Lawmakers demand specific timeframe for deploying digital GI Bill platform – By Edward Graham (Nextgov) / July 14, 2023
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ inability to provide a clear schedule for large-scale deployments of its new education benefits delivery system drew bipartisan concern from members of a House panel.
The Department of Veterans Affairs came under bipartisan fire on Thursday from members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee for delaying future phased releases of new software for its digital GI Bill platform, with members largely praising the department’s IT modernization effort at-large but expressing serious concerns about its inability to lay out a long-term deployment schedule.
Testifying before the House Economic Opportunity and Technology Modernization subcommittees, Joseph Garcia — executive director of VA’s Education Service — was frequently pressed by lawmakers to provide a firm deadline for the sixth release of major software for the education benefits delivery system, which was delayed after VA pushed back deployment of the platform’s Enrollment Manager system from January to March of this year.
Garcia told lawmakers that the tentative plan is for the release of a new financial system to occur in summer 2024 — a nebulous timeframe that led to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning both the long delay and the lack of scheduling specificity.
