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Department Of Veterans Affairs Biography & Facts

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries. While veterans' benefits have been provided by the federal government since the American Revolutionary War, a veteran-specific federal agency was not established until 1930, as the Veterans' Administration. In 1982, its mission was expanded to include caring for civilians and people who were not veterans in case of a national emergency. In 1989, the Veterans' Administration became a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. The president appoints the secretary of veterans affairs, who is also a cabinet member, to lead the agency. As of June 2020, the VA employed 412,892 people at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, benefits offices, and cemeteries. In Fiscal Year 2016 net program costs for the department were $273 billion, which includes the VBA Actuarial Cost of $106.5 billion for compensation benefits. The long-term "actuarial accrued liability" (total estimated future payments for veterans and their family members) is $2.491 trillion for compensation benefits; $59.6 billion for education benefits; and $4.6 billion for burial benefits. History The history and evolution of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are inextricably intertwined and dependent on the history of America's wars, as wounded soldiers are the population the VA cares for. The list of wars involving the United States from the American Revolutionary War to the present totals ninety-nine wars. The majority of the United States military casualties of war, however, occurred in the following eight wars: American Revolutionary War (est. 8,000), American Civil War (218,222), World War I (53,402), World War II (291,567), Korean War (33,686), Vietnam War (47,424), Iraq War (3,836), and the War in Afghanistan (1,833). It is these wars that have primarily driven the mission and evolution of the VA. The VA maintains a detailed list of war wounded, as it is this population that comprises the VA care system. Origins The Continental Congress of 1776 encouraged enlistments during the American Revolutionary War by providing pensions for soldiers who were disabled. Direct medical and hospital care given to veterans in the early days of the U.S. was provided by the individual states and communities. In 1811, the first domiciliary and medical facility for veterans was authorized by the federal government but not opened until 1834. In the 19th century, the nation's veterans assistance program was expanded to include benefits and pensions not only for veterans but also their widows and dependents. After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, many state veterans' homes were established. Since domiciliary care was available at all state veterans homes, incidental medical and hospital treatment was provided for all injuries and diseases, whether or not of service origin. Indigent and disabled veterans of the Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, and Mexican Border periods, as well as discharged regular members of the Armed Forces, were cared for at these homes. During this period, two of the three predecessors of the Veterans' Administration were established: the Bureau of Pensions in 1832 and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1865. Consolidation into Veterans' Administration Congress established a new system of veterans benefits when the United States entered World War I in 1917. Included were programs for disability compensation, insurance for service members and veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. The Veterans' Bureau was established in August 1921, absorbing the War Risk Bureau and the Rehabilitation Division of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. In 1922, it gained a large number of veterans' hospital facilities from the Public Health Service, most of which had been recently established on former U.S. Army bases. By the 1920s, the various benefits were administered by three different federal agencies: the Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The establishment of the Veterans' Administration came in 1930, when Congress authorized the president to "consolidate and coordinate Government activities affecting war veterans". The three component agencies became bureaus within the Veterans' Administration. Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, who directed the Veterans' Bureau for seven years, was named the first Administrator of Veterans Affairs, a job he held until 1945. World War II The close of World War II resulted in not only a vast increase in the veteran population but also a large number of new benefits enacted by Congress for veterans of the war. In addition, during the late 1940s, the VA had to contend with aging World War I veterans. During that time, "the clientele of the VA increased almost fivefold with an addition of nearly 16,000,000 World War II veterans and approximately 4,000,000 World War I veterans." Prior to World War II, in response to scandals at the Veterans Bureau, programs that cared for veterans were centralized in Washington, D.C. This centralization caused delays and bottlenecks as the agency tried to serve World War II veterans. As a result, the VA went through a decentralization process, giving more authority to the field offices. The World War II GI Bill was signed into law on June 22, 1944, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "The United States government began serious consolidated services to veterans in 1930. The GI Bill of Rights, which was passed in 1944, had more effect on the American way of life than any other legislation—with the possible exception of the Homestead Act." Further educational assistance acts were passed for the benefit of veterans of the Korean War. Promotion to Department of Veterans Affairs The Department of Veterans Affairs Act of 1988 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–527) changed the former Veterans' Administration, an independent government agency established in 1930 into a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 25, 1988, but came into effect under the term of his successor, George H. W. Bush, on March 15, 1989. The reform period of 1995 to 2000 saw the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) dramatically improve care access, quality, and efficiency. This was achieved by leveraging its national integrated electronic health information system (VistA) and in so doing, implementing universal primar.... Discover the Department Of Veterans Affairs popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Department Of Veterans Affairs books.