Rep. Calvert Testifies Before Veterans’ Affairs Committee

Today, Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-42) testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity regarding his bill, H.R. 331, to simplify Veterans' education benefits.

"We owe it to our veterans to remove any unnecessary, bureaucratic delays that affect their education benefits," said Rep. Calvert. "I am pleased that the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity invited me to explain my bill and talk about how Congress can help simplify VA benefits for veterans and our colleges. I am hopeful the Committee will act soon on my bill and report it to the House floor for its consideration."

H.R. 331 would streamline the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) processes for community colleges that have multiple campuses. Currently, the VA requires community colleges to certify that their veteran students are enrolled for a specific number of classes before the VA will disperse student benefits. These rules must be updated to account for multi-college Community College Districts, such as Riverside Community College District (RCCD). Without such an update, veterans that take classes at a multi-college District see their benefits delayed while colleges and the VA complete and shuffle unnecessary paperwork. H.R. 331 would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to permit the centralized reporting of veteran enrollment by certain groups, districts, and consortiums of educational institutions.

Rep. Calvert's full written testimony:

Chairman Flores, Ranking Member Takano and distinguished members of the subcommittee – thank you for inviting me here to testify today on HR 331, a bill that would streamline VA processes to the benefit of our veterans.

The issue is fairly specific to community college districts that have multiple colleges as part of the district. Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requires Community Colleges to certify that their veteran students are enrolled for a specific number of classes before the VA will disperse student benefits.

Ranking Member Takano's congressional district and my district include a community college district with three colleges. The community college district operates under uniform curriculum for all three colleges. Under current regulations, each of the three colleges must write letters to the other colleges within the District to verify their classes meet regulations. This unnecessary paperwork delays benefits to veterans and increases processing time and costs to college district as well as the VA.

This process is unnecessary because:

All the colleges' curriculum is approved at the District level and is aligned across colleges;

The District registration system includes an option for a student to register at any one of the colleges in the same term;

The District's computer system contains all student and course information on one record that can be accessed and viewed at any of the colleges;

A student's official transcript includes courses taken at all of the three colleges.

HR 331 would correct the problem by permitting each college in the District to certify veterans for all classes attended within the District rather than just for classes attended at that particular college. HR 331 would update the rules which would mean veterans would receive their benefits sooner and the VA would have less paperwork to process.

HR 331 provides an important and necessary legislative fix to a problem that is impacting veterans in my and Congressman Takano's congressional districts and could be impacting thousands of veterans across the country. I would like to personally thank Chairman Flores' staff for their work and advice in drafting this bill and I welcome any questions the subcommittee may have at this time.

Thank you.

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