OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Protecting Veterans' Educational Choice Act of 2016

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 29, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Higher Education Veterans

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Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5047, the Protecting Veterans' Educational Choice Act of 2016, would further protect student veterans by requiring that, when the Department of Veterans Affairs provides educational counseling or a certificate of eligibility to veterans or servicemembers who are eligible for VA education benefits, the Department also provide information on articulation agreements at institutions of higher learning.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill has benefitted more than 1.5 million servicemembers, veterans, and their dependents since its inception in 2009. While many of these beneficiaries complete their entire program of education at one school, we often see individuals who transfer to another school in the middle of their program due to a plethora of circumstances. If they do transfer schools, their previously earned credits can play a large role in determining the length of time it may take for students to complete their program at the new school that they have chosen to go to, and in some cases not all earned credits will transfer. Often, the transferability of certain credits between different institutions of higher learning is not always on an individual's radar when they apply for a certain school or a certain program, and a veteran may or may not have understood how credits transfer when they first initiated their education career.

H.R. 5047 would simply provide our student veterans with additional information as they apply to and attend schools by requiring VA to provide information on articulation agreements at a particular school and that school's agreements with another institution. Our veterans and their dependents deserve full transparency as they set out to use their hard-earned benefits. I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Jody B. Hice) for introducing this bipartisan legislation which has my complete support.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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