Military and Veterans' Health Care
- Presentation
Trends in Total Costs of Military Compensation
Presentation by F. M. Woodward, an analyst in CBO's National Security Division, at the Defense Manpower Roundtable.
- Working Paper
Accrual Accounting for Veterans' Benefits: Working Paper 2026-07
CBO explains how it estimated that VA benefits would cost about $90,000 annually per active-duty service member if accrual accounting methods were used to fund future disability and health benefits that many veterans will receive.
- Graphic
Atlas of Military Compensation, 2026
In the President's 2026 budget request, total military compensation is $718 billion. Of that total, $277 billion is for the Department of Defense, and $441 billion is for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Cost Estimate
H.R. 2605, Service Dogs Assisting Veterans Act
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on July 23, 2025
- Cost Estimate
H.R. 1336, Veterans National Traumatic Brain Injury Act
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on May 6, 2025
- Presentation
Trends in Spending for Military Compensation
Presentation by F. M. Woodward, an analyst in CBO's National Security Division, at the Defense Manpower Roundtable.
- Graphic
Atlas of Military Compensation, 2024
In the President’s 2025 budget request, total military compensation is $600 billion, including veterans' benefits. That amount represents an increase of 162 percent since 1980 (and 151 percent since 1999) after removing inflation’s effects.
- Report
Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2025 to 2034
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their estimated effects on the federal budget. This report presents 76 options for altering spending or revenues to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade.
- Report
Income of Black Working-Age Veterans
CBO describes economic outcomes of veterans who are Black, male, and working age and whose service began during or after 1990. CBO compares the outcomes of that group with outcomes of Black nonveterans and White veterans from 2017 to 2019.
- Report
Income of Working-Age Veterans Receiving Disability Compensation
CBO compared the earnings, personal income, and household income of working-age male veterans who received disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs with those of veterans who did not receive such payments.