Rep. Tom Barrett, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, delivered opening remarks at a hearing focused on delayed payments in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Digital GI Bill (DGIB) program. The hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity to investigate how these payment failures began and their impact on veterans’ dependents.
Barrett addressed issues related to Chapter 35 benefits, which provide educational assistance to children or spouses of veterans who have died, are missing, or have a permanent and total service-connected disability. Since August, over 75,000 participants in the Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA) and Post-9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) programs experienced delays in receiving payments.
He stated: “While I am not the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, I am the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, and a top priority of mine is ensuring VA’s technology works for veterans.”
Barrett emphasized that these funds go directly to students rather than institutions. He noted that as a result of payment delays, some students faced financial hardship: “Because of the payment delays, this Subcommittee has heard horror stories about students not being able to make ends meet because of VA’s mistake.”
He also acknowledged that while the government shutdown worsened the situation, communication from VA was lacking: “While I recognize that the situation was made worse by the government shutdown, VA has failed students by not paying them on time and refusing to communicate with stakeholders.”
The hearing aimed to identify how decisions leading to automation failures were made and who should be held accountable. Barrett addressed VA officials present at the hearing: “Ms. Devlin, while you have only been at VA a few months, you and Mr. Smith have overseen this data reconciliation, and the thousands of claims that were not processed on time because of it.”
Barrett called for accountability within VA: “I expect the days of the status quo to end, and VA is holding those responsible for this failure accountable because the subcommittee plans to do so.”
He highlighted that this is not an isolated incident but part of a recurring problem since implementation of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill: “While I am new to Congress, I understand that this is at least the fourth time since the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill was implemented that significant payment delays because of IT issues have impacted checks going to veterans or other beneficiaries.”
Barrett encouraged affected students in his district experiencing education payment delays from VA to contact his office or committee for assistance.
He concluded by expressing hope for productive outcomes from the hearing: “I expect this to be a productive hearing today, and I hope to understand who was at fault for this crisis, and who at VA will be taking accountability so that we can ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
