place

United States Department of Veterans Affairs

1989 establishments in Washington, D.C.All accuracy disputesGovernment agencies established in 1989Hospital networks in the United StatesSource attribution
United States Department of Veterans AffairsUnited States federal executive departmentsUse mdy dates from February 2020Vague or ambiguous time from March 2020Veterans' affairs in the United StatesVeterans' affairs ministries
Seal of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Seal of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries. While veterans' benefits have been provided by the federal government since the American Revolutionary War, a veteran-specific federal agency was not established until 1930, as the Veterans Administration. In 1982, its mission was extended to a fourth mission to provide care to non-veterans and civilians in case of national emergencies. In 1989, the Veterans Administration became a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency is led by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who, being a cabinet member, is appointed by the President. As of June 2020, the VA employs 412,892 people at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, benefits offices, and cemeteries. In Fiscal Year 2016 net program costs for the department were $273 billion, which includes the VBA Actuarial Cost of $106.5 billion for compensation benefits. The long-term "actuarial accrued liability" (total estimated future payments for veterans and their family members) is $2.491 trillion for compensation benefits; $59.6 billion for education benefits; and $4.6 billion for burial benefits.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article United States Department of Veterans Affairs (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Vermont Avenue Northwest, Washington

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Website External links Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: United States Department of Veterans AffairsContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.901111111111 ° E -77.035 °
placeShow on map

Address

United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Vermont Avenue Northwest 810
20420 Washington
District of Columbia, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Website
va.gov

linkVisit website

linkWikiData (Q592576)
linkOpenStreetMap (48077417)

Seal of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Seal of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Share experience

Nearby Places

Donald Trump photo op at St. John's Church
Donald Trump photo op at St. John's Church

On June 1, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., law enforcement officers used tear gas and other riot control tactics to forcefully clear peaceful protesters from outside Lafayette Square surrounding streets, creating a path for President Donald Trump and senior administration officials to walk from the White House to St. John's Episcopal Church. Trump held up a Bible and posed for a photo op in front of Ashburton House (the church's parish house), which had been damaged by a fire during protests the night before.The clearing of demonstrators from streets bordering Lafayette Square was widely condemned as excessive and an affront to the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. Just before visiting the church, Trump delivered a speech in which he urged the governors of U.S. states to quell violent protests by using the National Guard to "dominate the streets", or he would otherwise "deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem".Former military leaders, current religious leaders, and elected officials from both parties condemned Trump for the event, though some of Trump's fellow Republicans defended the actions. The event was described by The New York Times as "a burst of violence unlike any seen in the shadow of the White House in generations" and possibly one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency. Civil liberties groups filed a federal lawsuit against Trump, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and other federal officials, alleging they violated protesters' constitutional rights. General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later apologized for his role in the photo op.A June 2021 Interior Department Inspector General review of U.S. Park Police actions found that Park Police cleared Lafayette Square as part of a plan to erect fencing. The Park Police incident commander was reportedly stunned when Barr informed him of Trump's impending visit. That report also confirmed the use of tear gas by D.C. Metropolitan Police, revealed Park Police did not request deployment of Bureau of Prisons to the park, and reported that it was not known why U.S. Secret Service had deployed ahead of schedule, advancing on protesters before the Park Police had a chance to warn protesters to disperse. The report also indicated that Park Police commanders could not identify who gave the order to deploy or why radio transmissions were not recorded.