"Our veterans are being unfairly punished due to lack of flexibility in the Post-9/11 GI Bill," Mike Pence wrote. | AP Photo Pence asks feds to help veterans who attended ITT Tech

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is calling for the federal government to aid veterans who attended ITT Tech — the massive for-profit college that abruptly closed this week.

Nearly 7,000 veterans and their families had been using the GI Bill to attend ITT Tech. The Obama administration has long maintained that, under federal law, students aren't able to recoup the GI Bill money already they’ve spent if a school closes.


The former ITT students also face having their monthly GI Bill housing stipend cut off next month.

The veterans can try to transfer their credits to another school, but many traditional colleges won't accept ITT's credits.

"Our veterans are being unfairly punished due to lack of flexibility in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which does not take into account such situations, such as this recent closure, that are of no fault to the students. We cannot allow this to stand," Pence wrote to Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Friday. Pence asked that the VA restore the GI Bill benefits of veterans who attended ITT.

VA officials told veterans this week in an message on Facebook that the agency doesn't have the legal authority to restore GI Bill Benefits, but the Obama administration has previously said it backs congressional efforts to have GI Bill benefits reset when a school closes. A VA spokesman told POLITICO, "While we are anxious to help our education beneficiaries find alternative educational paths, our general authority to provide any kind of relief after a school closes is extremely limited."

After the collapse of for-profit Corinthian Colleges last year left GI Bill students at those campuses in a similar situation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), the ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, sponsored legislation that would assist them. But the legislation, which attracted bipartisan support, stalled in Congress.

ITT Tech, based in Carmel, Ind., collapsed on Tuesday — 12 days after the Education Department said it could no longer enroll new students using federal student aid. The college had been struggling to maintain its accreditation. The closure affected about 40,000 students at 130 campuses around the country.

Students who took out federal loans to attend ITT are entitled to a "closed school discharge" of their loans.

Earlier this week, Pence directed state agencies to take other steps to help the affected veterans. He also criticized the Obama administration's crackdown on for-profit colleges.

"ITT Tech's situation is due in part to the Obama administration's over-regulation, which is sadly killing jobs nationwide,” Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks told the Indianapolis Star.

Michael Stratford contributed to this report.