Chairwoman Herseth-Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to provide AMVETS’ views and discuss the VA strategy for implementing the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The Montgomery GI Bill was enacted in late 1984 for servicemembers who completed 24 months of active duty service if that service began after June 30, 1985. This provided VA with more than 30 months to develop a system to deliver the benefit. With only 13 months to meet the statutory requirements of the new educational assistance program, it is necessary for VA to rely on contractor support to develop an IT solution that will accurately determine benefits eligibility so our servicemembers and veterans will be able to receive their Chapter 33 benefits in a timely manner.

By VA’s own admission, they do not have the proper IT manpower to develop an acceptable solution by August 2009. Development of software demands a narrow scope of work over a relatively short period of time and the most efficient way to solve an IT problem when current staff, for whatever reason, cannot produce the solution is to hire a software development firm to take on the task. Furthermore, for VA to process these new claims through manual processing while they develop an in-house IT solution, VA would be required to hire hundreds of new claims processors for a temporary period of time. This would be an increased cost to VA, and only provide temporary employment for any veterans who might benefit from the hiring increase.

Because of the scope of the IT solution and the limited time in which VA has to implement this program, AMVETS does not fault VA for their management of the proposal process. Although AMVETS prefers to see a more open bidding process, which would include disabled veteran-owned companies, under the circumstances, VA was required to select a contractor in a timely manner. Streamlining the acquisition process was a response to the limited time. When VA took over the acquisition process only four contractors had agreed to enter into the bid competition. Therefore, VA requested proposals from only those four companies.

AMVETS is completely confident that no VBA employees will lose federal employment because of the software development by an outside source. VA will continue to process Montgomery GI Bill claims as well as take on processing claims that are denied by the IT solution. There will also be positions within the new system that will move claims processors into oversight roles and any other employees will be properly trained to work in similar positions within VBA.

Ms. Chairwoman, this concludes my testimony. I will be happy to answer any questions regarding our opinion on these matters.