President Joe Biden is requesting $369.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs in his Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
That is a $33 billion or 10% increase above the fiscal year 2024 budget estimate level. It includes a discretionary request of $134 billion and $235.3 billion in mandatory funding and includes $24.5 billion from the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund (TEF), for a total increase of $41.8 billion (21.6%) above fiscal year 2024.
“Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors deserve the very best health care and benefits that this country has to offer — and President Biden’s proposed budget will help us deliver exactly that,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough in a statement. “With these investments, we at VA can continue delivering more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before in our nation’s history.”
The proposal invests $3.2 billion to help VA’s efforts to end veteran homelessness and prevent veterans from becoming homeless in the future and includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to expand housing vouchers to more veterans in need.
Additionally, Biden’s budget earmarks $135 million in VA research programs – along with $17 billion within the VA Medical Care program – to increase access to quality mental health care and lower the cost of mental health services for veterans. It also provides $583 million for suicide prevention programs.
The president’s request would also invest $112.6 billion in discretionary medical care funding and includes a $2 billion investment for non-recurring maintenance to improve medical facility infrastructure.
The proposal also requests $13.7 billion for women veterans’ healthcare, including $1.1 billion for women’s gender-specific care.
Biden’s spending plan is now headed to Congress, where it will be debated. A partial government shutdown looms if lawmakers can’t approve a budget by the Oct. 1 deadline.
For more information on Biden’s budget proposal, visit here. For more information on the VA budget, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.