MN lawmaker/soldier says military tried to make him repay student loan benefit

Republican and Democratic members of Congress — including Minnesota DFLer Tim Walz — are calling on the Pentagon to stop clawing back bonuses wrongly paid to National Guard members.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers in California were ordered to repay five-figure re-enlistment bonuses after auditors found widespread fraudulent overpayments during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars a decade ago, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

In Minnesota, a National Guard member who's also a state lawmaker says he received a similar demand for repayment of his student loan benefits — and he says he's spoken with fellow soldiers who have not been paid incentives owed to them.

The lawmaker, Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, says he fears those who don't know their rights and are unable to fight the bureaucracy are being ripped off.

"The average soldier that got this type of letter just kind of rolled over and had to pay back the money," Lesch said.

MPR News was unable to find other Minnesota National Guard members willing to talk about similar experiences, but news of the re-enlistment bonus clawbacks in California led military members and veterans across the country to demand Congress and the Pentagon take immediate action.

Tom Porter, legislative director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said his group is still trying to determine if demands for bonus repayment are widespread outside of California.

"When we do find out how bad this problem is, we're still going to be asking Congress and the Department of Defense to make good on the situation and make sure that all service members impacted aren't penalized for something that's entirely none of their fault," Porter said.

For Lesch, serving in the military was always something he wanted to do. However, family and career obligations kept him from enlisting for years.

But in 2009, at age 36 and halfway through his fourth House term, Lesch joined the Minnesota National Guard.

That meant missing work. And with $63,000 in debt from college and law school, he'd need financial help.

The Guard promised him up to $50,000 in assistance through its Student Loan Repayment Program. "That would alleviate the income loss that I would have from having to go to basic training from my lawyer job," Lesch said.

Lesch, who's a lieutenant, says getting the military to fulfill its promise wasn't easy.

"They were about a year behind in processing those payments," he said. "Therefore soldiers accrue interest over the course of those months, and mine was between $200 and $300 a month in interest that I was accruing while they got around to paying the bill."

But Lesch's red tape entanglement was just beginning.

In 2013, Lesch said he received letter from the Guard stating the contract used when he inlisted had an incorrect number on it.

"Therefore, they asserted that my contract was invalid, and I would have to pay back all of the money that I'd gotten up to that point," he said, "and of course not receive any more money."

At that point, the Guard had already paid down around $27,000 of Lesch's student loans — and they wanted all of that money back. Lesch says he fulfilled his part of the deal to the letter, and says it's illegal for the government — or anyone — to invalidate a contract unilaterally.

By late 2014, after a year of wrangling, Lesch won. The military said a policy change the previous summer allowed the Guard to continue paying his student loans. Nevertheless, he says the National Guard still owes him $5,000. Minnesota National Guard spokesperson Col. Kevin Olson said in a statement that the government has fulfilled its obligations for Lesch's student loan repayments.

"The Minnesota National Guard acknowledges that Lieutenant Lesch received a document from the National Guard Bureau in Washington with an incorrect control number, but contends that this issue was resolved and did not affect his ultimate student loan repayment."

However, Olson did not say why Lesch had to fight the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon to claim the student loan benefits. Olson also said Lesch's allegation that the government owes him another $5,000 is incorrect.

The Minnesota Guard disputes this is a widespread problem in the state. It urges service members to consult their chain of command with questions about their enlistment contracts.