OUR ORAL TESTIMONY OF LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
SUBMITTED BY WILLIAM HUBBARD TO THE
SENATE AND HOUSE COMMITTEES ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
119TH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

February 25th, 2025

Chairmen Moran and Bost, Ranking Members Blumenthal and Takano, and esteemed Members of the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of Veterans Education Success. We thank you for your longstanding leadership – especially Chairman Moran, Senator Cassidy, and Ranking Member Takano for closing the 90/10 loophole.

Our organization works on a bipartisan basis to advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families, and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill® and other federal postsecondary education programs. 

The stakes are high—veterans and taxpayers alike deserve a return on their investment in higher education.

While most U.S. colleges are honorable and good, some are not – but VA continues to approve them anyway. For example, roughly 100 colleges spent less than 20% of the tuition they charged VA on actually educating veterans, and, predictably, these schools have abysmal outcomes.

One veteran told us, quote:

“There are issues such as the school replaying free web seminars as their own training and using unqualified people to lead the classes. They literally go to Youtube, find the free course by someone else, then they play that during the ZOOM meeting and call it training. Everything they are doing could have been done by me for free… They also attempted on two occasions to place me in classes that are not part of the program and do not serve a purpose except to show me in class…”  End quote.

A couple of years ago, student veterans and whistleblowers reported their school to us; a school pretending to be a legitimate bible college, which, as the students described, was actually a cult.

We interviewed the students and teachers and provided a comprehensive memo to VA. And, yet, the school continued to receive GI Bill funding for another two years. The school even continued to receive GI Bill funding a full three months after the FBI raided the school’s locations across the country.

Transitions between military service and civilian life are challenging enough as it is – even in the best of circumstances. I’ve personally made this transition multiple times between active duty service and the civilian world after several overseas deployments, including my last tour in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019.

When veterans apply to use their GI Bill at a training program or college, they don’t think, “Gosh, this is going to be such a scam…” No! Of course, they think they’re investing their time, energy, and valuable GI Bill benefits in something worthwhile.

Yet, we hear from veterans and their families time and time again, “Why would VA approve this program in the first place?” – and that really is a question for Congress to ponder. 

Our written testimony suggests some commonsense standards to prevent this kind of fraud in the first place:

  • Ensure teachers are qualified to teach their subjects.
  • Require schools to prove they’re financially stable and won’t suddenly collapse.
  • Require colleges to spend the GI Bill on the veterans education, rather than siphoning it off for massive marketing budgets.
  • Stop schools from overcharging for repackaged content—a hit to vets & taxpayers alike.
  • And, no more YouTube lectures—require real instructor engagement in online classes.

A related – and worse problem – is that if a veteran was defrauded of their hard-earned GI Bill benefits, that veteran will never get their GI Bill back. Unlike traditional students, who can apply to be made whole, the veteran is left out. 

Last year, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Student Veteran Benefit Restoration Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Delia Ramirez and championed by Chairman Mike Bost— members both from Illinois, where I grew up.

We need to pass this bill this year.

Before I close, I want to briefly mention two additional priorities:

First, we were pleased to see so much progress in the Dole Act passed last year. We provide some suggestions in our written testimony for improvements.

Second, we call for much better interagency data-sharing by VA with other federal agencies to answer critical questions on veterans’ outcomes.

Thank you for your time and commitment to these issues. I look forward to your questions.

Joint VA Committee Hearing 2025_Oral Testimony_Veterans Education Success