Student Veteran Protection Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4654 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the treatment of certain overpayments made by educational institutions to persons entitled to educational assistance under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 11, 2019 Mrs. LEE of Nevada (for herself and Mr. BANKS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the treatment of certain overpayments made by educational institutions to persons entitled to educational assistance under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student Veteran Pro- 4 tection Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress makes the following findings: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:08 Oct 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4654.IH H4654 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4654 IH (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs pro- 1 vided $10,800,000,000 in educational assistance 2 under the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Pro- 3 gram benefits to almost 800,000 veterans during fis- 4 cal year 2014. 5 (2) According to the General Accountability Of- 6 fice’s October 2015 report, the Department of Vet- 7 erans Affairs identified $416,000,000 in overpay- 8 ments under such Program during fiscal year 2014, 9 affecting approximately one-in-four veteran bene- 10 ficiaries and about 6,000 schools. 11 (3) According to such report, ‘‘while veterans 12 using other VA education programs have to verify 13 their enrollment each month, VA generally does not 14 require those using the Post-9/11 GI Bill to do so. 15 By not requiring veterans to verify their enrollment 16 every month, which can cause significant time to 17 lapse between when veterans drop courses and when 18 this is reported, VA’s process allows veterans to 19 incur thousands of dollars in overpayments and also 20 increases the program’s costs associated with col- 21 lecting these debts.’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:08 Oct 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4654.IH H4654 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4654 IH SEC. 3. OVERPAYMENTS TO ELIGIBLE PERSONS OR VET- 1 ERANS. 2 Subsection (b) of section 3685 of title 38, United 3 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 4 ‘‘(b) Any overpayment by an educational institution 5 to a veteran or eligible person shall constitute a liability 6 of the educational institution to the United States if— 7 ‘‘(1) the Secretary finds that the overpayment 8 has been made as the result of— 9 ‘‘(A) the willful or negligent failure of an 10 educational institution to report, as required 11 under this chapter or chapter 34 or 35 of this 12 title, to the Department of Veterans Affairs ex- 13 cessive absences from a course, or discontinu- 14 ance or interruption of a course by the veteran 15 or eligible person; or 16 ‘‘(B) the willful or negligent false certifi- 17 cation by an educational institution; or 18 ‘‘(2) the payment is made pursuant to— 19 ‘‘(A) section 3313(h) of this title; 20 ‘‘(B) section 3317 of this title; or 21 ‘‘(C) section 3680(d) of this title.’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:08 Oct 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4654.IH H4654 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS