House veterans subcommittee presses VA over VR&E wait times, extensions and oversight

A House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee hearing on the Veterans Readiness and Employment Program (VR&E) pressed Department of Veterans Affairs officials on long counselor wait times, unusually large benefit extensions and what members described as a failure of oversight.

Chairman Van Orden opened the hearing by describing site visits that produced “truly disturbing” findings of extended wait times and what he called an unprecedented number of entitlement extensions, saying some veterans have been in the program for decades and that a small number of cases included very large payments. “If anyone's concerned about funding for veterans, they need to be concerned about what's going on in this program,” Van Orden said.

The hearing matters because VR&E provides training, education and on‑the‑job supports that aim to help service‑connected disabled veterans obtain employment and independent living. Lawmakers said the program’s performance and fiscal controls affect veterans’ livelihoods and taxpayers’ funds.

Members pressed Margarita Devlin, acting principal deputy under secretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who testified that caseloads have surged and that the VA has taken steps to reduce backlogs. Devlin said VR&E caseloads grew 52.3% from October 2020 to June 2025 and that the national ratio of veterans per counselor is far above the VA’s target. “We implemented a national workload assignment strategy,” Devlin told the subcommittee, adding that virtual appointments and contract counselors have been used to rebalance workload and cut pending times at some offices.

Devlin cited concrete results in some districts: a regional office reduced average days pending in applicant status from over 200 days in January to an average of 39 days in June, and VA reporting showed more than 14,000 positive VR&E outcomes year‑to‑date with over 7,000 employment outcomes. She also described the Readiness and Employment System (RES), a new case‑management platform the VA has piloted and expanded; Devlin said RES cut eligibility processing in pilot operations from seven days to about 2.3 days on average.

Members emphasized staffing and oversight. Ranking Member Pappas noted VA guidance specifying a 125‑to‑1 counselor‑to‑veteran target and said many regional offices now exceed that number, with some areas at or above 204 to 1. “The solution to truly ensuring veterans are accessing and able to make the most of the VR&E program comes down to one critical factor, staffing,” Pappas said.

Several members highlighted apparent outlier cases and the frequency of entitlement extensions. Chairman Van Orden cited committee oversight figures that, since fiscal year 2024, he said showed 62,355 approved extensions and just 59 denials. He described individual examples he said came to the committee’s attention, including a veteran in Los Angeles he said received about $895,000 over six years and another in Boston who spent more than $350,000 in 18 months. Van Orden said he was “very thankful” his staff had investigated and that the findings were “truly disturbing.”

Devlin said the law generally provides veterans up to 48 months of subsistence entitlement for training unless an extension is granted and described legitimate reasons why veterans sometimes remain in or reenter the program: worsening disabilities, family emergencies, geographic relocation or interrupted participation. “Sometimes it's because they're in and out of the program,” she said, adding that a veteran who leaves and later reapplies may appear on aggregate reports as a prolonged participant even if the case was closed during intervening years.

Members asked about program integrity and specific legislative fixes. Representative McGarvey described bipartisan draft legislation called the FAST VETS Act, which he said would add “guardrails” on plan changes and require documented redevelopments of rehabilitation plans. Devlin said that if new law required stricter redevelopment standards, VA would need to issue procedural guidance to counselors and could track redevelopment rates and rationales for Congress.

Committee members also questioned how benefits such as subsistence allowances and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) are calculated for students and whether current rules could be exploited—for example, by traveling to attend a single in‑person class in a high‑cost area. Devlin said VR&E uses the Chapter 33 BAH tables for determining rates and acknowledged the committee’s concerns.

On hiring, Devlin said VA currently has roughly 1,056 counselors performing VR&E work and that the President’s budget would fund an additional 403 counselors. She told members VA officials estimate VR&E needs an additional roughly 387 counselors to reach the 125‑to‑1 target, and she cited recruitment and retention work, temporary help teams and workload reassignments as near‑term mitigations. “We have a lot more work to do, and we are determined to get it right,” Devlin said.

The subcommittee requested more data and pledged further oversight. Members said they would pursue a mix of legislative changes, additional staffing and tighter internal controls to address both access problems and potential program abuse. The hearing record will include written testimony Devlin submitted to the committee; members asked for follow‑up reports on redevelopment rates, extension approvals and the effect of RES deployments in additional districts.

No formal votes or binding decisions were made at the hearing; the session was an oversight inquiry and question‑and‑answer exchange.