WAOW: VETT Act aims to make smoother transition for veterans to higher education
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WISCONSIN (WAOW) — Congressman Derrick Van Orden said the first two years after active service for veterans is when there is a spike in veteran suicides.
He said that is largely in part due to them not being able to smoothly transition to education after service; the VETT ACT aims to change that.
"The federal government can make things so complicated, you don't even want to do it," said Van Orden. "Well, they had all these different series of dashboards and things to click and all these crazy things and hoops you had to jump through to access the education benefits that you earned as a veteran and this streamlines it."
It would revise the mandate for individualized financial aid shopping sheets due to delays in veterans receiving their education benefits.
The new system would ensure state approving agencies can only disapprove programs when schools do not provide forms to the maximum extent possible.
The two year wait to use GI benefits for commercial driving licenses would be eliminated to opening up more jobs earlier.
Van Orden said it helps being a veteran himself and having seen from the inside what the process is like to go through all the different forms of education post-serving.
Having been through it, he said he thinks he knows what is best for the system.
"This is a way for them to go straight into a new mission and in this case, their mission would be educating for a different career," said Van Orden. "It's not controversial, it's apolitical, and it focuses directly on helping our veterans."
As for the chances of the bill passing in the Senate, Van Orden said, "pretty darn good."