WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs said Tuesday it would proceed with a narrow waiver to an ethics law banning V.A. employees from receiving benefits from for-profit colleges, saying most cases posed no actual conflicts of interest with private companies vying for millions in GI Bill tuition.
The V.A.’s latest move comes after it abruptly dropped plans last week for a broader exemption.
Under the new plan, the V.A. said it would generally grant waivers only to those employees who take classes or receive payments for teaching at for-profit colleges. Government watchdogs had worried that suspending the law entirely would create financial entanglements with the private companies.
“There will be no blanket waiver, just a consistent approach to considering and granting individual waivers for those employees who are eligible for them,” said V.A. spokesman Curt Cashour.
The V.A. had originally sought to suspend the law, publishing a proposal in the Federal Register in September that was set to take effect this week for all 330,000 V.A. employees. The V.A. cited the lack of any “significant adverse comment,” but abruptly backed off the plan after The Associated Press asked about rising opposition.
In particular, veterans’ groups and ethics experts said the V.A.’s original proposal was rushed, betrayed the will of Congress and gave for-profit colleges an opening to improperly reward V.A. employees who steer veterans to the schools.
On Tuesday, the V.A. said it had no plans to publish a new proposal and would direct department leaders to issue more narrow waivers. The V.A. has estimated that thousands of department employees who took classes or taught at for-profit colleges could be exempted.
