A $386 million Veterans Affairs program enacted as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has been plagued by problems and underperformance, The Washington Post’s Lisa Rein and Yeganeh Torbati report.
The Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program promised to train former servicemembers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic for “high-demand” new jobs. But Rein and Torbati write that the program ran into a slew of problems — problems that were “achingly predictable” based on the results of a similar program introduced in 2012:
“Many schools proved unable to attract students or deliver promised services. … [N]early 90 schools have had their approvals yanked, according to VA officials, including several that were actively serving about 100 veterans. Some schools were cut off amid allegations of predatory practices, while others simply went out of business.
“As of Aug. 1, only about 6,800 veterans had enrolled in the program, far fewer than the 17,250 Congress created it to serve, the agency said; just 397 had landed new jobs. … As of last week, roughly half the money had been spent, leaving VA on track to return tens of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury when the program expires in December.”
