Hearing of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs - Post-9/11 GI Bill: Is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Ready for August 1st?

Statement

Hearing of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs - Post-9/11 GI Bill: Is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Ready for August 1st?

Opening Statement of Hon. John Boozman, Ranking Republican Member, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity

Good afternoon everyone.

Madam Chair, I believe this is our fourth oversight hearing on VA's progress towards implementing the new chapter 33 GI Bill. In our previous hearings, the department has presented a relatively optimistic appraisal of their progress towards meeting the August 1 start date. Knowing that things seldom go 100 percent as planned, I guess I would feel more comfortable if VA came to us with problems.

For example, in response to a request from Ranking Member Buyer, the VA Inspector General investigated the working relationship between VA and the Navy's Space Naval Warfare Systems Center. As a result, the IG has released a report titled, Review of the Interagency Agreement Between VA and the Navy Space Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) that to put it mildly, was highly critical of that relationship. In general, the report found serious problems with compliance with the interagency agreement by both agencies, poor administration of the agreement in terms of how taskings were tracked, a lack of cost controls to the point where VA was unaware of the number and type of personnel being funded through the interagency agreement, and a wide variety of other deficiencies that suggest a serious lack of oversight by VA. While the report contained only a smattering of information specific to the chapter 33 tasks in the Interagency Agreement, the overall findings in the report does not inspire confidence in the partnership's ability to implement the long-term solution for the chapter 33 program. Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent that the VA IG's report 09-01213-142 be entered into the record of today's proceedings.

The question before us today is will VA start paying in August and I believe they will and I also believe there will inevitably be issues that none of us have anticipated. But I am less sure about the long-term solution and I hope we will take a look at that as soon as our schedule permits. Given the tenor of the IG report as well as acquisition and program management issues that have been brought before the subcommittee, I believe VA has serious challenges in meeting the long-term strategy.

I would also note the June 19 press release that announced,

"The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced…. a new IT management approach department-wide . . . new IT programs and projects at VA must be implemented using the Project Management Accountability System (PMAS). PMAS is an incremental development approach….with a rigorous management approach that halts programs that fail to meet delivery milestones …. [that] will ensure early identification and correction of failing IT programs. An analysis of 282 ongoing development programs at VA has indicated that many of those programs exhibit at least one characteristic that could indicate a failing program; either significantly behind schedule, significantly over budget, or showing deteriorating product release quality." I applaud Secretary Shinseki's initiative and look forward to VA instituting a highly structured and disciplined approach to project management.

Madam Chair, I know that Mr. Wilson and his staff are working hard to get the program up and running. The new GI Bill is very complex and will be a challenge to administer for at least the next couple years until we get the bugs worked out and I invite the department to help us move in that direction. Finally, I want to compliment Mr. Wilson's staff for the hard work they have done to make the new GI Bill a reality. So, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and I yield back.

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