because of the volume of education claims and the limitations of the shortterm solution, it was critical to VA, and to Veterans, that this system be delivered 

on time, and that it work correctly when delivered. Our people, processes, contractors, and technology met that challenge. As noted above, every major release of the 

Chapter 33 LTS system has been delivered on time, a feat nearly unheard of in government for such a large system. Under PMAS, the system has been required to 

deliver new functionality at least every six months, and it has met that challenge. 

Using Agile development methodologies has allowed us to readily adapt to changing 

priorities, from both business needs and new laws, by prioritizing new, urgent requirements ahead of other items on the requirements list. It has also helped enhance accountability in the IT development process, which allowed VA to better execute available IT funds. In an effort to achieve automation and meet the business 

sponsor’s needs, there were a total of 33 releases that provided customer-facing 

functionality (combining 21 minor and 12 major releases). This translates into deploying new functionality at an average rate of one major release every two months. 

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The Chapter 33 application is considered to be the first VA application to implement 

a true service-oriented architecture (SOA). As a result, it has helped VA lead the 

Government in the use of commoditized infrastructure services (Infrastructure as a 

Service [IASS]); and has also spearhead VA policy (regarding security, acquisitions, 

management) in the industry best practice of outsourcing infrastructure use of commercial and Cloud computing hosting services. 

The program was nominated for a 2012 Government Computer News (GCN) 

Award for excellence in federal, state, and local government IT projects and management teams to honor their ingenuity, organizational skills, and contributions to 

the public and is a finalist as Best Business Process Management (BPM) Project in 

the American 2013 Process Excellence Award. 

Four years ago, during my congressional office visits as part of my Confirmation, 

I consistently heard that VA IT would fail in implementation of the systems to support the Chapter 33 program. Today, the LTS system processes over 40 percent of 

supplemental claims within one day of receipt. From an IT perspective, from a business perspective, from a VA perspective, and most importantly from a Veteran perspective, the Chapter 33 LTS system is delivering real value for the investment 

made by the American taxpayers. 

Automation 

End-to-end automation of claims for the Post-9/11 GI Bill was originally planned 

for June 2011, but enactment of Public Law 111–377 required reprioritization of 

planned functionality to meet the law’s effective dates. To meet the requirements 

of the law, end-to-end automation was pushed back by approximately one year. 

Calculation of benefits due under Chapter 33 is a complex process. LTS has over 

1,600 calculation rules that support benefits for Veterans, Servicemembers, and 

transferees. Seven types of training are supported, which include graduate, undergraduate, non-college degree, correspondence, apprenticeship, on-the-job training 

(OJT), and flight. Up to six benefits are calculated per term including housing, 

books and supplies, tuition and fees, Yellow Ribbon, and additional DOD-funded 

‘‘kicker’’ payments foractive duty beneficiaries (Chapter 30 kickers) and for members 

of the Selected Reserve (Chapter 1606 kickers). LTS supports the entry of unlimited 

service periods, enrollment periods, and changes to enrollment periods. 

Currently, approximately 80 percent of all Post-9/11 GI Bill supplemental claims 

are automated – partially or fully. For the month of January, 2013, 44 percent of 

incoming enrollment documents (over 149,000 documents) were fully automated and 

36 percent (over 109,000 documents) were partially automated. There are approximately 80 business rules that support end-to-end automation of supplemental 

claims for the purpose of ensuring payment accuracy for Veterans. Each of these 

rules constitute a reason why a claim should not be fully automated and is exited 

for manual processing. When an issue is identified, automation is suspended to prevent payment errors and a manual review and/or entry is required to complete the 

remaining processing. We expect end-to-end automation to continue to improve overall claims processing timeliness and reduce delays in payment of education benefits. 

Workload 

Processing timeliness has improved significantly since implementation of LTS. 

With the implementation of end-to-end automation and mandatory overtime at the 

regional processing offices, we reduced the number of pending Post-9/11 GI Bill 

claims from 177,000 in September 2012, to 62,000 in November 2012. The continued 

expansion of the automated functionalities in the Post-9/11 GI Bill processing system is already having an impact on improved benefits delivery. At the end of January we had approximately 86,000 claims pending, 50 percent lower than the total 

claims pending the same time last year. The average days to process Post-9/11 GI 

Bill supplemental claims has decreased by 16 days, from 23 days in September 2012 

to 7 days in January 2013. The average time to process Post-9/11 GI Bill original 

education benefit claims in January was 34 days. 

Outreach 

On June 3, 2010, VA sent a notice to school certifying officials informing them 

that they may submit enrollment certifications for training pursued during the fall 

semester even if they do not know a student’s actual tuition–and-fee charges. Upon 

receipt of the student’s actual charges, the school certifying official was asked to 

submit an amended enrollment certification to VA with the corrected information. 

On December 7, 2010, school certifying officials were again told to submit enrollment certifications with $0 reported for tuition and fees if the tuition and fees 

charges had not been finalized for a student. School certifying officials have been 

encouraged by VA to continue with this practice for subsequent semesters because 

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ance and books and supplies stipend while waiting for their tuition-and-fees charges 

to be finalized. While accepting enrollments without tuition-and-fees charges has allowed VA to issue more timely payments of the monthly housing allowance and 

books and supplies stipend, there has also been an increase in the number of claims 

submitted because schools have to amend their original submissions to include tuition-and-fees charges. 

Expenditures and Improvements 

Since inception, VA has issued over $25.9 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to approximately 911,000 individuals and their educational institutions. The 

total lifecycle cost to develop the LTS system to date is estimated at $263 million, 

which represents one percent of the total benefits paid. For FY 2013, we are increasing end-to-end automation of supplemental claims, with funding allocated to implement this feature at $4.4 million. LTS is also transitioning from development to a 

sustainment phase. The cost for sustainment of LTS in FY 2013 will be $18.7 million. 

Certain deferred functionality will be considered for implementation in future 

years. Some of the deferred functionality includes, but is not limited to: certificate 

of eligibility (COE) automation, multiple sources of entitlement, expansion of external data service capabilities, monthly certification of attendance, and business analytics. 

There are numerous challenges to COE automation including: 

• Creating a streamlined electronic application that includes all the information 

necessary to process an original claim; 

• Creating an interface between the application system and LTS; 

• Verifying the identity of the individual submitting the application; 

• Verifying and reconciling service data of the individual; 

• Verifying attendance at a service academy; 

• Verifying and accounting for entitlement used under other educational assistance programs; and 

• Functionality to handle the benefit relinquishment and election issues properly. 

It would be a significant development effort to achieve end-to-end automation of 

all eligibility determinations. 

Conclusion 

Veterans’ well-deserved educational benefits are the vehicle by which many of our 

Nation’s heroes pursue their educational goals and successfully transition to civilian 

life. VA is dedicated to ensuring that Veterans are able to make well-informed decisions concerning the use of their benefits and receive a quality education. We look 

forward to working with the Subcommittee to provide the very best support possible 

to our Veterans and beneficiaries as they pursue their educational goals. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased to answer any 

questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may have. 

f 

Questions For The Record 

Letter From: Hon. Bill Flores, Chairman, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, To: The Hon. Eric Shinseki, Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

February 27, 2013 

The Honorable Eric Shinseki 

Secretary 

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

810 Vermont Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20420 

Dear Secretary Shinseki: 

On Thursday, February 14, 2013, the Honorable Roger Baker the Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology testified before the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity during an oversight hearing entitled, ‘‘Increasing the 

Functionality of Post 9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing to Reduce Delays.’’ As a followup to the hearing, I request that the department respond to th following questions 

and provide the requested materials by no later than close of business on Tuesday 

March 26, 2013. 

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1. Several times in your response to the Subcommittee’s pre-hearing questions, 

you stated that future releases and functionalities for the LTS would be subject to 

priorities in IT funding. Where does LTS fall in the IT priority list? 

2. In your written statement you listed seven impediments to 100% end-to-end automation of GI bill claims. What is your plan to overcome these impediments and 

when will they be completed? 

3. How do you respond to NAVPA’s request that all four Regional Processing Office have access to veteran’s education claim records regardless of the jurisdiction? 

Is this something that can be accomplished since the call center already has this 

same access? 

4. Please give us an update on when regulations will be promulgated for P.L. 111– 

377 which became law over two years ago. 

5. Please provide a clearer and more understandable response on slide nine to our 

pre-hearing question on the costs associated with automating the processing of original claims? 

6. Please provide to the subcommittee a full list of the top 20 off-ramps for processing in the LTS. Also, please include which of these off-ramps you believe are the 

most significant and which off-ramps you believe could be addressed in future releases of the LTS. 

7. Your response to pre-hearing question four and five states that LTS is 

‘‘transitioning from development to a sustainment phase.’’ What does this mean and 

what additional functions will be accomplished with the $4.4 million stated in your 

response? 

8. The response to pre-hearing question number nine stated that with LTS release 

4 veterans could access their remaining entitlement through e-benefits. Our understanding is that access through e-benefits is only possible if a student has a premium account which requires a student to provide ID verification at a VA facility. 

Why is this access limited to the premium account? 

9. The answers to pre-hearing questions 11 and 12 indicate that LTS will continue 

to rely on the Benefits Delivery Network (BDN) for payments. Why has this legacy 

system continued to be used and are there plans to replace the BDN with the Financial Accounting System tool? 

10. The response to pre-hearing questions 13 stated that VA would have to do further ‘‘analysis of VA/DOD cross cutting systems.’’ What are those cross cutting systems and what would be the specific analysis needed to further clarify the answer 

to questions 13? 

11. Has VA improperly collected money from the veteran and the school for the 

same debt? 

13. When will schools have the ability to batch uploads to the VA ONCE system? 

14. When will VA begin to process original claims with the LTS? 

15. Why does the U.S. Treasury program allow only a weekly update of offset eligible VA debts? 

16. If we asked you to make a change to the LTS do you have the authority to 

make that change? 

17. You state that it takes 34 days to process an original claim. Does this mean 

the veteran gets his/her money within 34 days? 

18. Some veterans are asking for a portal where veterans can access and view in 

real-time the status of their GI Bill claims. Is this at all possible? 

Your attention to these questions is very much appreciated. Ifyou have any further questions, please contact Mike Brinck, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity 

Staff Director, at mbrinck@maill.house.gov or at (202) 225–3527. 

Sincerely, 

Bill Flores 

Chairman 

Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity 

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Post-Hearing Questions for VBA and OIT 

Question 1: Several times in your response to the Subcommittee’s pre-hearing questions, you stated that future releases and functionalities for the LTS would be subject 

to priorities in IT funding. Where does LTS fall in the IT priority list? 

Response: At this time, OIT is unable to provide the ranking of future enhancements to LTS on the priority list of unfunded requirements. OIT is currently executing its FY 2013 funding for sustainment, development and pay/administration in 

accordance with the budget guidelines under P.L. 112–175, Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013. VA prioritizes its unfunded IT requirements (UFRs) every fiscal 

year to provide flexibility in budget execution. If funding becomes available, the 

UFR list will be prioritized, reviewed, and OIT will be able to provide the status 

of funding for future enhancements to LTS. 

Question 2: In your written statement you listed seven impediments to 

100% end-to-end automation of GI bill claims. What is your plan to overcome these impediments and when will they be completed? 

Response: The seven impediments to 100% end-to-end automation are as follows: 

1. Creating a streamlined electronic application that includes all the information 

necessary to process an original claim; 

2. Creating an interface between the application system and the Long-Term Solution; 

3. Verifying the identity of the individual submitting the application; 

4. Verifying and reconciling the service data of an individual claimant; 

5. Verifying whether a claimant has attended a service academy (which may affect 

entitlement to benefits); 

6. Verifying and accounting for entitlement to the Post 9–11 GI Bill when a service member has used other educational assistance programs (which may reduce entitlement to Post 9–11 GI Bill benefits); and 

7. Functionality to handle the benefit ‘relinquishment and election’ issues properly 

(i.e., functionality to process and capture a service member’s decision to transfer his 

benefit to a spouse or child.) 

In order to effectively address these impediments, updates and changes to a variety of programs and system interfaces will need to be made (‘‘system interfaces’’ are 

interfaces that allow data to be transferred from one program to another). Updating 

these programs and system interfaces will require considerable analysis and planning. This planning will be carried out within a formal planning framework that includes the development of a ‘‘business requirements document’’—a document that 

includes a detailed description and analysis of the current state of the systems and 

programs used to process Post 9–11 GI Bill claims, as well as a prioritized list and 

analysis of new functionality that is needed in order to accomplish the goal of an 

end-to-end automation of Post 9–11GI Bill claims. 

Every year, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) provides VA’s Office of 

Information and Technology (OIT) with a list of requests for development support 

on its Information Technology (IT) systems and programs. This list encompasses all 

VBA-administered IT systems and programs, including those that support the administration of the Post 9–11 GI Bill. Items on this list are prioritized in order of 

their importance and their impact on VBA’s workload. Funding determinations for 

particular line items are made based on a strategic-level assessment of VBA’s priorities. 

Question 3: How do you respond to NAVPA’s request that all four Regional Processing Office(s) have access to veteran’s education claim record 

regardless of the jurisdiction? Is this something that can be accomplished 

since the call center already has this same issue? 

Response: Under the Long-Term Solution (LTS), Regional Processing Offices can 

view and modify claims outside of their jurisdiction. Specifically, it is possible for 

designated users in one Regional Processing Office to access and modify an education claim record that is stored in The Image Management System (TIMS) of another Regional Processing Office. However, because the data stored in TIMS includes sensitive personal information on claimants (such as social security numbers), the ability to access and modify data across the jurisdictional boundaries of 

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Regional Processing Offices is restricted to designated users. This restriction of access is done for privacy, policy, and claims-management reasons, not technical reasons. 

Question 4: Give us an update on when regulations will be promulgated 

for P.L. 111–377 which became law over two years ago. 

Response: Currently, the regulations for Public Law 111–377 are in the internal 

VA concurrence process. 

Question 5: Please provide a clearer and more understandable response 

on slide nine to our pre-hearing question on the costs associated with automating the processing of original claims? 

Response: When the Post 9–11 GI Bill became law, VA responded by developing 

plans to create an automated system to process claims. As part of the planning process, the development team identified the various functional capabilities that would 

be needed to efficiently and effectively process claims. These functionalities were 

then prioritized based on an assessment of the following two factors: (1) how important a particular functionality is to ensuring that claims can be processed efficiently 

and effectively, and (2) the time, cost, and difficulty of developing and deploying 

that functionality. 

A strategic decision was made to have the development team focus its resources 

on developing and implementing the functionalities at the top of the prioritized list. 

Though development activities centered on the items at the top of the prioritized 

list, the system was designed to enable developers to incorporate functionalities 

lower on the list at a later period, as time and resources allowed. 

The development plan prioritized the functionality for fully automating original 

claims lower on the list, because it was determined that greater claims-processing 

gains could be quickly realized by focusing development efforts on the automation 

of select supplemental claims. The context in which these judgments were made is 

important: When the Post 9–11 GI Bill became law, VA had very little time to develop a system to administer the new educational benefit before VA had to begin 

processing claims. Because of this time-constraint, VA had to develop a claims adjudication system that blended manual claims-processing with automated claims-processing. The decision to prioritize the automation of supplemental claims over original claims was made because developers determined that the time and resources 

needed to create and implement a fully-automated system for original claims was 

far greater than the time and resources needed to automate supplemental claims. 

Original claims are currently partially automated. The cost estimate for the development of original claims automation is unavailable at this time. 

Question 6: Please provide to the subcommittee a full list of the top 20 

off-ramps for processing in the LTS. Also, please include which of these offramps you believe are the most significant and which off-ramps you believe 

could be addressed in future releases. 

Response: The attached list (Attachment 1) provides the top 20 off-ramps that 

occurred in February 2013 in order of the most frequently off-ramped claims. While 

sufficient development would reduce the frequency of nearly all of the off-ramps, VA 

believes that development releases to reduce the number of VA–ONCE free-text remarks in enrollment certifications will have the greatest impact on automation. It 

should be noted that LTS has transitioned from a major initiative to a sustainment 

project. As such, there are no development releases currently planned. Any future 

releases of LTS will require IT development effort and funding. 

With its current functionality, LTS has fully automated over 487,000 (more than 

40 percent) of the supplemental claims received electronically since September 24, 

2012. While the automation percentage varies daily, LTS recently fully automated 

over 53 percent of claims received in one single day. 

Question 7: Your response to pre-hearing questions four and five state 

that LTS is ‘‘transitioning from development to a sustainment phase.’’ What 

does this mean and what additional functions will be accomplished with 

the $4.4 million stated in your response? 

Response: The phrase ‘‘transitioning from development to sustainment’’ means 

that all planned and funded development objectives for the Long-Term Solution 

(LTS) have been met and, as a result, LTS is moving into a sustainment phase during which VA will continue to maintain the system but will not develop new 

functionality or enhancements to the system. 

The $4.4 million that is referenced in Question 7 has already been spent. These 

funds allowed VA to correct software defects in LTS; update business rules to imVACREP180 with DISTILLER

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prove the accuracy and the number of claims that are automated; centralize letter 

printing for automated claims; and add capability to allow call centers visibility into 

the Chapter 33 claims process. Finally, the $4.4 million allowed VA to make modifications to ease the transition into sustainment. 

Question 8: The response to pre-hearing question number nine stated 

that with LTS release 4 veterans could access their remaining entitlement 

through e-benefits. Our understanding is that access through e-benefits is 

only possible if a student has a premium account which requires a student 

to provide ID verification at a VA facility. Why is this access limited to the 

premium account? 

Response: eBenefits offers over 47 self-service features to Veterans, 

Servicemembers, and eligible family members. Although most features require Premium access for the protection of the Veteran, there are some features that require 

only a Basic account. One of those features is the Post-9/11 GI Bill Enrollment Status. This feature allows both Veterans and eligible dependents to view entitlement 

and school enrollment information for Post- 9/11 GI Bill Education benefits. 

Most individuals that require Premium access may obtain it online by answering 

a few security questions to verify their identity. Servicemembers may verify their 

identity online by using their Common Access Card. For those unable to verify identity online, there are other options available such as telephone proofing, which allows those in receipt of VA benefits via direct deposit, to have their identity verified 

by calling 1–800–827–1000 and selecting option 7. 

Question 9: The answers to pre-hearing questions 11 and 12 indicate that 

LTS will continue to rely on the Benefits Delivery Network (BDN) for payments. Why has legacy system continued to be used and are there plans to 

replace the BDN with the Financial Accounting System tool? 

Response: When the LTS went into development, the Financial Accounting System was not ready to issue payments. As a result, the LTS relied on the BDN to 

meet the benefit payment roll-out demand. The decision to replace the BDN with 

the Financial Accounting System tool is one that would require a significant amount 

of work and time, which would necessitate the use of resources that are currently 

dedicated to other VA enterprise work. 

Question 10: The response to pre-hearing question 13 stated that VA 

would have to do further ‘‘analysis of VA/DOD cross cutting systems.’’ What 

are those cross cutting systems and what would be the specific analysis 

needed to further clarify the answer to question 13? 

Response: The two most important cross cutting systems are the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and the VA/DoD Identity Repository (VADIR). DMDC 

collects military service data and other information from DOD service organizations, 

and then transfers that information to VADIR. The LTS interfaces with VADIR to 

make eligibility determinations for Post 9–11 GI Bill benefits. The absence of various kinds of service information from VADIR impedes the ability to automate initial eligibility determinations in LTS. Therefore, a gap analysis needs to be performed to determine what additional information needs to be provided by DMDC to 

VADIR. 

Question 11: Has VA improperly collected money from the veteran and 

the school for the same debt? 

Response: Veteran and school debts are assigned unique identifiers when they 

are created. Accordingly, there should be no occurrences where money is collected 

from both the Veteran and the school and applied to the same debt. VA’s Debt Management Center and Education Service are not aware of such an occurrence. 

Question 12: The official list of Questions for the Record provided by the 

Committee did not include a Question 12. 

Question 13: When will schools have the ability to batch uploads to the 

VA Once system? 

Response: The ability to perform batch uploads to the VA–ONCE system will require significant IT development. VA is currently defining the requirements and reviewing the funding needed for an improved VA–ONCE system, which would include this feature. 

Question 14: When will VA begin to process original claims with the LTS? 

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Response: VA has been utilizing LTS to process original claims since its inception. For instance, nearly all calculations for original claims are automated; however, full end-to-end automation of original claims is currently not available. This 

feature will require major IT development effort and funding. 

Question 15: Why does the U.S. Treasury program allow only a weekly update of offset eligible VA debts? 

Response: VA sends updates to the U.S. Treasury three times a week, each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which provide updated balances on accounts that VA 

has referred to the Treasury Offset Program. Treasury’s system is programmed to 

provide Federal Agencies a file of offsets once each week. VA receives Treasury’s file 

each Thursday. Upon receipt, VA immediately applies the offsets collected to update 

balances on VA accounts. 

Question 16: If we asked you to make a change to the LTS do you have 

the authority to make that change? 

Response: Yes, VA has the authority make changes to LTS. 

Question 17: You state that it takes 34 days to process an original claim. 

Does this mean the Veteran gets his/her money within 34 days? 

Response: An eligibility determination is made when an original claim is processed, and does not necessarily require a payment when completed. However, if an 

enrollment certification is received with the original claim, a payment will either be 

deposited within 3–5 business days or received via postal mail within 7–10 business 

days after the claim is processed. This is in addition to the 34 average days to process the claim. 

Question 18: Some veterans are asking for a portal where veterans can 

access and view in real-time the status of their GI Bill claims. Is this at all 

possible? 

Response: VBA fully supports the ability of Veterans, Servicemembers, and eligible dependents to view the status of their GI Bill claim. VBA is reviewing the funding needed to support this feature, and will add it to the eBenefits Roadmap at the 

soonest possible date. 

Attachment 1 

TOP 20 LTS OFF-RAMPS

FEBRUARY 2013 

1. REVIEW VAONCE REMARKS 

2. VALIDATION ERRORS DETECTED DURING AUTOMATED WORK PRODUCT 

3. CHANGE OF STUDENT ADDRESS SUBMITTED BY SCHOOL 

4. NEW FACILITY CODE FOR CLAIMANT 

5. WORK PRODUCT IN PROGRESS, ONE OR MORE ENROLLENTS/ 

ADMENDMENTS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE VAONCE INBOX 

6. A CHANGE IN VADIR SERVICE DATA HAS BEEN DETECTED 

7. CLAIMANT’S ENTITLEMENT IS EXHAUSTED 

8. BDN END PRODUCT COULD NOT BE OPENED FOR CLAIMANT 

9. NCD ENROLLMENT RECEIVED FOR CLAIMANT 

10. CLAIMANT RECORD COULD NOT BE ACCESSED DURING AUTOMATED 

PROCESSING 

11. COE LETTER PRODUCED 

12. NO MATCHING ENROLLMENT FOR ADJUSTMENT 

13. CHANGE IN HOUR TYPE DETECTED 

14. VAONCE CLAIMANT FILE NUMBER DOES NOT MATCH LTS 

15. CHARACTER OF SERVICE IS NOT HONORABLE 

16. ONE OR MORE AWARDS TOO LARGE FOR AUTOMATION AUTHORIZATION 

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17. NO LETTERS PRODUCED 

18. WORK PRODUCT REQUIRES REVIEW FOR SECOND SIGNATURE 

19. A CHANGE IN VADIR TRANSFER OF ENTITLEMENT DATA HAS BEEN 

DETECTED 

20. OLDER VAONCE CLAIMS(S) CANNOT BE AUTHORIZED WITH VAONCE 

CLAIMS RECEIVED AT THE SAME TIME OF AUTOMATED PROCESSING 

Æ 

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