Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

The House of Representatives has passed HR 4057, a new bill designed to help student veterans. HR 4057 will allow post-9/11 student vets one comprehensive place online to find information about their applications for various colleges and institutions, and track any issues that may arise. The bill instructs the Veterans Administration to launch a website for this purpose and also to offer educational counseling to the student vets.

The bill will include education counseling, extensive information about schools, programs, financing, school retention and graduation rates, transfer credit opportunities, and what academic, technical and support services are available to them. The overall plan to make the Post-9/11 GI Bill easily accessible to all who qualify for it.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill includes education and housing financial support for military personnel with 90 or more days of service after September 10, 2001, and for individuals who were discharged with a service-connected disability after 30 days. Students must have been honorably discharge in order to receive the benefit the benefit covers as much as 36 months of expenses if they are education-related and approved, and can be used as late as 15 years after active duty has ended.

Another veterans-based bill sent to the President is the Dignified Burial and other Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2012, which allows provisions for burials for veterans who leave behind few or no resources and no family members to oversee their burial. The bill includes instruction for a registry which would track the service-related symptoms and illnesses of vets who served inIraq andAfghanistan, and who were exposed to toxic contaminants.

Both bills have been designed to provide support for veterans, from educational opportunities to comprehensive civilian transition programs to services that allow them burial with dignity.

The Dignity bill authorizes the VA to: provide a casket or urn, if needed; follow the wishes of next of kin regarding the funeral or memorial service; claim unclaimed or abandoned veteran remains for proper burial; use $5 million for a military cemetery in the Philippines; and establish an “open burn pit registry” to track vets who were exposed to probable toxic materials from Middle East open burn pits, and track their ongoing health concerns and explore treatment options.  Additionally, the bill authorizes the VA to provide transportation of vets to and/or from counseling, vocational and rehabilitation treatment and care.

Jim Fausone

Veteran Disability Lawyer

As a Schoolcraft College Trustee, I receive the magazine Trustee Quarterly.   The following article from the Summer 2012 issue is from VA Secretary Shinseki’s speech to a College Trustee Convention this summer.  It’s worth reading this short passage:

A Call To Action
Community colleges can also serve as catalysts for another dramatic change in the fabric of the nation — that of military veterans returning to the homefront and the workforce. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki urged community college leaders to support the 950,000 veterans and family members currently enrolled in higher education programs, more than one-third of whom attend community colleges. “This is an important moment in our nation’s history,” he said. “The education opportunities available to veterans can make a huge difference — certainly in their lives, but also the future of our nation.”

“I want to ask more of you,” the retired Army general said, urging community college leaders to provide meeting spaces and other services that would allow veterans to support each other as they adjust to their post-military lives. “Embrace our veteran students, and encourage them to organize themselves.”

“There is a transition. They can help each other,” Shinseki said. “Have them seize the collective responsibility of graduating each other.”

In its third year, the current GI Bill is the largest since the original bill created at the end of World War II, according to Shinseki. It has been expanded to include nondegree programs, and one-third of all beneficiaries are attending community colleges. Shinseki credited institutions like Lansing Community College in Michigan, which offers a military medic program that provides a fast-track to becoming paramedics or nurses, and Ohio’s Cuyahoga Community College, which opened a distance learning lab at a VA hospital.

“Given a chance, veterans will prevail as your best students,” Shinseki told attendees. “[They] have what it takes to succeed not just in the military, but in school and in whatever endeavor they choose.”

James G. Fausone

Veteran Disability Attorney

GIBill.com looked like an official government website intended to provide information to veterans about their GI Bill benefits.  But looks can be deceiving.

The website was actually owned by QuinStreet Inc., an internet marketing and media company.  The Attorneys General of several states sued QuinStreet alleging violation of consumer protection laws.  They contended that the website purposely and deceptively gave the appearance that it was owned or operated by the U.S. government.

The GI Bill is an extensive educational assistance program provided to veterans.  The bill gives the veterans the flexibility to pursue education how they see fit – at public, private non-profit, or private for-profit schools.

However, GIBill.com deceived veterans into thinking they were making an informed decision about their education choices.  In reality, the veterans were being deceived and receiving information exclusively about for-profit institutions that were clients of QuinStreet.

QuinStreet has settled the suit by agreeing to pay $2.5 million and, more importantly, turning over its GIBill.com website to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to prevent further fraud by QuinStreet.

The post-9/11 GI Bill was authorized by Congress in 2008.  Through the program, the VA has disbursed nearly $20 billion in payments to 759,000 people and their educational institutions.

Providing education to our veterans via the GI Bill is just a small token of appreciation for the sacrifice and service of these brave men and women.  Hopefully this action by these attorneys general will send a message to others like QuinStreet that such deceptive practices will not be tolerated.

To learn more or read the VA press release, please visit:  http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2345

We are beginning to see veterans raise questions about the transferability of post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.  This idea of transferability is one of the most requested benefit upgrades to DoD.  Be careful, veterans cannot transfer post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits.  The way the rules are interpreted only service members can transfer their GI Bill benefits.  You need to do that before you leave the service.  Check out this website for more facts about post-9/11 GI Bill transferability.

http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/docs/Post-9/11%20GI%20Bill%20Transferability.pdf