Veterans' Issues

To help assess budgetary risks, CBO has projected spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs through 2028 under three scenarios, a modified version of CBO’s baseline and two other scenarios involving more rapid spending growth.

From 2008 to 2015, male veterans ages 22 to 44 who left active-duty service after September 2001 had experiences in the labor market similar to those of civilian men, although the youngest veterans had somewhat higher unemployment rates.

The Defense Department spent $310 million (in 2017 dollars) on unemployment benefits in 2016, down from $1 billion in 2011. Nearly half of soldiers in the active Army in 2013 applied for those benefits (that share has probably fallen).

From 2000 to 2013, the number of veterans receiving VA disability payments rose by nearly 55 percent, and spending for those benefits almost tripled. How might changes in VA's disability compensation program affect the federal budget?

For fiscal year 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested about $150 billion to fund the pay and benefits of current and retired members of the military. That amount is more than one-quarter of DoD’s total base budget request.

Through September 2011, about 740,000 veterans from overseas contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan had been treated by the VHA. That number is slightly more than half of all recent veterans eligible for care by VHA.

Testimony by Heidi L. W. Golding before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, United States Senate