On 3 July 1930, Congress established the Veterans Administration and charged it with handling all matters of disability compensation, pensions, home and educational loan benefits, medical care, and housing for American war veterans. Offices for veterans' affairs prior to 1930 originated in the common colonial practice of supporting those disabled in the defense of the colony. A federal veterans' pension provision was administered by the secretary of war under the supervision of Congress from 1776 to 1819, when the program passed entirely to the War Department. In 1849 it moved to the Interior Department, where it remained until 1930 as the Bureau of Pensions.
In 1866 the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was founded, with branches around the country for invalid servicemen. After World War I other offices for veterans' compensation, vocational reeducation, and insurance were brought into existence, and were consolidated as the Veterans Bureau in 1921.
After its establishment in 1930, the Veterans Administration expanded rapidly in scope and complexity. It originally served 4.6 million veterans, 3.7 percent of the U.S. population. By 1971 veterans numbered 28.3 million, a sizable 13.7 percent of the citizenry. It was estimated that they had approximately 97.6 million relatives, making 47 percent of the U.S. population actual or potential beneficiaries of the VA.
In 1987 President Ronald Reagan threw his support behind a movement to raise the Veterans Administration, an independent government agency since its creation in 1930, to a cabinet-level department, and in 1988 he signed a bill creating the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).In 1989 the secretary of veterans affairs became the fourteenth member of the president's cabinet. The VA is the second-largest cabinet-level department of the government; only the Department of Defense is larger.
The VA is responsible for administering a wide variety of benefits for military veterans and their dependents, including medical care, insurance, education and training, loans, and guardianship of minors and incompetents. Some 60 percent of the budget goes to compensation and pensions, the former to recompense veterans for the loss of earning power because of injury or disease arising from military service. Pensions recognize an obligation to give aid when necessary for non-service connected disease or death. Some 20 percent of the VA budget goes for medical programs. In 1972 the VA maintained 166 hospitals and 298 other facilities, such as nursing homes and clinics, serving 912,342 inpatients. Health benefits administered by the VA include hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient medical and dental care. More than half the practicing physicians in the United States received part of their training within the health care system administered by the VA. There is a Prosthetics Assessment and Information Center, and programs include vocational as well as physical rehabilitation.
Within the VA are the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration, and the National Cemetery System. Their heads and the general counsel for the VA are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The VA oversees military pensions, compensation for disabilities and death, and insurance and loans for veterans. The GI Bill of 1944 provided housing and educational benefits for World War II veterans, and benefits have been continued for veterans of the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wars, all administered by the VA. More than 20 million veterans have received GI Bill benefits for education and job training since the program's inception. Cumulative GI Bill outlays surpass $73 billion.
The Department of Veterans Affairs currently represents the interests of more than 25 million veterans and their dependents in the United States. The VA managed a budget of $49 billion in fiscal year 2001, with $21 billion for health care and $28 billion for benefits.
Bibliography
Daniels, Roger. The Bonus March: An Episode of the Great Depression. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Pub. Co., 1971.
Greenberg, Milton. The GI Bill: The Law that Changed America. New York: Lickle Publishing, 1997.
Whitnah, Donald R., ed. Government Agencies: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions.Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983.
