The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (Post-9/11 GI Bill ® )—enacted as Title V of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 ( P.L. 110-252 ) —provides educational assistance payments to eligible individuals (servicemembers and veterans, and their dependents) from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in accordance with their military service. The Department of Education's (ED's) Federal Pell Grants, as authorized by Title IV-A-1 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), provide grant aid payments to eligible undergraduate students in accordance with their financial need, regardless of military service record. Timely, efficient, and student-friendly administration is important in ensuring that each federal program achieves its policy objectives with respect to the target population. Each program has developed administrative processes, systems, and procedures designed to streamline aid administration. This report compares and contrasts administration of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and Pell Grant payments. Some participants have criticized the administration of Post-9/11 GI Bill payments for taking too long and asserted that the penalties for participants who received an overpayment of benefits are too high as compared to ED student aid programs. Some participant criticism is a result of simultaneous experience navigating the processes to receive Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and Pell Grant payments. Since passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee has held several oversight hearings to ensure administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill meets the needs of servicemembers transitioning to civilian life. The hearings have focused on automation, timeliness of payments, and accuracy of benefits. Some of the differences in aid processing are a consequence of the programs' purposes. However, other differences in the processing design and operation may expose opportunities for improvement. This report is designed to assist congressional staff seeking an exploration of ways in which the administration of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits might be improved through the adoption of practices employed in the administration of Title IV aid. The report approaches this task through an examination of the statutory and regulatory provisions that are pertinent to the design and administration of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and Pell Grants, the Title IV aid program that is seemingly the most comparable to Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The report also examines the operational practices employed to implement statutory and regulatory provisions. Information on operational practices, particularly those relevant to aid administration, has been obtained through a review of sub-regulatory guidance materials, manuals providing guidance to staff involved in administering aid, and through a limited set of interviews and site visits with individuals at federal agencies and colleges who are directly involved in administering aid. The report presents a thorough description of the administrative practices used for each of these educational assistance programs and attempts to identify differences and reasons for differences in the administrative practices used across the programs. It also identifies some ways in which existing practices might be enhanced, and discusses possible ways Post-9/11 GI bill benefit administration might be improved by adopting some Title IV practices. It is hoped that this examination can help inform the dialogue on ways in which practices employed in the administration of one program may warrant consideration for their potential to streamline or enhance the administration of the other. The report does not intend to compare benefit levels, evaluate the process and rationale for calculating benefit amounts, or contrast the processes for approving GI Bill programs of education and for determining institutional eligibility and eligible programs of education for the Pell Grant program. Of the GI Bills administered by the VA and federal student aid programs administered by ED, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Pell Grant programs were chosen for this analysis because of their commonalities. Neither program requires recipients to repay the funds, barring extenuating circumstances. Both programs are the largest educational assistance direct payment programs in terms of the numbers of participants and direct funding in each agency. This report begins with a brief overview of the two programs and a table summarizing the key administrative activities and differences. Please note that the statutory authorizations and administrative processes are designed and implemented independently without any required intersection. Subsequent sections of the report provide an in-depth explanation of the administrative activities from the application process to the calculation of benefits to the disbursement of funds and the process for participants and educational institutions to resolve GI Bill payments that exceeded a participant's eligibility (overpayments). The final section highlights associated and articulated issues and concerns about the administrative processes to explicate opportunities for improvement in each. For assistance with frequently used acronyms, see Appendix B . This section provides a brief overview of program aspects that are helpful in understanding key similarities and differences in their administration. While the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Pell Grant programs are mutually exclusive, an individual may receive benefits from both programs concurrently if the individual is eligible for both programs independently. For a more detailed description of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, see CRS Report R42755, The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (Post-9/11 GI Bill): Primer and Issues , by [author name scrubbed]. For a more detailed description of the federal Pell Grant program, see CRS Report R42446, Federal Pell Grant Program of the Higher Education Act: How the Program Works and Recent Legislative Changes , by [author name scrubbed]. The federal government supports the readjustment of veterans through continued education and training, principally through programs authorized under Title 38 and Title 10 of the U.S. Code. The programs, known as GI Bills, offer educational assistance through monetary payments to veterans and servicemembers, and their family members. The active GI Bills are the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty (MGIB-AD), the Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance Program (DEA), the Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve (MGIB-SR), the Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP), and the Post-Vietnam Era Veterans Educational Assistance Program (VEAP). In FY2014, about $12 billion in GI Bill benefits were paid on behalf of approximately 1 million individuals. The Post-9/11 GI Bill (Title 38 U.S.C., Chapter 33) is intended to support qualifying individuals who served on active duty in the uniformed services on or after September 10, 2001, in their readjustment to civilian life, and to support retention in the uniformed services. Qualifying individuals may receive educational assistance payments while enrolled in approved programs of education or training. Approved programs include, but are not limited to, secondary school, non-college degree programs (NCD), postsecondary degree programs, vocational flight training, correspondence programs, apprenticeship or on-the-job training, and licensure, certification, and academic tests. The programs may be outside the United States. Dependents of qualifying individuals who are pursuing an approved program of education may also be eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Dependents may receive a transfer of entitlement (ToE) from a qualifying individual or may receive entitlement (Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship Program, Fry Scholarship) as a result of a qualifying individual's death in the line of duty while on active duty on or after September 11, 2001. Program benefit levels were originally designed to reward individuals for their service during a time of arduous conflict by covering the full cost of public undergraduate education for in-state students. Eligible individuals may receive one or more of the following payments: tuition and fees, Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program Payments (YR payments), housing allowance, books and supplies stipend, tutorial assistance, licensing and certification test fees, national test fees, relocation and travel assistance, supplemental assistance, and Tuition Assistance "Top Up" payments. Statutory provisions establish maximum amounts for most of the payments. Individuals may receive less than the maximum for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the eligible individual's type of enrollment or pursuit, rate of enrollment or pursuit, active duty status, and aggregate length of qualifying active duty service. Eligible individuals are entitled to 36 months (or the part-time equivalent) of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, which must be used within a period specified in statute. Entitlement is charged one day for one day of full-time pursuit, a proportional percentage of a day for less-than-full-time pursuit, or one day depending on the amount of the payment. The period during which entitlement may be used depends on the qualifying individual's length of service, and either the qualifying individual's date of discharge or release from active duty or the child's age or receipt of a high school diploma or the equivalent. Individuals apply to the VA for benefits, and it certifies their eligibility. Once an individual's educational institution or training establishment certifies enrollment or pursuit of an approved program of education, the VA pays benefits to the individual and institution, as appropriate. Over three-quarters of a million individuals received over $10 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits in FY2013. In academic year 2012-2013, there were, on average, 73 Post-9/11 GI Bill participants at each educational institution that had at least one. Approximately 14% of institutions with a Post-9/11 GI Bill participant enrolled only one recipient, and approximately 16% enrolled 100 or more recipients. Educational institutions and training establishments receive a reporting fee of $12 per GI Bill and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program (VR&E) participant and $15 per GI Bill and VR&E participant that receives an advanced payment. The fee may be used to support the costs of certification or programs for veterans. The VA paid over $10 million in reporting fees in FY2013, in addition to participant benefits. The federal government supports access to postsecondary education, primarily through programs authorized by the Higher Education Act (HEA).