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You Know...
Roots
Veterans benefits
and services trace their roots back to 1636, when the Pilgrims
of Plymouth County were at war with the Peqout Indiana. The Pilgrims
passed a law which stated that disabled soldiers would be supported
by the colony.
History
of veterans benefits and services in the United States.
Care for
Veterans and Dependents Spans Centuries
The last dependent
of a Revolutionary War veteran died in 1911.
The War of
1812's last dependent died in 1946, the Mexican War's, in 1962.
There are
widows and children of Civil War and Indian War veterans who still
draw veterans benefits. Some 1,131 children and widows of Spanish-American
War veterans are receiving veterans benefits.
The Veterans
Population
The present
veteran population is estimated at 25.6 million, as of July 1,
1997.
Altogether,
almost one-third of the nation's population -- approximately 70
million who are veterans, dependents and survivors of deceased
veterans -- are potentially eligible for veterans benefits and
services.
The VA
Budget
VA's fiscal
year 1998 appropriation is $40.4 billion -- $22.3 billion for
benefit programs and $17.4 billion for medical programs. The Administration's
fiscal year 1997 appropriation was $40.3 billion. Fifty-three
percent of the 1998 outlays will go for direct payments such as
compensation, pension and education benefits; 42 percent is targeted
for medical care; 1.1 percent is for hospital, national cemetery
and other construction programs; and 2.2 percent is for general
operating expenses.
VA Employees
As of November
30, 1997, 243,134 employees were on VA rolls. Among all departments
and agencies of the federal government, only the Department of
Defense has a larger work force.
Of the total
number of VA employees, 223,602 were in the Veterans Health Administration,
11,459 in the Veterans Benefits Administration, 1,286 in the National
Cemetery System and 3,386 in Veterans Canteen Service. The remainder
-- 3,391 employees -- were in various staff offices.
Secretary
of Veterans Affairs
The Honorable
Togo D. West, Jr., was sworn in as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
by the Vice President on May 5, 1998, after having served since
January 2, 1998, as Acting Secretary at the direction of President
Clinton. Secretary West directs the federal government's second
largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of health
care services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for
America's veterans and dependents.
Prior to that,
in November 1993, Secretary West had been appointed by the President
as Secretary of the Army, where he served until selected by the
President for his current position. He also served as Chairman
of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Commission, a U.S.
government entity with a binational board appointed by the President.
Mr. West was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery
Corps upon college graduation in 1965. After completing law school
in 1968, he served as a law clerk to Judge Harold R. Tyler, Jr.,
in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In 1969, he was called to active military duty in the Army's Judge
Advocate General Corps, and served in the Office of the Judge
Advocate General and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs until 1973. In 1975,
Mr. West joined the Administration of President Ford as Associate
Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice. In
1977, in the Carter Administration, he was named as the General
Counsel for the Navy. In 1979, he served as the Special Assistant
to the Secretary and to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and in
January 1980 was appointed by President Carter as the General
Counsel of the Department of Defense.
Mr. West practiced
law with the firm of Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C.,
from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1976 to 1977. In 1981, he joined
the New York law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler as a
managing partner of its Washington office. In 1990, he accepted
a position as Senior Vice President for Government Relations of
the Northrop Corporation.
Past
Secretaries and Administrators of Veterans Affairs
Compensation
and Pension
Some 2.7 million
veterans are receiving disability compensation or pension payments
from VA. Some 655,403 widows, children and parents of deceased
veterans are being paid survivor compensation or death pension
benefits, as of September 1997. Among them are 125,014 survivors
of Vietnam Era veterans and 330,561 survivors of World War II
veterans.
Education
and Training
Since 1944,
when the first GI Bill became law, more than 20.7 million beneficiaries
have participated in GI Bill education and training programs.
This includes 7.8 million World War II veterans, 2.4 million Korean
Conflict veterans, and 8.2 million Post-Korean and Vietnam Era
veterans and active-duty service personnel.
Proportionally,
Vietnam Era veterans have been the greatest participants in GI
Bill training. About 62 percent of those eligible took training,
compared with 50.5 percent for World War II veterans and 43.4
percent for Korean Conflict veterans.
Medical
Care
Perhaps the
most visible of all VA benefits and services is VA's health-care
system. From 54 hospitals in 1930, VA's health-care system has
grown to include 173 medical centers, with at least one in each
of the 48 contiguous states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
It operates approximately 600 ambulatory care and community-based
outpatient clinics; 133 nursing homes, 40 domiciliaries and 73
comprehensive home-care programs. VA health-care facilities provide
a broad spectrum of medical, surgical and rehabilitative care.
With approximately
51,000 medical center beds, VA treats nearly a million patients
in VA hospitals, 82,400 in nursing homes and 25,000 in domiciliaries.
VA's outpatient
clinics register approximately 29.3 million visits a year. An
estimated 3 million individuals receive care annually. Over a
6-year period (recognizing that not all persons become ill every
year), VA cared for 4.7 million different veterans. VA is used
by more than 40 percent of its priority target group of primarily
service-connected and low-income veterans.
VA currently
is affiliated with 105 medical schools, 54 dental schools and
more than 1,140 other schools across the country. More than half
of all practicing physicians in the United States have had part
of their professional education in the VA health-care system.
Each year, approximately 100,000 health professionals receive
training in VA medical centers.
VA Research
While providing
high quality health care to the nation's veterans, VA also conducts
an array of research activities concentrating on some of the most
difficult research challenges facing medical science today. VA
has become a world leader in such research areas as aging, women
veterans' health concerns, AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder
and other mental health issues. VA research has improved medical
care not only for veterans but also for the population in general.
VA researchers
have played key roles in developing the cardiac pacemaker; the
CT scan; magnetic source imaging, which permits safe removal of
brain tumors; and in improving artificial limbs. The first kidney
transplant in the United States was performed at a VA medical
facility, and the first successful drug treatments for high blood
pressure and schizophrenia were pioneered by VA researchers. The
"Seattle Foot" was created by VA to give amputees the push-off
needed to run and jump, as well as walk. VA contributions to medical
knowledge have won VA scientists many prestigious awards, including
the Nobel Prize.
Home Loans
VA's 53-year-old
loan guaranty program has benefited more than 15.3 million veterans
and dependents. From 1944, when this program was established as
part of the original GI Bill, through Sept. 1997, VA home loan
guarantees have totaled $560 billion.
VA Insurance
VA operates
one of the largest life insurance programs in the world and the
fourth largest in the United States. VA administers seven life
insurance programs under which 2.5 million policies, with a face
value of $24.1 billion, remained in force at the end of fiscal
year 1997. In addition, VA supervises the Servicemen's Group Life
Insurance and the Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs, which
provide some $500 billion in insurance coverage to approximately
three million veterans and members of the uniformed services.
The 1998 GI life insurance dividend will return almost $818 million
to more than two million policyholders.
National
Cemetery System
Since 1973,
when most Army-administered national cemeteries were transferred
to VA, available grave space within the National Cemetery System
has increased from one million to nearly two million. Currently,
VA maintains 115 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico.
There were
more than 73,000 interments in VA national cemeteries in fiscal
year 1997 and that number is expected to increase to more than
110,000 in 2010. In fiscal year 1997, VA provided more than 270,000
headstones or markers for the unmarked graves of eligible veterans
buried anywhere.
Content gathered
from material on the Department of Veterans Affairs web site.
The
preceding information was taken from:
The
Committee on Veterans Affairs http://veterans.house.gov
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