I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4654 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the treatment of 

certain overpayments made by educational institutions to persons entitled 

to educational assistance under the laws administered by the Secretary 

of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 11, 2019 

Mrs. LEE of Nevada (for herself and Mr. BANKS) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the 

treatment of certain overpayments made by educational 

institutions to persons entitled to educational assistance 

under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans 

Affairs, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student Veteran Pro5 tection Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 


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1 (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs pro2 vided $10,800,000,000 in educational assistance 

3 under the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Pro4 gram benefits to almost 800,000 veterans during fis5 cal year 2014. 

6 (2) According to the General Accountability Of7 fice’s October 2015 report, the Department of Vet8 erans Affairs identified $416,000,000 in overpay9 ments under such Program during fiscal year 2014, 

10 affecting approximately one-in-four veteran bene11 ficiaries and about 6,000 schools. 

12 (3) According to such report, ‘‘while veterans 

13 using other VA education programs have to verify 

14 their enrollment each month, VA generally does not 

15 require those using the Post-9/11 GI Bill to do so. 

16 By not requiring veterans to verify their enrollment 

17 every month, which can cause significant time to 

18 lapse between when veterans drop courses and when 

19 this is reported, VA’s process allows veterans to 

20 incur thousands of dollars in overpayments and also 

21 increases the program’s costs associated with col22 lecting these debts.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. OVERPAYMENTS TO ELIGIBLE PERSONS OR VET2 ERANS. 

3 Subsection (b) of section 3685 of title 38, United 

4 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

5 ‘‘(b) Any overpayment by an educational institution 

6 to a veteran or eligible person shall constitute a liability 

7 of the educational institution to the United States if— 

8 ‘‘(1) the Secretary finds that the overpayment 

9 has been made as the result of— 

10 ‘‘(A) the willful or negligent failure of an 

11 educational institution to report, as required 

12 under this chapter or chapter 34 or 35 of this 

13 title, to the Department of Veterans Affairs ex14 cessive absences from a course, or discontinu15 ance or interruption of a course by the veteran 

16 or eligible person; or 

17 ‘‘(B) the willful or negligent false certifi18 cation by an educational institution; or 

19 ‘‘(2) the payment is made pursuant to— 

20 ‘‘(A) section 3313(h) of this title; 

21 ‘‘(B) section 3317 of this title; or 

22 ‘‘(C) section 3680(d) of this title.’’. 

Æ 


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