United States Department of Veterans Affairs

United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Set up:	July 21, 1930
Seat:	810 Vermont Avenue NW , Washington, DC
Supervisory authority:	President of the United States
minister	Robert Wilkie
Deputy	James Byrne
Household:	$ 93.4 billion (2009)
Employees:	278,565 (2008)
Homepage:	va.gov

A hospital in Palo Alto

A VA Medical Center in Manhattan , New York City

The Department of Veterans Affairs (Engl. United States Department of Veterans Affairs - VA ) of the US government is responsible for benefits to veterans and their families and their survivors. It was founded on July 21, 1930 as a federal office. The registered office is in Washington, DC (810 Vermont Ave NW).

It is directed by the Secretary of State, the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

history

The Ministry's task is derived from the inaugural address given by US President Abraham Lincoln in 1861: "... to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan ..."

Headquarters of the Ministry

In 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression (German "Great Depression"), the Veterans Administration was founded by amalgamating several government organizations for all activities of the US government relating to war veterans. In 1988 this office was upgraded to a federal ministry under President Ronald Reagan .

organization

With 278,565 employees (2008), the Department of Veterans is the second largest US Federal Department after the Department of Defense . The employees are employed in medical institutions, hospitals, authorities and national cemeteries. The budget is around $ 93.4 billion (2009). This puts it well behind the financially strong ministries for defense and health , whose budgets are 6 to 7 times larger.

In the healthcare sector, it is one of the largest employers in the United States. Due to numerous collaborations with medical training institutions, a quarter of all US doctors worked in a department of the department during their training.

The Ministry has three main departments headed by Undersecretaries:

• Veterans Health Administration : Health
• Veterans Benefits Administration : Social benefits: Training and return to work , insurance, compensation and pension
• National Cemetery Administration : Serves 123 of the 139 national cemeteries in the United States.

The department has its own police force, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police .

Veteran's health care responsibilities

As a result of the recent military conflicts, treatment costs have risen sharply, primarily due to nursing homes and mental illness.

The Ministry distinguishes eight main groups of beneficiaries and numerous sub-categories. Disabilities caused by the service as well as income and assets are taken into account. From a disability of 50% (loss of extremities, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) treatment and medication are provided free of charge.

Numerous outpatient facilities have been built in recent years to replace inpatient care. Patient records were electronically stored, research on prostheses and PTSD was carried out, and the effects of Agent Orange investigated.

List of heads of authorities

Head of Veterans Administration (Administrator of Veterans Affairs)
No.	Surname	Term of office	under president
1	Frank T. Hines	1930-1945	Herbert Hoover , Franklin D. Roosevelt
2	Omar N. Bradley	1945-1948	Harry S. Truman
3	Carl R. Gray	1948-1953	Harry S. Truman
4th	Harvey V. Higley	1953-1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5	Sumner G. Whittier	1957-1964	Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson
6th	John S. Gleason	1964-1965	Lyndon B. Johnson
7th	William J. Driver	1965-1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
8th	Donald E. Johnson	1969-1974	Richard Nixon
9	Richard L. Roudebush	1974-1977	Gerald Ford
10	Max Cleland	1977-1981	Jimmy Carter
11	Bob Nimmo	1981-1982	Ronald Reagan
12	Harry N. Walters	1982-1986	Ronald Reagan
13	Thomas K. Turnage	1986-1989	Ronald Reagan
14th	Ed Derwinski	1989	George Bush

Minister of the War Veterans Ministry
No.	image	Surname	Term of office	in the President's Cabinet
1		Edward Joseph Derwinski	March 15, 1989 - September 26, 1992	George Bush
		Anthony Joseph Principi (acting)	September 26, 1992 - January 20, 1993
2		Jesse Brown	January 22, 1993 - July 3, 1997	Bill Clinton
		Hershel Wayne Gober (acting)	July 3, 1997 - January 2, 1998
		Togo Dennis West Jr. (acting)	January 2, 1998 - May 5, 1998
3		Togo Dennis West Jr.	May 5, 1998 - July 10, 2000
		Hershel Wayne Gober (acting)	July 10, 2000 - January 20, 2001
4th		Anthony Joseph Principi	January 23, 2001 - January 26, 2005	George W. Bush
5		Robert James Nicholson	January 26, 2005 - October 1, 2007
		Gordon H. Mansfield (acting)	October 1, 2007 - December 20, 2007
6th		James Benjamin Peake	December 20, 2007 - January 20, 2009
7th		Eric Ken Shinseki	January 20, 2009 - May 30, 2014	Barack Obama
		Sloan D. Gibson (acting)	May 30, 2014 - July 30, 2014
8th		Robert A. McDonald	July 30, 2014 - January 20, 2017
9		David Jonathon Shulkin	February 14, 2017 - March 28, 2018	Donald Trump
		Robert Leon Wilkie (acting)	March 28, 2018 - May 29, 2018
10		Robert Leon Wilkie	July 30, 2018 -

Gravestones icons

The ministry maintains a list of permitted symbols ( emblems ) that may be placed on gravestones to indicate the religious affiliation of a fallen person . This only affects gravestones that are paid for by the government.

Web links

• Department of War Veterans website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers. Accessed August 8, 2019 .