Service members and veterans filing claims for GI Bill education benefits can expect to wait an average of 39 days for their claims to be processed, three days longer than last year, Bush administration officials told Congress.

Testifying Tuesday before the House Veterans' Affairs economic opportunity subcommittee, administration officials blamed the current 100,000-plus backlog of education benefits claims on a combination of increased GI Bill usage and a logjam of 12,000 claims by reservists on extended mobilizations who were waiting for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to agree on a special benefits plan.

Ronald Aument, the VA's deputy under secretary for benefits, said the Pentagon and VA reached agreement on the so-called Chapter 1607 benefits plan in December and that some claims have been processed by hand. Beginning this weekend, Chapter 1607 claims will be process by automation, which Aument said should eliminate the backlog in three to four weeks.

Chapter 1607 benefits were created by the 2005 Defense Authorization Act under a compromise between Congress and the Bush administration over how to reward National Guard and reserve members on extended mobilizations. Under the program, those with more than 90 consecutive days of active duty can get larger GI Bill payments, but must use the benefits while still serving in the reserves.

There are other reasons for the overall backlog of claims, Aument said. About 500,000 students used GI Bill benefits in 2005, a 2-percent increase over 2004 and a 66.7 percent increase over 2000, he said. The big jump came after Congress ordered an increase in GI Bill benefits for active-duty service members in 2002, spread over several years.

Aument said the VA does not anticipate a big increase in overall GI Bill usage in 2006 and 2007, and hopes to reduce processing time for claims to 25 days. The faster processing would come from a small increase in personnel, improvements in automation and better training for people processing claims, said Dennis Douglass, acting director of the VA education service.