Chairman Enzi: More Action Needed from VA on GI Benefits Problems

WASHINGTON D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) today said more action is needed from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on problems that have prevented thousands of veterans from receiving their full GI Bill benefits.  Since August 1, hundreds of thousands of veterans have either not received their monthly housing allowance (MHA) for the fall 2018 semester or received an incorrect amount.  Chairman Enzi pressed the agency recently on what actions it was taking to address this significant problem. After reviewing the VA’s response, Enzi is pushing for a more thorough explanation, as well as detailed actions to address this problem.

“I appreciate your commitment that ‘each and every post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiary will be made whole’ and the efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce the average amount of time to resolve an MHA claim to 24 days,” Enzi wrote.

Enzi is seeking additional information on a specific timeline for when the VA will issue additional payments to students who received incorrect payments, as well as the source of funding for the VA’s revised strategy for implementing the Forever GI Bill.  Enzi is also requesting a timeline on when the VA is expected to have cost estimates for this process, and possible contingency plans if the agency’s information technology (IT) systems are still unable to process benefits accurately by December 1, 2019.  The Chairman would also like to know whether the VA plans to retire the legacy IT system that processes MHAs, and, if so, how much it will cost to fully replace.

Read Chairman Enzi’s initial letter to the VA here.

Read the response from the VA to Chairman Enzi here.

Read Chairman Enzi’s follow-up letter to the VA here.

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Source: Senate Budget Committee