The Difference Between Veterans Affairs & Veterans Administration

By Pamela Hilliard Owens, M.

The Veterans Affairs Department, which is a Cabinet-level administration, is a government-run benefits administration program. The United States Veterans Administration, which provides financial and other types of benefits to veterans and their dependents, is a part of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans Affairs Department is responsible for patient care and the distribution of federal benefits to veterans and their dependents.

America's veterans have been cared for by either the states or the federal government since the pre-colonial days. After the Revolutionary War, veterans were offered pensions or public land grants. After the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress passed the first pension law in 1789 for disabled veterans; and a Bureau of Pensions was established in 1808 for all veterans.
After the Civil War, the number of veterans increased from 80,000 to 1.9 million; but Confederate veterans were neither counted nor entitled to benefits until 1958 when Congress pardoned all Confederate soldiers. In 1890, the Pension Act was expanded to include dependents and all veterans at age 62, whether they were disabled or not.
After World War I, a Federal Board for Vocational Education was established for veterans. In 1919, Congress established the Veteran's Bureau to consolidate three of the five veteran's programs; and expanded to include veterans from the Spanish American War.
President Herbert Hoover signed an executive order establishing the Veterans Administration on July 21, 1930. In 1944, during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the "GI Bill of Rights" which extended many economic, financial, and medical benefits to all veterans and their dependents. ("GI" stands for "Government Issue.") The "GI Bill" provided 1) four years of education training with paid books and subsistence aid; 2) federally guaranteed home, farm and business loans; and 3) unemployment compensation. By the end of the original 1944 "GI Bill or Rights" in 1956, 7.8 million veterans had received training, and 5.9 million home loans had been guaranteed by the VA totaling $50.1 billion.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to make the Veterans Administration a Cabinet-level agency, and on March 15, 1989, the Veterans Administration became the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs includes the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration (now called the Veterans Health Administration), the Veterans Benefits Administration and the National Cemetery System. The Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration, which are part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, are usually what many people think of when they hear the term "the VA"; although "VA" should stand for "Veterans Affairs." The Veterans Health Administration now includes divisions specifically for women's health issues and diseases from toxic and environmental exposure from Vietnam and the Persian Gulf.

The Veterans Administration is the second-largest federal agency of the United States. As of September 2008, there were 275,000 employees and approximately 63 million people, including veterans and their dependents, were eligible for benefits. The Veterans Administration issues millions of checks monthly for disability, education and pensions; operates hundreds of medical facilities, and supervises over 125 national cemeteries.

Building on the legacy of the "GI Bill," the function of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs---according to the website of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs---continues to oversee several types of veterans' benefits packages. These include: transitioning to civilian life, education and job training, finding good employment, starting a small business, re-employing reservists, buying first homes, compensating the disabled, serving the former POW (Prisoner of War), caring for widows/widowers and burying loved ones.

The Veterans Benefits Administration, which is the most well known division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, oversees six major benefits areas: 1) education, 2) home loans, 3) compensation and pensions, 4) survivor's benefits, 5) vocational rehabilitation and 6) life insurance.

For any and all Americans who receive a general or honorable discharge from any branch of the United State military service, the Department of Veterans Administration operates four major benefits programs: disability compensation, veterans' pensions programs, medical care through VA facilities or hospitals, and education programs. Additionally, other benefits include housing, home loan guarantees, job training, small business loans, counseling, burials and memorials.

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