Student Veterans of America
Washington, DC.
February 17, 2010

The Honorable Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
Chairwoman, Economic Opportunity Subcommittee
House Committee on Veterans Affairs

The Honorable John Boozman
Ranking Member, Economic Opportunity Subcommittee
House Committee on Veterans Affairs

Madam Chairwoman and Mr. Ranking Member,

Thank you for providing Student Veterans of America the opportunity to weigh in on these important pieces of legislation that you are reviewing today. We appreciate your passion and commitment to veterans issues, and truly support the efforts of you and your staffs as you work to better enable our nation’s heroes to succeed when they come home.

Specifically, we would like to submit our comments on the following Bills before you: HR 3579, HR 3813, HR 3484, HR 3948, and HR 4203. Each of these directly affect the lives of student veterans around the country, and we implore you to enable the changes that the Members and we have developed.

HR 3579

The Student Veterans of America strongly supports Chairman Filner’s Bill HR 3579 to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for an increase in the amount of the reporting fees payable to educational institutions that enroll veterans receiving educational assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The current fees, range from $7.00, and $11.00 and these reporting fees are the only source of funding that schools receive to support veterans, and are currently next to nothing. We strongly support the new fee of $50.00 each that is proposed in this bill.

The existing fees of $7.00 and $11.00 are effectively the same as were paid during the Vietnam War and are inadequate in providing the necessary support to student veterans. Raising these fees to $50.00 reflects an increased demand for expanded services for student veterans and would allow schools to have much more power and flexibility to help these student veterans. This increase in reporting fees would enable schools to expand training outreach events and increase or improve other student veteran related programs.

Furthermore, we believe that this increase would provide veteran certifying officials with the resources needed to receive training so that they can be fully informed of the benefit options available to student veterans. An expansion of veteran related programs and an increase in resources for certifying officials would have a positive impact on the lives and opportunities of student veterans, and we are confident that HR 3579 would help provide some of the funding necessary for these worthy programs.

HR 3813 – Veterans Training Act

Congressman Sestak’s Bill offers an obvious change to bring the Post 9/11 GI Bill more in line with the previous Montgomery GI Bill and is an essential way of ensuring the longevity of this program. This is a logical solution to many of the problems facing the Bill today, and we support it wholeheartedly.

HR 3484

We emphatically support the 4-year extension of the VA Work Study Program as proposed by Chairwoman Herseth-Sandlin and Ranking Member Boozman. This program enables thousands of student veterans to earn an income at their schools while working to help their fellow student veterans and their VA Certifying Officials. In many cases, the VA Work Study students are critical to the daily operations of their school’s veteran services office, and this extension is essential to ensure that these offices are able to continue providing the high level of customer service that is expected by our veterans at their schools.

HR 3948 – Test Prep for Heroes Act

Student Veterans of America absolutely supports Congressman Putnam’s efforts to amend Title 38 of the US Code to authorize the use of entitlement assistance under the Post 9/11 GI Bill for payment for a test preparatory course in connection with licensing or certification in a vocation or profession. The lack of authorization for the use of funds for test preparation in Post-9/11 GI Bill does a disservice to the tens of thousands of student veterans who need to take a test to gain licensing or certification in a vocation or profession, but lack necessary funds to take a preparatory course that could help improve their test scores.

Many student veterans are required to take a test in order to receive licensing or certification in a vocation or profession. These tests are mandatory for jobs, and in order for student veterans to have the highest likelihood of success, they must be adequately prepared for these tests. Preparation courses are essential to ensure that student veterans have the highest chances to excel in these tests; however, such courses are often costly, which renders them impractical for many student veterans. By authorizing entitlement assistance for test preparation courses, HR 3948 would give student veterans the resources they need to be successful and continue to make a positive impact on American society.

In addition to the changes that HR 3948 provides, we would like to bring your attention to the fact that many of our student veterans need to take more than one test in connection with licensing or certification. However, the current text of Chapter 33 allows for only one such exam, up to a cost of $2000. Very few exams are even close to this expensive, and it is a shame that a veteran must waste such a generous benefit because of this language. In order to accommodate for this we strongly encourage the Bill to allow multiple tests to be taken under the same provision, instead of just one, as we have written below:

Change Section 3315 of Title 38 Chapter 33 to read:

(a) IN GENERAL.—An individual entitled to educational assistance under this chapter shall also be entitled to payment for licensing or certification test(s) described in section 3452(b).

(b) LIMITATION ON AMOUNT.—The amount payable under sub- section (a) for licensing or certification tests may not exceed a sum of $2,000. Multiple examinations may be taken within this provision up to the amount of $2000.

H.R. 4203

Chairman Hall’s Bill to mandate that payments made under the Post 9/11 GI Bill be delivered via direct deposit is an essential part of bringing the VA into the 21st Century in regards to payment practices and working with veterans. Almost all military personnel are used to receiving their paychecks through direct deposit, and when they arrive at college, their GI Bill Benefits should be no different.

Additionally, we hope that the Subcommittee will consider taking this provision a few steps further, requiring that tuition payments paid to the educational institution also be required to be paid through direct deposit. This is essential for ease of processing for the receiving schools, who should not be forced to look for tuition funding in two locations for the same veteran from the same federal agency. This is particularly important for veterans who are studying abroad, or who are receiving Yellow Ribbon Program funding in very large amounts. We cannot afford to have these checks get lost in the mail any longer, as SVA has already witnessed among our membership this past semester.

Finally, the VA should be required to properly label these funds when they are deposited. Currently it is unclear for both the student veteran and the educational institution what the funds are for when they are deposited. The VA provides no label on the money as to whether or not it is for housing or book stipends, a kicker, or a refund when it is deposited into a veterans account. Additionally, when the VA deposits money with an educational institution, they do not specify what semester the money is for, requiring even more work for our already over-worked certifying officials.

With these changes, it will be significantly easier for both the student veterans and the schools to work with the VA in handling the funds that have been allocated for this fantastic benefit. We hope the Subcommittee will work to ensure the implementation of these provisions for both the Post 9/11 GI Bill and all other Chapters.

This concludes our written testimony. Again, we would like to thank you for considering our opinion on these matters, and look forward to continuing to work with you and your staffs to help our nation’s student veterans.

Very Respectfully,

Brian Hawthorne
Legislative Director