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Photo By Craig Roberts

National Commander Dave Rehbein says The American Legion strongly opposes a VA plan to hand over the administration of new GI Bill educational benefits to private contractors. The Legion's challenge to GI Bill outsourcing has been amplified by several members of Congress who question the wisdom of VA's decision.

"We cheered loudly when the Post-9/11 GI Bill was passed earlier this summer," Rehbein said. "The new GI Bill brings the benefits package earned by America's young warriors up to date, and that's a good thing. Naturally, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) now wants to bring the processing of benefits up to date, too. That's also a good thing - but the way they want to do it is not."

VA is moving quickly to hire an outside contractor to design, build, implement and operate, on a continuing basis, a computerized system to handle benefit claims requests and processing.

"That's all well and good," Rehbein said. "We have no quarrel with the idea, but we believe strongly that VA currently possesses the talents, skills, expertise and resources to implement such modernization. VA was created to fulfill obligations like this, not to hire someone else to do it."

Rehbein reinforced the Legion's stand the morning of Sept. 11, in his testimony on GI Bill outsourcing before the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees. He also testified on VA medical care, mental health care, VA nursing homes and the medical claims backlog.

That afternoon, the House Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity conducted hearings on GI Bill outsourcing and followed Rehbein's lead. Members of Congress leveled some pointed questions at Keith Pedigo and Keith Wilson, two VA officials sent to provide more details.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, D-S.D., the subcommittee's chairman, expressed disappointment that VA Secretary James Peake had declined to appear at the hearings. She also noted, along with Reps. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Bob Filner, D-Calif., that the subcommittee has requested a plan from VA "with as much detail as possible," yet Pedigo and Wilson arrived with little information.

"You give us four pages, you give us a PowerPoint," Filner said. "It looks like you have no accountability on this issue." In general, the two VA officials seemed unprepared for the hearings. When Sandlin asked what VA needed, internally, to meet the August 2009 deadline for implementing the new GI Bill system, Pedigo said, "I can't answer that question."

"We heard a concern from The American Legion this morning about the direction you're going in," Boozman said, as he tried to get an answer from the VA officials as to how much their program would cost. Congress has already set aside $100 million for the VA program's implementation, but Pedigo and Wilson said they could not calculate the cost until they had selected a vendor.

One capable vendor that VA did not approach is MicroTech in Vienna, Va. Owned by a service-disabled veteran and employing about 250 people, the company excels in providing information technology services and consulting to clients in federal, state and local government agencies.

Steven Truitt, senior vice president at MicroTech, said the company had been tracking the VA opportunity, but said, "We were not aware an RFP (request for proposal) had been released. We would have been excited to submit a bid."

In the House subcommittee hearings, Pedigo admitted that VA has never briefed Senate members or staff on its GI Bill outsourcing proposal. To this, Sandlin said, "I told The American Legion this morning that I wanted to withhold judgment, but I share Congressman Filner's concerns." Acknowledging the program was going to be difficult to administer, and that she was worried about the timetable, she said, "We're going to stay on top of this and keep asking questions."

The following exchange between Filner and the VA representatives was typical of the hearings:

Filner: "You don't know what you're going to get, you don't know what it's going to cost, you don't know what you'll do if it fails."

Wilson: "Thirty-two vendors who got the RFP are capable of delivering the system."

Filner: "You have the expertise to put out a 165-page RFP, but not the expertise to run this program? What if it doesn't meet the objectives?"

Pedigo: "We are planning for the possibility that it could fail, which means we're putting together a contingency plan."

Filner: "Could you give us the contingency plan now?"

Pedigo: "We have not fully developed a contingency plan."

Filner (to Sandlin): "This is going to be a disaster, Madame Chairman."

Sandlin expressed serious concern that VA was trying to bring an information technology (IT) system online next year that wasn't supposed to be operational until 2013. Pedigo said that contracting for IT solutions in government is something that's done all the time.

"I don't disagree," Sandlin said. "Here is my concern: you're trying to accelerate your own internal timetable. And you must depend on DoD information. We want to make sure that DoD information for active duty and reserves is actually available in time."

The subcommittee is requesting more information from Peake, specifically: Who are the 32 vendors who got the RFP? Who are the finalists for the contract and what are their bids? What vendor will VA select for the contract? The information is supposed to be supplied before a vendor is chosen. The subcommittee plans to conduct a follow-up hearing before the end of September.

The Legion's National Executive Committee passed a resolution during the 90th National Convention in Phoenix last month opposing efforts by VA to hire outside contractors to fulfill the requirements of the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act.

Watch Rehbein's concluding remarks

All of Rehbein's testimony is available on American Legion TV - visit the link and then click on "popular videos" tab.

Reprinted from The American Legion Online Update. To subscribe to The American Legion Online Update, click here.

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