Gardner co-sponsors bill to fix delayed benefits to student veterans

Student veterans are having to decide between paying their tuition and paying other expenses because the Department of Veteran’s Affairs isn’t getting their benefits to their schools on time.

The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs’ Office of Financial Aid has seen it happen to their own students.

UCCS has roughly 1400 student veterans on campus, and Jevita Rogers, Senior Executive Director of the Office of Financial Aid said about one to two students per semester are needing help because they don’t get their benefits on time.

“Unfortunately, it is happening and more and more than it should be,” Rogers said.

UCCS has a program to help students out in these situations so they don’t have to choose between rent and tuition.

“We have a short-term loan program that doesn’t charge any fees to the student, but it allows them to get a stop-gap of money to make it through until their funding does come in,” Rogers said.

But not every university has a program like UCCS so student veterans are forced to make difficult decisions about what gets paid.

“That’s an unacceptable tradeoff for our veterans who have earned their GI benefits,” Republican Senator Cory Gardner said.

Gardner said it stems from the VA’s own error and the department hasn’t been clear in how they’re going to take care of the issue, so he’s taking legislative action.

Gardner and Democrat Senator Doug Jones of Alabama are co-sponsoring a bill to address the issue. Should it pass, it would set up a commission at the VA to make sure students are paid on time and students who weren’t paid in the past, get paid back.

It’s something Rogers hopes passes nationwide.

“These are students that have either been disabled or been released from the military service and their trying to get their education, and they shouldn’t have anything to stand in their way,” Rogers said.