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TAPS tells House panel delays to Chapter 35 payments imposed ‘lifeline’ harms; urges permanent hotline and essential designation for processors
Summary
TAPS told the House subcommittee survivors and dependents faced severe financial and academic harms from fall‑semester payment delays and recommended making the GI Bill hotline essential, designating education claims processors as essential, resuming stakeholder calls and avoiding academic‑term rollouts.
Ashlyn Haycock Lohman, director of government and legislative affairs for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), told the subcommittee that Chapter 35 education payments delayed this fall had immediate, concrete harms for dependent survivors and their families. TAPS staff and members reported students missing tuition deadlines, families accruing debt and students forced to take extra work shifts rather than attend classes.
Haycock Lohman described how TAPS learned of the scale of the problem from beneficiaries and schools rather than from VA briefings. She said VA initially informed…
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