More on the full House Veteran’s Affairs Committee hearing, including the complete video, here: https://veterans.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=7907

Complete text of the Student Veteran Benefit Restoration Act of 2025 available here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1391

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT–

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ (IL-03): I just want to thank the witnesses for being here today, and frankly, for the work you do every single day to make sure that everything we do centers veterans. I really appreciate you.

Twenty thousand seven hundred and twenty seven. I’ve memorized that number, and I often say it five or six times a day. That’s the number of veterans I represent. Ensuring that those veterans receive every single benefit promised to them is a top priority for me. It’s why I’m on this committee.

Access to affordable, quality education is also one of those benefits.

The GI Bill has been a critically important policy that makes affordable and accessible education possible for veterans. However, as we know, in recent years, student veterans have been the target of bad actors seeking to enrich themselves by exploiting veterans’ GI Bill benefits. These bad actors have reduced veterans to a tuition payment and exploited them to gain access to a dependable federal disbursement.

Not only is that unacceptable to me, frankly, it’s criminal. When a student veteran is defrauded by predatory institutions, it is only right and only just that the veteran has recourse and a way to get their benefits back. No student veteran should have to give up or defer their dreams of education because they were defrauded.

That’s why I proudly reintroduced the Student Veterans Benefit Restoration Act of 2025, which would restore GI Bill benefits to students who have been defrauded.

But we also know that the bill moved us one step closer to having a restoration process comparable to those that govern the federal benefits of students who are not veterans. We have more work to do to protect our veterans from bad faith actors and ensure that every opportunity to live a meaningful, thriving, and joyful post service life is available to them.

That is why I’m glad we are having this hearing and hearing specifically from veteran service organizations today.

When I first introduced the bill back in what feels like a hundred years ago, in the 118th Congress, I was proud that it included a grandfather clause so that all veterans would have a path to recourse. However, as it moved through the committee process, and as we did some of the bipartisan negotiations, we were unfortunately forced to strip away that component.

So, Mr. Retzer, Mr. Brown, Mr. Lyle, would you support the inclusion of a retroactive clause in this legislation? And if so, why? I’ll start with Mr. Lyle.

COLE LYLE (THE AMERICAN LEGION):

Thank you for the question. Absolutely, we would support an amendment. It’s included in our written statement. Veterans who have been defrauded by these institutions deserve restitution.

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Thank you. Mr. Desmond.

MIKE DESMOND (MISSION ROLL CALL): Thank you for the question.

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: You weren’t on the list, but go ahead. Would you support that?

MIKE DESMOND: Absolutely. We absolutely would. We see education as a component of stability, particularly post service stability. Being able to support a program such as this, which ensures that veterans who are defrauded in this situation are able to go back to school, is great.

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ (IL-03): Great. Mr. Retzer, Mr. Brown.

JON RETZER (DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS): Yes, thank you for that question. And yes, we would support that amendment, because when we look at the restoration of these benefits, we know education benefits are time limited, and there are also caps on the benefit. We want to ensure that veterans get back all of their benefits and are able to use them. Thank you.

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ (IL-03): Mr. Brown?

MORGAN BROWN (PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA): I would concur with all he recommendations previously given by my peers. The one thing I would note is that we are acknowledging that fraud has taken place, so why wouldn’t we want to recover those costs? In prior versions of the bill, CBO had scored it at zero cost because we were attempting to recover those costs. We would support that.

REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Thank you, Mr. Brown. I think that’s exactly right.

I heard from a lot of veterans after we passed the bill. Some of them were very thankful that veterans moving forward would have an opportunity to get their benefits back. But I also heard from veterans who were really angry, angry at me and angry at Congress, asking, “What about us? I want to go back to school. I want to be able to finish my education.”

It has to be retroactive. That’s the only real way that justice is served for all of us. So I really appreciate your responses, and I hear you loud and clear. I hope to work with the Chairman and with my colleagues here as well to ensure that the retroactive component is included as a critical measure in the bill moving forward.

With that, Chairman, I yield back.