Brown, Colleagues Introduce Remote Act to Protect VA Benefits for Student Veterans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced the Responsible Education Mitigating Option and Technical Extensions (REMOTE) Act to ensure student veterans can access their full housing allowances while pursuing education remotely during the pandemic. These housing benefits are set to be cut by almost half in December 2021, which will create extreme uncertainty for veterans who could be forced to abandon their education in order to make up the cost of rent or a mortgage.

“Too often, restrictive rules and time limits prevent our veterans or their family members from using the benefits they’ve earned serving our nation,” said Brown. “This bill supports our veterans as they use the housing and education benefits they’ve earned.”

The REMOTE Act will also extend remote learning waivers, simplify the verification process for tuition reimbursement to minimize unneeded paperwork for student veterans, and fix an error in current law to ensure U.S. universities can continue to recruit foreign students. These changes will help hundreds of Nevada students and student veterans.

The REMOTE Act is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).