U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

In April 1778 Gen. George Washington wrote a letter to fellow Founding Father John Banister in which he noted that soldiers “will not be persuaded to sacrifice all views of present interest, and encounter the numerous vicissitudes of War, in the defence of their Country, unless she will be generous enough on her part, to make a decent provision for their future support.” In doing so, Washington established the national value of caring for wounded warriors (and ultimately their families).

Today that mission is the responsibility of the Department of Veterans Affairs, one of the country’s largest federal agencies, serving millions of veterans through hospitals, clinics, educational programs, disability compensation, home loan guarantees, and national cemeteries.

Early history

The Continental Congress established the practice of caring for injured soldiers by creating pensions for service members who were permanently disabled during the Revolutionary War. Widows of officers became eligible for their pensions in 1780, but it was not until the War of 1812 that the families of enlisted service members were able to claim benefits. And much of this came under the purview of Congress, which periodically reviewed benefits for veterans and their survivors. In 1849 the Pension Bureau was created as part of the Department of the Interior to oversee the payment of veterans benefits.

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During the Civil War, the pension act of 1862 greatly expanded the scope of recipients for veterans benefits and was widely seen as incredibly progressive legislation for its time. Indeed, in his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln memorably called on the nation “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan,” but in the wake of post-Civil War bitterness, federal benefits were paid only to Union veterans. Southern states were left to care for Confederate veterans and their families.

Caring for veterans in the 20th century

In the wake of World War I, the services offered to veterans expanded to include education and training, as well as care for physical and mental illness related to combat. In 1921 the Veterans Bureau was created and would fuel the building of hospitals for the care of veterans. In 1930 Pres. Herbert Hoover created the Veterans Administration, meant to be an omnibus department responsible for the administration of health care benefits, survivor benefits, education, and cemetery services.

More than 16 million Americans served in the military during World War II, and in exchange for their service, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed them home with the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, signed into law in 1944. It would become known as the G.I. Bill and extended unprecedented benefits to returning service members including access to college education, low-interest home and business loans, and unemployment benefits. The G.I. Bill is widely seen as fueling the burgeoning middle-class suburbs of the mid-century, although it did not always help returning Black veterans as much as it did white veterans.

Creating the Department of Veterans Affairs

In 1989 the new cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs was created. In terms of government employees, budget, and size, it is second only to the Department of Defense in the federal government. Its mandate is divided among three main areas:

• Veterans Health Administration: Responsible for providing medical care to veterans; operates more than 1,600 hospitals and outpatient facilities as well as telehealth operations
• Veterans Benefits Administration: Administers educational, financial literacy, and loan programs available to veterans
• National Cemetery Administration: Operates 157 military cemeteries around the country (Not all military cemeteries are run by the VA, for example Arlington National Cemetery.)

Controversies and criticism

Despite its size, the VA often faces criticism regarding the promptness and level of care it provides to service members and their families. Bureaucratic backlogs and medical staffing shortages have been reported as a key source of frustration for veterans. In 2014 the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, resigned amid a scandal that showed that not only were wait times for care egregiously long but also that the department had manipulated records to cover up the extent of the problem. The department has also faced criticism over its ability to meet the needs of unhoused veterans and those seeking mental health care.

The VA has also faced controversy over its handling of illnesses connected to military service. One major example involved veterans exposed to Agent Orange, an herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Many veterans later developed cancers and other serious health conditions that they believed were linked to chemical exposure. For years, veterans’ groups criticized the federal government and the VA for moving slowly to recognize these illnesses and provide disability compensation. In 1979 a group of veterans brought a class-action lawsuit against seven herbicide makers that produced Agent Orange for the U.S. military. That same year Pres. Jimmy Carter ordered the VA to study Agent Orange-related diseases. The suit was settled out of court in 1984 with the establishment of a $180 million fund to compensate some 250,000 claimants and their families. Separately, the VA awarded compensation to about 1,800 veterans.

In 2025, during the second administration of Pres. Donald Trump, the VA announced it would phase out gender-affirming care for transgender veterans, which had been provided since 2011.