good afternoon everybody. the subcommittee will come to order.

i have to apologize in advance. i have to step out and have asked congressman to preside in my absence. so thank you for that. i want to thank everybody for joining us for today's hearing of the subcommittee on economic opportunity where we will begin our first oversight hearing on the implementation of hr 3218, the harry veteran's assistance act of 2017 this bill was designed or signed into law on august 16th, 2017 and a great example of what congress can do with we put the american people and in this case our veterans first and foremost in addition to the efforts of chairman row and other members of this committee, it was it result of the good efforts of many of our vsos. two of whom are joined with us on the panel, student veterans of america.

this was the first major improvement to the gi bill since 2011 and brought forth by many members of this house. to serve either in uniform or along side their active duty spouse or parent. while we can all be proud of the collectedive achievement to pass the forever gi bill, it's critical we work in tandem with other stake holders as the department begins it newly expanded or revised bill so we can if sure it's rolled out seamlessly. many of you can remember the significant delays that beneficiaries experience in 2009. i wasn't here then but we don't want that in this round of implementations and this happened after it passage of post 9/11 gi bill and i'm sure

again we can all agree such delays can't happen again and it's our job to identify any problems and solve them and have a smooth implementation, cost effective for all stake holders involved. i would be remiss if i didn't c acknowledge the efforts to update them on the implementation. however, i think it's important that we have these hearings so that we can discuss as committee members and we can lend our support and help to you and others in the department as you work to implement this reform package. i have concerns about it focus this is getting from the va senior leadership. as we have found education programs are often over looked in the department as a whole. i understand the secretary and leadership team have many

priorities but i hope they understand it will be no small feet to execute such a large reform initiative which will result in over $3 billion of changes to the gi bill. our investments and it taxpayer's investment and the impact it will have on the future success of student veterans is, i'm sure you'll agree, an important endeavor and wreerb got to get right. so i urge them to do whatever they've got to do to give folks the resources that they need to roll this package out effectively again like we saw or were experienced in 2009. before i yield to ranking member orork, i want to focus on the it resources i just mentioned. i'm anxious to hear some of the testimony and i certainly have questions about this. since joining this committee it's always been clear that va's

ip systems are often so convoluted that when they make changes to the bill the patchwork system of it programs is not able to keep up which can cause significant delays for student veterans. the subcommittee's been told in the past that the plans for these systems would assure agilitiy so they could quickly address changes in the law. that hasn't been the case -- it's not often a focus of the department. i hope this practice does not continue, especially for something as important as it forever gi bill and i look forward to continuing to work with the va and my fellow members to make sure these resources are provided when needed. now i want to yield to the ranking member. >> there's not too much i can

add to your excellent opening comments but to thank you and the majority staff and minority staff for insuring that we have a successful hearing today for those about to testify for our colleague and their questions. i think all of us want to make sure the forever gi bill is implemented successfully and work constructively together to see how we can insure that those are resolved and like it chairman i see the biggest challenge being one with it. and so appreciate the fact that general wurly is here and he's brought someone who can help answer those questions and suggest how we work together to insure that this goes smoothly and seamlessly for transitioning service members and for veterans. also want to thank the veteran service org physicalations that are here today. i yield back.

thank our ranking member. with us today we have general robert worley, director of va's education service accompanied by ms. chairman bogue, deputy va serbs and acting information account manager for the benefits portfolio within the office of information and technology. and mrs. kathleen for relzs. and analyst for survivors. so thank you again for being here today. before we begin with your testimonies i ask if you would please stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to

provide is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. thank you. please be seated and let the record reflect all the witnesses answered in the afirmative. and all of you will be recognized for five minutes for your oral statements. let's begin with you. you're now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member orork. i'm please tootd be here to discuss va's work on updating the veteran's educational asishance act of 2017. also referred to as the forever gi bill. joining me is deputy director for operations and education service and va's project lead for implementation. it president signed into law which makes sweeping changes,

expands benefits and truly changes it way we view the forever gi bill for it future. the act as become known as the forever gi bill because of its most recognized feature as a removal of the 15-year time limitation transitioning out of the military after january first of 2013. to use their post 9/11 gi bill benefits. other important features are that it restores features since 2015. and enhances benefits for surviving dependents and purple heart recipients. it led them to leading and

coordinating all forever bill implementation activities. also in record time a management contract that provides further support through it addition of additional expertise. the law require as significant it effort with 32 of the 34 provisions if -- oit as committed to providing alution for it most pressing of these provisions. sections 107 and 501 which changed the way va pays monthly housing. they will assure timely processing of additional claims and will stand up new initiatives such as theedeth norris rogers stem scholarship by establishing specialized teams. and by hiring 202 temporary

employees in the field. first focus on the 15 provisions and executing to effect beneficiaries and ulkter stake holders. a vuvariety of outreach activities. va has been posting multiple updates on its gi facebook page and they healed twitter town hall reaching -- and participated in a satellite media tour with 23 radio and television stations reaching 4 million viewers and listeners and sent out mass emails and conducted multiple briefings to

school certifying officials as you knothey target certain categories. and more targeted notification for example we have notified 8,000 beneficiaries that may be eligible under the school closure provision. it has restored kwaeng 00 months of entitlement for over 200 beneficiaries. it's working hard on successfully implementing all of the provisions of the act on time. 13 of 34 provisions effected effective on 20 faen. res having regulations, designing training and more we

continue to look forward to working with all of our stake holders. i look forward to responding to any questions you may have. >> thank you for inviting student veterans of america to toich on the implementation of the forever gi bill. with nearly 1500 chapters representing veterans across it country, we're pleased to share the perspective commonly known as the forever gi bill made history. as one of the most significant pieces of higher education legislation this century, millions will have greater

access to education and training we would like to share some perspective. driven by outcomes and fuelled with data driven decision making. it ifcludes dozens of solution oriented provisions such as the work study authorization, science technology engineering and math scholarships. and many other provisions. the new law will also address inequities and looks forward to the future beyond our own generation. as leading advocates to the bill we're committed to the complete and timely implementation of this law. with that interest in mind we thank the committee for the

opportunity to highlight several key areas of success as well as some with room for improvement. we applaud them for their dead kaeted staff for demonstrating great initiative, especially their very public communication s efforts. until the forever bill, the only students with no reasonable recourse to recoupe their benefits. the most prolific examples included the closure of itt tech -- unfofrp if thely thousands wered aversely effected and we aplaud va for allowing them to apply for restoration of their benefits. we're concerned so few have applied for the restoration under the school closure provision.

like our concern with reaching purple heart recipients, contact information may not be reliable. we encourage va to partner with stud ntd veterans of america and others to reach out to the widest audience possible. the provision originated from the 113th congress. and congresswoman tidis. we are pleased to see it as a law. student veterans consistently site this as a component with which they have the greatest interest. as the forever gi bill was being developed, it became increasingly clear the implementation costs would be a significant driver of cost. we have major concerns about

whether they're receiving adequate resources. it represent as significant shift in education for veterans and higher education in general. more important than inputs and outcomes are -- that's more parent than ever. it has demonstrated results as president thomas jefferson said in 1808 the same prudence in private life that would prevent us from spending our own money -- we raise the question. whoicide be able to play in gi bill land? consider the precedent of the home loan program. many don't apply, leading to outcomes impressive by any standard and perhaps the same should be thought about for the gi bill. we thank the chairman and ranking member for inviting us to testify.

>> now i'll recog -- friendship. >> thank you, we thank you for the opportunity to talk about issues important to the families we serve, the families of the fallen. while the mission of taps is to offer comfort and support, we are also committed to improving support provided by the federal government for the families of the fall en. those who fall from combat or illness. taps appreciates the attention committee has paid to making sure they have benefits that give them access to quality education. taps provides specialized support through our web education portal regarding the education benefits available for children and spouses of america's fallen heroes.

staff members work with each individual to maximize the financial support they can receive to complete their education from both government and private agencies. this also allows us to hear from survivors where they if counterproblems and stumbling blocks in the process. we are most grateful the provisions in the veteran's educational assistance act of 2017 that supports survivors and most appreciative of the opportunities to comment on the implementation of this legislation. we have heard from many of taps surviving spouses concerning the implementation of the forever gi bill. while they're most appreciative of the enhanced benefit, many have concerns. we have work would the va to solve many of them. fersh is the date found on a va certificate of eligibility that informs the individual of the date they are no longer eligible

for education benefits. as of early december, they're still receiving the let wrz the 15-year delimitating date. while some are aware, they're reluctant to actualize their education plan until they have the correct education on their certificate of eligibility. taps did query about this discrepancy. they offered that while it upgrades are in process, the system does not currently allow the letter to go out without a delimitating date. we appreciate it steps this office has taken to develop or work around, including enhanced training to call center personnel to if sure eligible recipients that there is no delimitating date, sending letters if forming spouses that for had is no delimitating date and manually changing new

certificates of eligibility until they find a new solution. as said before the success off the implementation is entirely dependentant on changes to the it system. we hope there will be funding to expedite this process. while mandatory training for school certifying officials is included, we're concerned about the schools being fully aware of the changes coming in august 2018. we hope there will be coordination within the schools so the person talking to the student is aware of the changes. taps biggest concern with are the changes being implemented in august is there will be delayed payment in the fall 2018 simester. even with the few changes this fall there were issues with schools demanding payment because of delayed va payments. students receiving va payments

were not allowed to register for spring 2018 or use campus facilities because the va payment was delayed. in some cases they were put on payment plans they could not afford or forced to take out student loans with egregious origination fees to continue the education program. taps recommends they have the same profection as those who receive title 4 funding such as p pell grants and student loans. they believe the best way to do this is through a legislative change. we've been in discussion to assist these students. it would give the va the ability to -- untlsz educational institution permits to attend

permitting payment by the va and accepts a eligibility as a prommes for payment. continued cooperation for the va, and interested vsos and survivor advocates is essential to make the forever gi bill a success. taps will continue to provide feedback to both the va and committee on the experience of survivors. thank you and i look forward to your questions. >> you're welcome and i thamg the panel for their testimony today. general, first of all thank you for your service to our country. on a conference call last week subcommittee staff were informed that due to a problem with the va's it system the department will still have letters and certificates of eligibility that

will be sent to chapter 33 beneficiaries that show their gi benefits expire, despite the change made in section 112 of the forever gi bill. on the call the proposed work around was to send the ben fishiary a separate letter telling them to basically ignore it first letter. wrought the department's plans to address the situation, this particular situation which if not addressed will certainly cause mass confusion for are had program participants. i can't believe this is happening. and our soldiers, our veterans deserve better. they deserve certainty. so i'd appreciate it very much. >> couldn't agree more. we want to put out consistent

and accurate information to our beneficiaries. we appreciate it concern the committee has on this. i'll answer this. i'll start with part a of the answer and i'll turn it over to talk about part b of the answer. part a has to do with it initial certificate of eligibility that was mentioned by our colleague at the table. after we've done what we need to do to check eligibility requirements. those are manually generated and we can and will start this month manually updating those letters so that it's clear because there will be -- well, not starting now but we have to check the eligibility and make sure it's after january of 2013 and then those letters will be updated accurately to reflect whether

there is or is not a delimitating date. >> how much time will that take to manually update the letters? >> these letters are manually produced anyway, the initial certificate of eligibility. so it's a little bit of added time to the claims examiner's work to do that. it's not a big impact. the bigger impact that we were concerned about has to do with the enrollment letters. so they get an award letter that updates them on the amount of benefit they have left and what they're being paid and housing and so forth. the reason these letters are difficult to change quickly is because they're integrated and tied into the code of the long-term solution. so i'll turn it over to talk

about respect to the award letters. >> please. >> thank you. since our discussions with staffers on friday we've actually gone back -- i've been working with my engineering team. we've built -- we'll be delivering work arounds. we'll be delivering a solution in our march release. the key thing here is making changes to the logic that generates it letters. we're doing this at it same time trying to decommission another system part of that patchwork that we're trying to clear up. and so we're sort of in the process of eliminating the patchwork underneath the hood at the same time as making changes while we're doing that is a problematic and risky thing that we're trying to manage that

risk. that said there are a few things we're committed to doing and making happen while we're doing that decommissioning work on pdf. one will be the changes to letters. we'll have those done within the march release. >> is there a possible you can contact, obviously the heroes to ease their mind maybe verbally over it telephone what have you? maybe not an official notice but have you considered that as well? if you can post it on the website or get to congressional offices so that we can get the information if they call in? >> absolutely. we can do that. this is relatively late breaking news. >> facebook, what have you, social media. we can all help. >> absolutely. >> i don't have much time left.

why don't i go ahead and yield to the ranking member. thank you. you're recognized for five minutes. >> thanks. i have a number of questions but i don't know that i understand the answer yet to mr. bill racks's question on this 15-year time limit. are letters going out today still erroneously saying you have to use this within 15 years? >> yes. >> and not a programmer but i got to think -- and don't go into detail. but i got to think that's not a three month fix. you said by march this will be fixed. i mean can somebody, as they're printed out manually with a sharpy cross that line out before it goes in or can we do that in a code? it doesn't sit with anyone, probably yourself included.

is there a way we can do this now instead of three months? >> i don't think so. congressman orork. it -- i understand the incredulously of -- you can't change a letter quickly. but again ne'er integrated and part of the automated code and they need to be that way because we're sending personalized information to each ben fishiary related to their benefits and how much they're getting. it's not just going into a word document and changing a few lines. it's much more complicated than that. we wish we could do it more quickly but i'm relying on our it colleagues to tell us what's within the realm of the

possible. >> and maybe there's someone out for in the private sector or in the volunteer community who would be willing to take a look at this code and offer their expertise if we are so taxed in being able to change this. just not to in any way undermine the success you've shown in being able to implement this following the august signing but this is something i think sticks out for everyone. another issue ms. mokeler brought up sn delayed va payments and she suggested using the pell grant model. any thoughts on that? >> i don't have any particular view of that right now. sir, we haven't really addressed that issue in my office. surtsenly would love to talk more about that. i suspect that would take legislative change to do that and we'd be happy to work with

the committee. >> so you'll give your feedback on that and i understand the majority staff may already be working on this. from the minority side would like the work on this as well and make sure we're successful. loved your point about the outcomes more important than the inputs and we've had this conversation about several programs that come through this committee. i want to make sure we're fully measuring outcomes here as well. and you suggested that we have greater scrutiny and higher expectations for the educational institutions that are participating. any recommendations as we continue to perfect this law or administratively anything that general worley can run with? >> yes, thank you for the question. i think it is a relevant and critical point today and my

colleagues from the va can correct me but i think it's somewhere in the realm of 14,000 programs are approved. that's crazy. all of those schools i suspect are not delivering good outcomes for student veterans. i know that first hand and can probably point out a couple we all know of. and i think ultimately the focus on outcomes verses what's going in and coming out is critical. what we know is they're winners and when given the right tools to succeed they do. and that's something we have a special focus on as it pertains to things that can be changed. there's internal tools i know of that the va is taking a look at to increase their standards and really have some rigorous methodology as to who's available to get gi dollars. i think that's something the committee would be interested in

taking a look at and working with certainly us and many of our partners in the nonprofit space. >> i'm going to yield back to the chairman but if we're able to follow this very good recommendation i think it has to be tied to some measure of outcome so that we truly understand performance for these different programs, not just did the student complete the course of study but what was their earning potential in the following 10 years or were they able to find a career or purpose and i think all of those are incredibly important. so thank you for raising that. >> agreed. from the great state of floridf. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, panel for appearing here this afternoon and general, i'd like to begin with you and ask can you tell me

how aware have you made the senior political leadership at va aware of the challenges that this legislation has created for you. >> i've personally briefed the secretary after the act became law. with those challenges both the it assessment of about $70 million and our initial assessment of what would be required in terms of people without it solutions. so i'm very confident that secretary is aware of those challenges.

addressing the two most critical and initial provisions dealing with housing alouns which had the biggest people impact and so toes are underway along with the massive effort as he mentioned. and some of that has been absorbed in terms of the funding. we need more funding later but at this point we've come a long way. so i think the senior leadership is aware of these challenges and we're getting the support. >> and it drill down on the it a little bit, mr. thrower. 22 of 34 elements are going to require it, as i heard earlier. can you talk about -- has there been anticipation of what the 2019 budget needs to looking to like to give you it capabilities that you need within it to fully

implement? >> yes. we've pretty extensive discussions internally about what it would take to do this and at the secretary's request we've been looking at alternative approaches of managing this inhaddeavendeavor. one of the -- for instance one of the most significant things we will have accomplished in eliminating, consolidating all education services around the lts platform, eliminating several of the -- a lot of the patchwork under the hood is we will be given -- we'll have the opportunity to potentially look at this as a managed service and so we're going to be -- we're going to have a decision date this spring of where we are with the decommissioning effort, what our options are in the external market. if we go the in-house

development. i think because of the work we're doing and the work under the hood we're actually going to have a lot more options from an it perspective of different ways we could solve this problem. >> very good. and i want to ask mr. hubbard and mrs. mokeler about the fact that educational services, the oversight falls within va benefits and there's been some discussion about unique problems that creates and before they comment, do you see that as an issue for it that the oversight is under benefits as opposed to education services? i mean you work across different chains of command anyway. >> i actually think it's a really good fit within benefits.

in fact because of many of the other -- at least from an it perspective i look at many of the capabilities we've delivered over the last few years have been able to -- have created certain services that are allowing us to integrate capabilities across it department. it fact that we now, for instance have an electronic e folder and has things like marriage certificates, other critical documents that can be used by education benefits and other areas. this as been a great benefit to us and is creating a lot of flexibility we otherwise didn't have. >> i'm just about out of time. mr. chairman, if they could briefly answer. is that a problem for you? and i think you actually mentioned a legislative issue that could help with some of this oversight.

was that correct? >> yes. but that was pertaining to the delay of payment of the va benefits to the colleges. who weren't allowing the students to take advantage of reregistering for the next semester. >> just with that certificate? >> yes. >> mr. hubbard. >> i think it's an excellent question and thank you for addressing it because i'm actually going to disagree a little bit with my colleagues from va on this one. i've seen long term the focus on outcomes is lost when economic economic opportunity office is buried within benefits. i believe there is an opportunity to elevate that office as an issue area and provide potentially preventive medicine. those with a bachelor's degree or higher oftentimes in life

have great success in life. the it debate indicate this is disinterest in a larger organization, not out of spite but the fact it's a huge organization, more than 360,000 employees. when you're talking about a small subset of that, it's difficult to get the attention and opportunity to elevate that office. >> i grow wiagree with your foc outcomes. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i yield back mr. correa for five minutes. >> thank you. i want to thank the panel for being here. very difficult issues but i appreciate you being forthright and honest about the challenges we have in front of us. you're not going to get angry at these letters an institution

where veterans can get education services. as mr. hubbard said we're not focused on outcomes. just a couple days ago i was talking to a gentleman who said, lou, you have a lot of openings in california for this huge construction project we have coming online. we don't have the ability to train these people. where do we go from here?

it looks like we have challenges turning this very complex agency department quickly to address these issues on a timely basis. a question to all of you. we thought about possibly employing social media to let veterans know what the real information out there is, what the facts really are. >> thank you, congressman. we have leveraged social media in a huge way with respect to getting the word out. we have a website, as i mentioned in my testimony, we have web pages dedicated to the provisions with links for example to the application if your school closure, impacted by school closure. we put things on facebook pretty much daily emphasizing certain aspects. >> what has the outcome been? i have a daughter 17, kids in the early 20s and facebook is

where they live, not on web pages but facebook. have you gotten good response? i'm thinking to myself, as you're trying to put out the good information on facebook, accurate information, you're sending out letters that are inaccurate. creation will be of confusion out there. somebody sees and official letter from your department, this is something on facebook, maybe you ought to stop sending out those inaccurate letters and focus on social media getting out the right information. >> that's what we're doing. the facebook dialogue is continuous, and if you'd like some of the feedback about that, some of it is disgruntlement, quite frankly, with the fact the forever part only starts 1 january of 2013. people that became eligible prior to that or discharged prior to that, in some cases have concerns about that.

there's an ongoing dialogue of various concerns. we're trying to push out the information correctly, we're fixing the letter problem. the initial letters will be fixed this month, at least within a couple months we'll have the logic fixed for the award letters. >> thank you. mr. hubbard, we're running out of time. i want to ask you and the rest of the office to engage with us on how to focus on outcomes. this is not a new problem. we heard this over and over in california, we're not training the students for the right job openings. how can we get to that point where we're training veterans for 50, 60, 70, $80,000 jobs when they come back stateside. it's not rocket science, putting one opportunity in front of these veterans and making sure

they're able to seize that opportunity. whatever suggestions you have, please, we're here to listen. thank you, sir. >> thank you for that. it's a great point. we're finding they are making informed career paths when they know what they're looking for and see the solution to it, unfortunately in a lot of cases they're not getting the right information and why we're making a strong push. >> i guess my question, i have six seconds, why aren't they getting the right information and how can we get them the right information? >> another very good point and points to the fact that the transition assistance program on the dod side of the house is worth taking a look at as well. >> chairman, i yield. >> i agree with that. >> thank you. great to have you back on the committee again, general.

introducing the veterans back on campus act in 2017 was rolled into the forever g.i. bill package we're very proud of i wonder if you can give us an update and elaborate on the progress it has made now that it's permanent. have you seen more veterans using it? i know it's only been a very short period of time. have you expanded it on a number of campuses and can you give us an update how that's going? >> thank you. as you know, congressman, the vre is a separate office from me. i can tell you, from what i understand now it codifies, as you pointed out veterans success on campus, highly successful program. i believe it's serving about 90 some -- over 90 campuses. my understanding at this point is we don't have plans for

expanding the program this year. beyond that, i'd have to take back any further status for the record. >> can you elaborate on the lack of planning for expansion as it was clearly a priority in the bill? >> we understand that, sir. i would have to take that for the record and have the vre folks respond to that. >> we'd appreciate feedback in the future. could you also provide information on the performance of the v.a. education call center in oklahoma and what type of training they're receiving on the legislative changes that were enacted in the forever gi bill? >> they have received training on this from the beginning, fact sheets and so forth, in order to be able to respond appropriately. that's a big lift with 31 education provisions as part of it, some of them quite complicated.

so we not only have rolled out the scripts for them to use but then continuing to evaluate and improve them as we go along. >> that's all i've got. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> mrs. rice, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. if i can say, it's not the fault of any one here on the panel, but this is why people have no faith in government. you pass an historic bill like this and the agency that's charged with implementing it does not have the tools to implement it. it's insane. i just don't understand that. you can't change something like taking out a 15 year provision. it's so disappointing that -- maybe this is something we have to address with the secretary, we have to do more to help. excuse me. ignorance, how long have you been implementing it? over what period? >> august 16th, 2017, we're

about four months into the effort. >> have you seen any increase in people applying understanding that they actually can apply now, thinking that maybe before they couldn't? is it too early to calculate that? >> i guess it depends on which population you're talking about. some of it is just information to get out, specifically with respect to the no longer having a limiting date for those that exit service after january 1, 2013. some of them are very targeted. there's two provisions within the school closure piece, one retroactive to january 15 to try to make whole to some degree those affected by school closure and itts and corinthians. and we put out the applications to them and we're receiving and processing those requests as we

speak. as i mentioned we already restored 1800 months or so of entitlement to people. several of the provisions, we're moving out and getting the ones near term taken care of. many provisionses are not effective until 1 august of 2018. so it kind of depends. there are others targeted such as the purple heart recipients and fry scholarship. we've pushed out communication, especially on the near term pieces, to try to inform people as quickly as possible that they may be impacted by a particular set of provisions or set of provisions. as was mentioned, we armed up the call center and putting it out on our social media and those sorts of things. we're trying to get the word out. >> one question, one part of the bill required the v.a. to

provide educational counselling services for certain individuals at locations on institutions of higher learning campuses selected by the v.a. next to this sheet that says, no action needed, you find that the counseling is sufficient or maybe i'm not understanding that. >> you may be referring to the provision congressman banks was mentioning about codifying the success on campus counselors. at this point, i'm not aware of doing that. >> they're talking about things you would need to implement this bill. is that one of them? >> no.

the ones i was briefing the secretary on were 31 of 34 provisions of the law being implemented bay my office and three provisions have to do with vr and e. that's one of them. >> who's responsible for that? >> a colleague of mine is responsible for it. >> no one can answer that? >> i'll have to take that back. >> i talked to the ranking member and he agrees we should have a second round, if you guys are okay with that, we want to proceed. i want to thank you again for being here and providing the benefits for heroes, what they've earned and deserved has always been my top priority in the united states congress. with that, i want to ask the

general, i think it's so important and i think all of us agree on this, for us watching and those at home the improvements we made on the veterans education assistance act in 2017 are being implemented again. miss rice alluded to that and status of these reforms. my first question is related to my bill, the veteran act incorporated into the overall bill signed into law in august. my provision would provide the v.a. necessary funding and resources to update its information technology systems, to improve the timeliness and accuracy for processing of claims for educational benefits. my provision directed the v.a. to submit within 180 days after the enactment of this act a plan to implement such improvements. so my question is can you discuss, what efforts, general, thus far, have been made in this effort? are there initial hurdles or barricades to get this section

implemented, specifically this section, is the v.a. on track to submit this to congress within the 180 time frame enactment, if you could answer that, i'd appreciate it. >> mr. chairman, that's one of many of the provisions, i mentioned that obviously require i.t. effort that will happen in the future. i will defer to my colleague from the offices of it, if that's okay. >> in terms of planning all of that, what we're doing to automate systems across the board, we have analyzing the systems of this act and within the education realm we manage, we have been building a plan to

show the transition we've been looking at the next few years and we are on track to provide you that report in i believe this february. >> this february. >> is that 180 days? i believe it is. >> within 180 days. it's pretty close. i think it is within 180 days. okay. we will hold you to that. let me get to the next question. can you explain why the vba education services needed to hire 200 plus additional workers to manly process claims because the i.t. systems are not able to automatically manly process the claims? yes. there's two or three categories. i mentioned in my oral testimony specialized teams.

there are certain sections that cannot be processed in the current automation without huge huge changes. i would point out the stem scholarship is one of those provisions because it's not just nine additional months of benefits. there are parameters as to who's eligible and how much of the program you've completed, a program of greater than 120 hours and you can only go up to 30,000 per individual. there are many parameters what we would say outside the system for processing those claims. we need probably around 40 to 50 people as a team, is our estimate right now, just to process who we think would be eligible under that stem scholarship program. another one has to do with, in the more near term, school closure act. we're trying to hire 27 people right now. we're in this hiring process as we speak, to work the school

closure pieces of that. these are worked by the more experienced claims examiners and processed and put into the system through those means. there are two or three specialized teams we have to put together that make up a fairly significant part of that 200. then the rest of the 200 are put up to our regional processes to the claims today to work-around until the i.t. comes on board. it's just additional people power, if you will, to try to maintain the timeliness that we have today and not get into delay situation usme have heard about. >> when we implement the i.t.

portion, the veterans act, my bill, you think we will see improvements? >> absolutely. you're talking about automating original claims process, absolutely. >> very good. i yield to the ranking member for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have a few questions for general worley. before i do, this will be my last opportunity to do this because he's moving onto the next stage in his career. as with many of the members of congress, i have the ability to work with a military fellow who comes to our office for a year and helps us to better understand the issues on this committee, the other committee on which i serve, house armed services, captain mark waldon has given me faith in the quality of americans we are recruiting and enlist. we wish you much luck in these

next steps in your career. it adds a little built to the urgency we have in this job and our responsibility to make sure we're following through in our obligations and commitments and want to publicly acknowledge your service and working with us this year. general worley, when you were asked about outreach on social media, you had earlier given us the stat about 8,000 beneficiaries that you're trying to reach out to, who have been subject to these school closures. we want to make sure we're connecting them with the resources they need to finish their academic studies. you said 200 or so have been helped so far. what does that tell you? on this issue and the issue about having to wait another three months to correct the 15 year limiting statement, help me

understand your urgency around these issues and whether you see this as a problem, if this is what you expected? that might go some ways towards setting our expectations on the committee. it seems like a low number to me when only 2,000 have been helped. >> i would respond by saying the initial notice went out november 9th. we're what five weeks into the process. that doesn't mean it's the first communication, we've been trying to flood the pipes on communication on all, especially the near term ones. quite frankly, i think it's too early to tell whether that's a low number or high number. we will take these in and process them as quickly as we can.

if we need more communication to who ever hasn't responded yet, we will do that. i don't know it's realistic to expect we will get 8,000 application, quite frankly the hope is the information that's out there would be sufficient for people to look at and make their own choice whether they think they're eligible or not. we always encourage people to submit a claim if there's any question as to their eligibility, especially with respect to the school closure. if you have transferred across to a comparable program you're not eligible to restore your benefit between january 15th and the implementation of the act. we're happy to make that decision once you've given us the information on the application and inform you of that. there may be people that understand that and just don't apply. >> we're, god willing, all going to be here a year from today, still in these same positions.

what will we be likely talking about at that point, if the chairman decides to hold a hearing on this forever gi bill one year after the last hearing? are we resolved on all these open issues? do you have confidence the 22 of 34 i.t. modifications have been completed, the $70 million that you need to do this effectively spent, at least for that part that's been budgeted? what do you think we can anticipate a year from now? >> i would love in a year from now to certainly have all the letter issues squared away. i don't think, what i hope to say in a year and he can back me up on this, we have done the work to get off the benefits work for the platform doing a

number of things with respect to education benefits, sections are purely and perfectly implemented. we won't in a year be able to say all the rest of those i.t. requirements are met. so i hope to be saying in a year we have those funded and in a timeline that oit is working through over the following year, but i'll let mr. thrower comment on that. >> i think that's a pretty accurate statement. i think, as i say, we're looking. we have been balancing priorities. we started and effort before this act was enacted, to eliminate a major legacy problem, our environment. when this act was in fact -- educational services is the number one priority as relates

to veterans administrations legacy. dealing with education will give us agility to make the quick changes you're talking about long term. we're trying to fix that. that will largely be done the end of this fiscal year. in this meantime, what we will have accomplished working together with joe worley and the education team we identified those critical things we absolutely had to do within an i.t. solution now in order to make this work. we have integrated that within the same program doing the decommissioning work, which is a balance we have to make to be able to do that. we are looking very hard at managed services solutions versus in-house development solutions. i will say that we're hoping that say october 1 of next year we will have -- well, next spring we'll make a decision

which direction we wish to go. we will be in the throws of implementation of all of the other provisions a year from now, down the path that we will have determined in the spring and probably executed the beginnings of october. >> i appreciate that and thanks for all the work you're going to do on that. i for one don't have the subject matter expertise on all this including the i.t. fix and i.t. problems. i just know from past experience gao has been so helpful to me in understanding and providing an academic and third party scrutiny on the commitment and performance and hope we can get work on gao, not in any way to say i have a lack of confidence because i don't. you all have been very helpful and professional. i think given the group of veterans we're talking about and success implementing this successfully i want to make sure we have the greatest oversight

possible to help us to do our job. thank you, mr. chairman for letting me go over. >> absolutely. i understand the doctor doesn't have any questions, is that right? okay. you're recognized for five minutes. no questions? i have one question and then i will ask the ranking member if he wanted to make any more comments. the question is for miss moakler. in your testimony you described a situation where some students are demanding payment -- the schools are demanding payment of tuition and fees and the v.a. has delayed in the payments, what have you. what can be done to address this issue so the students are not negatively impacted by school and v.a. delays? >> well, what we're asking for is protections for those receiving v.a. benefits that are already out there for those who are receiving title 4 benefits. if a pell grant payment is late,

the student is not penalized, they can still go on and register for another semester of classes or what have you, whatever certificate of eligibility they get for their pell grant is held as receipt of payment, as it were. but with the v.a., many schools do not look at that certificate of eligibility as payment. they want the payment in hand. that causes a hardship for many. >> give me an example of the hardship because this is unbelievable. unacceptable. tell me, what's the penalty in a lot of cases? >> the student -- the institution of higher learning will start dunning the student for payment and ask them to take out a loan to cover that period between when the university

required the payment and when the v.a. makes the payment. so then the student is stuck with those -- that bill. >> they have that added stress. >> they do. >> they should not have. >> they do. that's the real live scenario. we have to do something about that. i appreciate you answering the question. i want to ask the ranking member if he has any comments. otherwise -- >> mr. chairman, i don't. thank you for helping to hold the hearing today and thank you all for testifying and your answers to our questions. >> okay. all right. that's okay. no problem. if there are no other questions, anyone have any other questions? if there are no other questions, i want to thank the witnesses for their testimony and for answering all the questions. we all understand the importance

that the passage of this forever gi bill will have for generations of veterans to come. we did great work in this committee and i thank the full committee chairman as well, why it is so vital we get implementation right the first time, as miss rice said. we will continue to work with the v.a. and receive regular updates how the process is moving along. i ask you, general worley, and your staff to not hesitate, let us know if you're lacking the resources you need to get this right and we will also continue to work with veterans, groups like sva and taps and rely on you, please, we're relying on you to keep your ears on the ground and keep us abreast with any concerns you are hearing from the membership and as you work with v.a. in the coming months and years.

and ask unanimous consent all members have five legislative days to extend their remarks and include extraneous material. without objection, so ordered. finally, i'd like to take a moment to publicly congratulate mr. hubbard to the promotion of staff sergeant in the united states marine corps reserves. congratulations, sir. thank you, mr. hubbard for your continued service to our country and semper fi. this hearing is now concluded. thank you very much. appreciate it.

c-span's "washington journal" live everyday with policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, roll call on the alabama senate and then talking about sexual harassment on capitol hill as

well as the call by the democratic women's working group for an investigation into president trump. and virginia republican congressman, scott taylor, gives his view on tax reform, government spending deadlines and the future of daca. be sure to watch live 7:00 a.m. eastern this morning. join the discussion. >> deputy attorney general rod rosenstein testifies wednesday on the justice department investigation of russia's interference in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. we're live with the house judiciary committee starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. >> watch c-span3 thursday at 10:30 a.m. eastern for live coverage of the vote on net neutrality. the vote is to roll back the net neutrality passed in the obama administration and to reduce regulation of the inte

thursday, 10:30 a.m. eastern. c-span3 or c-span.org or listen to it live with a free c-span radio app. the fourth circuit court of appeals heard arguments and international refuge assistance project versus trump. the case focuses on the legality of the third version of the president's travel ban placing restrictions on nationals from eight countries. six of which are muslim majority countries. the court issued an order allowing the ban to take full effect pending appeals before the third and fourth and ninth circuit courts of appeals. this is two hours. >> the united states fourth circuit court of appeals.