Time for VA to step up - Army Community - Army Discussions - Army Times

Time for VA to step up

Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was launched a year ago, service members and veterans have become used to hearing the Veterans Affairs Department make unfulfilled promises to fix program failures.

VA vowed to provide retroactive living stipend payments in July to 153,000 student veterans who have been underpaid because outdated computer software can’t accommodate the increases in military housing allowance rates that take effect every Jan. 1.

The living stipend is based on those allowances, so all student veterans receiving the stipend since January have been paid at last year’s rates.

VA promised retroactive payments — some totaling hundreds of dollars — by July 1. That didn’t happen. VA now says payments will go out in August, though no specific date is cited.

To be fair, Congress shoved the new GI Bill into production too quickly for VA to ensure all the complex moving parts would work as planned. But at some point, VA no longer can blame the problems on mere birth pains.

After a full year, VA can’t keep shortchanging those who have earned GI Bill benefits, some of whom truly have been hurt by the administrative foot-dragging.

VA must get the Post-9/11 GI Bill right — and lawmakers must hold them accountable. In fact, jobs should be at stake.

At the same time, as these kinks are ironed out, Congress must resist the urge to tinker, such as with big changes in eligibility rules proposed by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Some of the proposed changes make sense and are supported by VA and Pentagon officials.

But throwing more wrenches into a machine that is still misfiring will only ensure further breakdowns and harm to GI Bill beneficiaries.