[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4654 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Student Veteran Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs provided 
        $10,800,000,000 in educational assistance under the Post-9/11 
        Educational Assistance Program benefits to almost 800,000 
        veterans during fiscal year 2014.
            (2) According to the General Accountability Office's 
        October 2015 report, the Department of Veterans Affairs 
        identified $416,000,000 in overpayments under such Program 
        during fiscal year 2014, affecting approximately one-in-four 
        veteran beneficiaries and about 6,000 schools.
            (3) According to such report, ``while veterans using other 
        VA education programs have to verify their enrollment each 
        month, VA generally does not require those using the Post-9/11 
        GI Bill to do so. By not requiring veterans to verify their 
        enrollment every month, which can cause significant time to 
        lapse between when veterans drop courses and when this is 
        reported, VA's process allows veterans to incur thousands of 
        dollars in overpayments and also increases the program's costs 
        associated with collecting these debts.''.

SEC. 3. OVERPAYMENTS TO ELIGIBLE PERSONS OR VETERANS.

    Subsection (b) of section 3685 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``(b) Any overpayment by an educational institution to a veteran or 
eligible person shall constitute a liability of the educational 
institution to the United States if--
            ``(1) the Secretary finds that the overpayment has been 
        made as the result of--
                    ``(A) the willful or negligent failure of an 
                educational institution to report, as required under 
                this chapter or chapter 34 or 35 of this title, to the 
                Department of Veterans Affairs excessive absences from 
                a course, or discontinuance or interruption of a course 
                by the veteran or eligible person; or
                    ``(B) the willful or negligent false certification 
                by an educational institution; or
            ``(2) the payment is made pursuant to--
                    ``(A) section 3313(h) of this title;
                    ``(B) section 3317 of this title; or
                    ``(C) section 3680(d) of this title.''.
                                 <all>