WASHINGTON, D.C. — The problems keep piling up for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
There's a backlog of G.I. Bill payments for thousands of vets, and long-awaited veterans care center in Virginia Beach is way behind schedule.
The new Hampton Roads Veterans Care Center in Virginia Beach will be a 155,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that will provide skilled nursing care, Alzheimer's and dementia care, as well as short-term rehabilitative care.
The goal was to have it open in late 2019.
However, even though the project has been authorized, the General Services Administration has called for further review.
Senate Armed Services Committee member Tim Kaine isn't happy about the delay.
"The way they treat leases, they won't let the V.A. lease space unless they have all the money in place," he said. "You should only really need the first year money in place. So, there are some antiquated rules about both leasing space and building space that have slowed this project down. And we're going to have to work to straighten that out."
There are also issue with the Forever G.I. Bill Government data shows that more than 56,000 vets had outstanding claims.
The V.A. still has not publicly predicted when it will be able to provide the back pay.
Kaine said the whole situation is unacceptable.
"There's been a problem with G.I. Bill, people getting approved for something one, and then they do great," he said. "And then they're waiting around, and it's too late, days before the winter semester starts and they still haven't been approved. The approval process should not take so long after the initial approval once you've been approved. You shouldn't have to, like, start over every semester, and that's something we're working with the V.A. on."
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13News Now App.
