A Short History of the VA
ON July 21, 1930, President Herbert Hoover created the Veterans Administration by consolidating three separate agencies under one umbrella. This was done to both increase efficiency and to better serve the soldiers who had given their service unstintingly to their nation. Hoover recognized the need to streamline services by giving all responsibility for veteran well-being to one federal agency. Executive Order 5398 accomplished this goal.
The next relevant legislation was the “GI bill of rights,” signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 22, 1944. As consequential as FDR’s presidency was, this particular legislation laid the groundwork for a postwar middle class. Its importance can hardly be overstated. In 1955, the VA backed nearly a third of all US housing starts. By 1947, veterans made up nearly half of all college admissions. These startling statistics can be traced back to the GI Bill with a wide black sharpie.
In 1988, Ronald Reagan elevated the VA to the status of a cabinet-level department. This gave the VA substantially more political power.
Then in 2022, Biden signed the PACT Act, which expanded health care and benefits to those exposed the burn pits in Iraq, Agent Orange, and other chemical exposures. It represented one of the largest expansions of VA healthcare and benefits in US history. Wait times for care and the processing of benefit claims both decreased in 2024, according to Senator Richard Bluementhal’s scathing report, “Breaking the Pact: Impacts of Trump, DOGE, and Collins’ ongoing assault on Veterans.” In 2025, President Trump inherited a healthy and efficient VA.
As you can see, the trajectory of the VA has been an upward progression toward better services and opportunities for veterans to participate in post-war life. This progression is a measure of the gratitude that Americans have typically harbored for the young men and women who put on a uniform and dedicate themselves to the service of their nation.
This upward trajectory stuttered for the first time when President Trump came into office. We all remember the indiscriminate DOGE cuts, cuts by an agency given a cutesy name by an unserious and undisciplined billionaire. Well, our nation’s veterans were not spared a thought by the DOGE agency. Almost immediately, 2400 probationary VA employees were illegally fired; then Doug Collins announced an absolutely arbitrary goal of firing an additional 83,000 employees within the year. This would bring the number of employees back down to the levels they had before PACT went into effect.
On February 17, 2026, the VA issued an interim final rule that directed medical examiners to rate veterans based on their functioning while medicated. The potentially fatal consequences of such a rule cannot be overstated. Only ten days later, following a hurricane level backlash, the VA completely rescinded this directive. The fact that the effort was made in the first place is disconcerting. My father, daughter, son-in-law, and ex-husband are all veterans. My grandfather, now deceased, fought in the Philippines. I am well acquainted with PTSD. To say that it is a monster is to give it credit for kindness it does not deserve. The idea of men and women forgoing their needed psych meds in order to protect their rating is absolutely mind-bogglingly terrifying. Do we really want the number of veteran suicides per day to GO UP? 17 isn’t enough?
The VA should be immune from the petty political games that dominate the headlines. It is there to protect those who were willing to pay the ultimate price in order to serve their nation. Many of them served with men and women who only returned in wooden boxes.
Let your congressperson know that you expect him or her to protect the interests of our veterans with the same ferocity that we expect from our soldiers.
Peace out.