NewsBytes January 26, 2024 

In this issue: 
Support Concurrent Receipt Reform
VA Changing Schedule for Disability Evaluations
HVAC Subcommittee Investigating VA Revolving Funds
Post 9-11 GI Bill Fraud Scheme

Support Concurrent Receipt Reform
The FRA is advocating for the House to pass the "Major Richard Star Act" (H.R.1282). This legislation provides concurrent receipt for service members unable to complete 20 years of service due to combat-related injuries (H.R.1282, S.344). The House Armed Services Committee unanimously approved the House version (H.R.1282), sending it to the House floor for further consideration. Over two-thirds of the House and Senate are co-sponsoring the "Major Richard Star Act." Please ask your legislators to support this legislation today!

VA Changing Schedule for Disability Evaluations
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is undergoing a major overhaul of its disability ratings criteria and how they evaluate mental health and other conditions for veterans. VA officials stated that the changes are being made to help ensure that compensation is in line with veterans’ medical conditions.

The VA plans to update its Schedule for Rating Disabilities, which is its guide for determining how it evaluates and provides benefits for service-connected disabilities. Mental health conditions will now include the impact on veterans’ lives and abolish the “0%” disability rating for any service-connected mental health diagnosis in favor of a 10% minimum.

For tinnitus, the VA will eliminate its stand-alone rating and consider the condition a symptom of whatever underlying disease is its cause. As for sleep apnea, ratings will be assessed based on the effectiveness of treatment and the condition’s impact on “earning impairment.”

The VA hopes that by changing how they assess conditions, they will ensure veterans are compensated appropriately. Eventually, veterans with mental health conditions will likely see higher disability ratings. But fewer will likely be able to receive compensation for other conditions, such as tinnitus and sleep apnea. The VA claims that veterans already receiving compensation for these conditions will not see their ratings downgraded when the changes are implemented. Veterans who think their ratings should be upgraded based on the new criteria should file a claim with the VA.

HVAC Subcommittee Investigating VA Revolving Funds
The House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held an oversight hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) management of revolving funds. A revolving fund authorizes an agency to retain and use specified receipts for particular purposes. Revolving funds are intended to finance cyclical, business-like operations of a federal agency. These revolving funds are supposed to be self-supporting. The VA has two large revolving funds—the Franchise Fund and the Supply Fund—and many other smaller funds. The enterprises in the Franchise Fund provide accounting, payments, debt collection, human resources, I.T., law enforcement training, and other services. The VA publishes the Franchise Fund’s annual report, but the Supply Fund’s financial statements are not public. It was discovered that this fund made a $37 million loss last year, but the financial statements reported it as a profit.

Post 9-11 GI Bill Fraud Scheme
A resident of Calimesa, California, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison for his role in defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Post 9-11 GI Bill education benefit program. He was a certifying official at the California Technical Academy, which offered VA-approved training programs to military veterans. He and his co-conspirators made false and fraudulent representations to the VA regarding, among other things, veterans’ enrollment in approved courses of study and class attendance. The defendant and his co-conspirators also falsified course completion records to make it appear as if enrolled veterans completed their programs, when in fact, they had not. For 10 years, the school fraudulently obtained more than $32 million in tuition payments from the VA. During the same period, the VA paid more than $72 million in education-related government benefits to veterans enrolled in VA-approved courses. In total, the scheme to defraud the VA resulted in a total loss of nearly $105 million. The defendant was also ordered to pay $3.4 million in restitution to the VA. This was the Justice Department’s largest Post-9/11 GI Bill fraud case. The VA Office of Inspector General investigated this case.