SUN EDITORIAL:

A sluggish response

Veterans Affairs, Congress should step up implementation of GI Bill

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

The new GI Bill signed into law last year was designed to help pay the higher education tab for men and women who put their lives on the line as members of the U.S. military in the post-9/11 era. Individuals eligible for these benefits eagerly anticipated Aug. 1, when the law took effect.

But The New York Times, quoting veterans’ groups and college officials, reported Thursday that the legislation hasn’t helped thousands of veterans who have enrolled in colleges for the fall semester.

Instead, the veterans have had to dip into their pockets to pay for tuition, housing and books because the Veterans Affairs Department hasn’t been distributing benefit checks fast enough.

Kenneth Wilson, who directs the VA’s education service office, updated Congress in June on efforts by the department to implement the law. These included plans to hire and train 760 claims processors and enhance computerized programs to meet the demand for benefits.

But the VA’s computer system to handle the complex benefits formula contained in the GI Bill is not expected to be fully up to speed until late next year. As a result, only a fraction of the more than 277,000 applications received by the VA have been successfully processed.

We would like to see Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and her House Veterans Affairs Committee colleagues make good on a statement she issued at the June hearing that said “Congress has an ongoing responsibility to ensure timely and effective implementation” of the GI Bill.

Although some colleges have allowed veterans to enroll in classes without making tuition payments, Congress should immediately step in to help the VA figure out how to process benefits at a swifter pace.

Veterans certainly deserve much better.

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By Future

Sept. 26, 2009

5:43 a.m.

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"the VA's computer system to handle the complex benefits formula contained in the GI Bill is not expected to be fully up to speed until late next year."

So Congress wrote a bill with such a complex benefits formula that the VA had to get a new computer system just to mail a check.

That must be Harry Reid producing another inept bill
By LarryVegas

Sept. 26, 2009

7:24 a.m.

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Let me think...

The government can't pay our veterans on time.
The government can't pay "cash for clunkers on time.

But they will do such a good job running this country's health care system.
By mred

Sept. 26, 2009

3:22 p.m.

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Good let's cancel all this VA crap, let the vets sell pencils on the street corners.
By KillerB

Sept. 27, 2009

8:01 p.m.

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The VA has had decades to get it right and still can't serve the small part of the public it was created for. And this is who some want in charge of all health care?

mred -- your last post is cruel or stupid, haven't decide which yet.
By KillerB

Sept. 27, 2009

11:09 p.m.

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lcdrmandingonamvet -- what does ANY of that have to do with the VA?