Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

WASHINGTON, D.C – Congressman Cardoza has joined several of his colleagues in requesting that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs personally intervene in a matter that is keeping some California veterans from using their GI Bill college tuition benefits at private colleges. At issue is a dispute over the meaning of the words “tuition” and “fees.”
 
In 2008, Congress passed the GI Bill for the 21st Century. Under the expanded GI bill, private colleges within a state are to be reimbursed at the highest in-state rate of tuition charged at public colleges.

However, the State of California does not charge “tuition” for public colleges; it instead charges “fees.” The VA has made a narrow, literal interpretation and determined that “tuition” and “fees” are different. As a result, and because of its narrow definitions, the VA has determined that California public colleges do not charge “tuition.” As such the VA will not reimburse private colleges through the GI Bill, meaning California veterans are having to forgo their GI Bill benefits at private institutions.

Congressman Cardoza raised the issue with 15 other California Congressional members in the letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The letter requests that the Secretary immediately resolve the matter, noting that veterans are already being denied their benefits.

“When I and other members of Congress passed the new GI Bill, our intent was to increase the assistance to veterans and service members seeking to further their education, not to have these new benefits stuck in a morass of bureaucratic red tape,” said Congressman Cardoza. “The fact that veterans attending private colleges are not able to use the tuition benefit they are entitled to flies directly in the face of the expanded GI Bill’s intent and is an insult to the service they provided for our country. Frankly, this is government at its worst.”

Congressman Cardoza has also co-sponsored a bill seeking a legislative fix, and is working with Democratic leadership and the California congressional delegation on ways to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.

The text of the letter is as follows:

The Honorable Eric Shinseki
Secretary
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20420

Dear Secretary Shinseki:

It has come to our attention that California veterans seeking reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for tuition at private universities as part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill will not be reimbursed at all and are in effect denied for such benefits.  However these benefits will be afforded to all other eligible veterans in every state but California. 

The Post-9/11 GI Bill requires the VA to pay each veteran's private university tuition based on the highest in-state undergraduate tuition rate at a state operated school in the state of enrollment. The State of California is constitutionally barred from using the word “tuition” and instead uses the word “fees” to describe the cost of matriculation at public universities. It is reasonable to assume that these two words are interchangeable.  Unfortunately, based on this simple semantic difference, the VA has determined that since California does not use the literal term “tuition,” the state has a $0.00 level of reimbursement for tuition claims at private universities.  As such, our veterans will be denied these critical benefits, and put at a great disadvantage in comparison to veterans in other states.

Please understand that the denial of such benefits to California veterans was most certainly not the intent of Congress when passing this landmark legislation.  As you know, more veterans reside in California than any other state in the country; the denial of benefits to them due to word choice is unacceptable and will have real consequence on the effectiveness and success of the overall program.

We ask that you personally intervene to ensure the VA resolves this issue as soon as possible, since veterans in California seeking reimbursement for these critical benefits are already being denied.  We look forward to your quick response and the speedy resolution of this issue.
 
Sincerely,

MIKE THOMPSON
Member of Congress
 
HOWARD BERMAN
Member of Congress

MARY BONO MACK
Member of Congress

LOIS CAPPS
Member of Congress

DENNIS CARDOZA
Member of Congress

SUSAN DAVIS
Member of Congress

DARRELL ISSA
Member of Congress

DORIS MATSUI
Member of Congress

HOWARD “BUCK” McKEON
Member of Congress

GARY MILLER
Member of Congress

GEORGE MILLER
Member of Congress

DEVIN NUNES
Member of Congress

DANA ROHRBACHER
Member of Congress

LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD
Member of Congress

HENRY WAXMAN
Member of Congress

LYNN WOOLSEY
Member of Congress