We regularly work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure the rules are fair for student veterans. We’re grateful that VA officials care about veterans and try their best, and we’re grateful when they listen to us about problems that need to be fixed. Below are a few specific problems we were active in fixing.
VA Proposal to Waive Ethics Rule for VA Employees
When the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a rule to waive federal ethics rules to specifically allow for-profit colleges to give gifts, money, stock options, salaries and more to VA employees, Veterans Education Success mobilized an impressive force of bipartisan ethics experts (including the top ethics official to both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama), veterans & military groups, consumer and education groups, individual student veterans who had been defrauded by for-profit colleges, and even the VA employees’ labor union to organize opposition letters. And we won! VA backed down and rescinded its proposal. We then worked closely with Congress to fine-tune the federal statute to make sure it remains strong.
Opposition letters to VA Proposals:
- Veterans Education Success (providing important historical and legal information) (Oct. 13, 2017)
- 42 federal ethics experts, national veterans and military service organizations, and consumer protection and education experts (June 20, 2018)
- Department of Veterans Affairs Ethics Waiver Plan (May 2018)
- 21 national veterans and military service organizations (Oct. 13, 2017)
- Individual veterans at for-profit colleges share their experiences and object to VA’s proposal
- 21 education, civil rights, and consumer organizations (Oct. 13, 2017)
- Campaign Legal Center (Oct. 12, 2017)
- Center for Responsible Ethics in Washington, signed by the White House Ethics Directors for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and others (Oct. 12, 2017)
- American Federation of Government Employees, representing VA employees (Oct. 12, 2017)
- Service Women’s Action Network
- Consumer organizations (Oct. 11, 2017) (press release)
- Student Veterans of America (Oct. 9, 2017)
- Veterans Student Loan Relief Fund (Oct. 14, 2017)
- U.S. Senators Murray, Brown, Durbin and Warren (Oct. 5, 2017) (press release)
- U.S. Senator Carper (Oct. 6 2017)
- The Century Foundation (Oct. 5, 2017)
Should @DeptVetAffairs allow #4profit colleges to give VA employees gifts, profits, dividends, salaries and more? Top US federal ethics experts, along with VA employees' labor union, consumer, and national #veterans & military groups, say "No way!" https://t.co/rIUOwkjq9r
— Veterans Education Success (@GIBillRights) June 21, 2018
We filed a public comment to protect #ethics at #VA for #veterans on https://t.co/kc4eEclfYk. #federalregister
— Veterans Education Success (@GIBillRights) October 13, 2017
NATIONAL GI BILL DELAYS
In Fall 2018, student veterans experienced significant delays in their receipt of the GI Bill housing allowance. We coordinated with Student Veterans of America to lead veterans and military organizations in both prodding and assisting VA and Congress on solutions.
- We served as a subject matter expert with VA and Congress to identify solutions to address this issue and connected impacted students with VA to speed up the processing of their claims.
- We led a letter from 15 veterans and military service organizations urging the VA Secretary to fix delays in GI Bill payments to veterans and schools. | Sept. 2018
- We submitted a statement for the record, at the request of Congress, for the oversight hearing held by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. | Nov. 2018
- We mobilized other veteran and military service organizations, higher education associations, and institutions of higher learning to get involved in voicing concern in late spring and at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester – and supported VA in connecting with key stakeholders.
We also worked with institutions of higher learning to provide guidance on payment issues and how to support impacted students.
Keep following this story and @GiBillRights as we work w/ @DeptVetAffairs to make sure student veterans receive what they are owed. “We did talk to the VA, and they’re doing what we’ve asked,” said @TanyaMAng, Director of Policy and Outreach for VES. https://t.co/12RSbgpIsq
— Veterans Education Success (@GIBillRights) December 4, 2018