NewsBytes January 4, 2019
In this issue:
New Speaker in the New (116th) Congress
Coast Guard Gets Paid
Legislation Passes to Address GI Bill Payment Delays
President Trump Signs Veterans Benefits and Transition Act
New Speaker in the New (116th) Congress
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) was elected Speaker of the House this week as a new session of Congress began with the swearing in of elected representatives. She had previously served as Speaker from 2007 to 2011 and was the first woman Speaker of the House. She served as House Minority Leader the last four sessions of Congress (eight years). To obtain the necessary votes to become Speaker, she had to agree to limit her tenure as Speaker to four years.
Pelosi becomes Speaker during a partial government shutdown amid a partisan clash with President Trump over funding for a wall along the border between Mexico and the United States. As NewsBytes goes to press, the House was scheduled to vote on legislation (H.R.1) to fund the remainder of the government that is still unfunded, not to include any funding for the border wall. However, Majority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell (Ky.), indicated he will not bring a budget bill to the Senate floor for a vote unless President Trump has agreed to sign it into law.
Coast Guard Gets Paid
As reported in the December 21, 2018 NewsBytes, there is a partial government shutdown that took effect that day. The shutdown includes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and it was feared that Coast Guard personnel, which are part of DHS, would not get paid. However, in a surprise development, the Coast Guard announced that its service members received their regularly scheduled paychecks on December 31, 2018, despite the shutdown. In a message to all Coast Guard members, Vice Commandant Admiral Charles Ray said that service and DHS officials “identified a way to pay our military workforce on 31 December.” The move means that service members won’t go an entire month without paychecks, as many had feared when the partial government shutdown began.
The Department of Defense and the VA have already been fully funded until October 1, 2019.
Legislation Passes to Address GI Bill Payment Delays
The Senate unanimously passed the Servicemembers Improved Transition Through Reforms for Ensuring Progress (SIT-REP) Act (S.3777) sponsored by Sens. Mark Boozman (Ark.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). The bill would ensure student veterans are not forced to endure additional financial burdens and are not denied access to school facilities due to delayed processing of G.I. Bill benefit payments. This legislation will do the following:
- Prohibit a college, university, or training program from adopting a policy in which it imposes a late fee on eligible student veterans, denies them access to school facilities (such as classrooms and libraries); or requires them to take out additional loans due to a delayed G.I. Bill benefit payment from the VA to the school;
- In the event of a delay by the VA in issuing a G.I. Bill benefit payment directly to a school, it prohibits the school from imposing late fees on student veterans and denying them access to school facilities for up to 90 days after the school certifies tuition and fees. This provision would apply only to benefits that are paid directly to the school;
- Require the VA to distribute G.I. Bill payments to the school within 60 days from when the school certifies tuition and fees for the student;
- Mandate a report from the VA to Congress twice a year with a summary of any cases in which delayed G.I. Bill disbursements occurred and an explanation for the delays.
The House passed this legislation on December 10. It now heads to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
President Trump Signs Veterans Benefits and Transition Act
President Trump signed into law the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act (S.2248), sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The bill provides the following provisions:
- Provides transparency by requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to notify Congress in the event of any significant cost increase, schedule delay, loss of veteran health data or breach of privacy in regard to implementing the VA Electronic Health Record (EHR);
- Requires the VA to report on the possibility of expanding veterans’ access to dental care;
- Mandates that the VA to notify veterans with easy-to-understand electronic or standard mail notification of any debt that veteran owes to the VA and the steps they can take to dispute that debt;
- Allows VA to provide headstones or burial markers to a Native American veteran’s spouse and dependents who wish to be buried alongside their loved one in a tribal veterans’ cemetery;
- Forces schools that receive G.I. Bill benefits to adopt a policy that it will not impose a late fee, restrict a student veterans' access to campus facilities, or otherwise punish a student veteran due to a late payment of tuition or fees from the VA.
“This legislation is the product of hard work, compromise and bipartisanship,” said Tester. “I have been honored to work with Chairman Isakson this Congress… for our nation’s veterans."
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