Gus Bilirakis: “I thank Mr. Dunn, my fellow Floridian, a great Member of Congress, and also my good friend Mr. Walz, who has done an…”

“I thank Mr. Dunn, my fellow Floridian, a great Member of Congress, and also my good friend Mr. Walz, who has done an outstanding job over the years supporting our veterans. I also thank Mr. Walz for his service. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4830, the Servicemembers Improved Transition through Reforms for Ensuring Progress Act, or the SIT-REP Act, which will hold student veterans harmless from bureaucratic red tape and delays at higher education institutions at the VA. I am proud of the work my colleagues and I conducted on the Veterans' Affairs Committee last year to pass the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Education Assistance Act, or the Forever GI Bill. This historic legislation expanded access to education and improves and modernizes the GI Bill for our veterans. This is one of the reasons, Mr. Speaker, we came to Congress: to do something like this, to help our veterans get their education. In our committee hearings on implementation of the Forever GI Bill, we heard concerns about the delays in processing of tuition payments between the schools and the VA. I also had roundtables in my district with veterans, and this was a concern of theirs. So while the average timelines for processing these benefits are 25 days for new claims and 9 days for supplemental claims, oftentimes the processing timelines spike higher at the beginning of each school year upon a surge in claims.…”