Administration announces record-low number of veterans experiencing homelessness nationwide, expands eligibility for disability benefits and sets record for care and benefits delivered to veterans through President Biden’s Unity Agenda
President Biden believes we have a sacred obligation to care our nation’s veterans and their families. Simply put, we owe them a debt we can never fully repay. Supporting those who wear the uniform is a commitment that unites all Americans and it’s why the President has made supporting our veterans a core pillar in his Unity Agenda for the nation. Since taking office, President Biden has signed into law over 34 bipartisan bills that address some of the most important issues facing veterans today, including the PACT Act, which is most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years. The Biden Harris Administration and Congress have worked together to expand access to health care, address veteran homelessness, improve access to child and long-term care, and support education and workforce opportunity for veterans and their families.
To mark this Veterans Day, President Biden will announce that his Administration has delivered more benefits and health care, more quickly, to more veterans than ever before. In 2024 alone, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) delivered $187 billion in earned benefits to 6.7 million veterans and survivors, and processed a record 2.51 million disability claims. VA delivered more than 131 million health care appointments, over 6 million dental procedures, and provided services and assistance to more than 88,095 family caregivers. Veterans’ trust in VA also reached an all-time high in 2024.
The Administration is building on this historic progress and announcing new actions to address toxic exposures for veterans, including by expanding the types of cancers considered presumptive for VA disability benefits. Today, new data were also released showing that veteran homelessness has reached its lowest point on record, marking a 7.5% reduction in veteran homelessness in the last year alone and 55.6% percent reduction since 2010. Additionally, the Department of Education is announcing $9 million in funding to support student veterans.
Expanding benefits for toxic exposed veterans. For far too long it has taken too much time for the government to acknowledge and address the harms associated with military related toxic exposures. In part due to the PACT Act, VA now has the ability to act more swiftly and in the interest of veterans. Last week, VA announced it would proceed with an accelerated review to support rulemaking that would create a presumption for Gulf War deployed veterans, including those who deployed to Karshi-Khanabad (K2) in Uzbekistan, a location described as a “toxic soup of exposures,” and are diagnosed with rare conditions that could be related to the many contaminants of concerns found at K2. Rulemaking would commence this year. VA also announced it will be moving forward with rulemaking to add four cancers, including bladder cancer, ureter cancer, multiple myeloma, and leukemias, to the list of conditions presumed to be related to burn pit exposure for all veterans deployed to the Southwest Asia area of operations, including for K2 veterans.
Ending veteran homelessness. Thanks to the efforts of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and VA, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness has reached a record low since measurement began in 2009. This reflects a 7.5% reduction in veterans experiencing homelessness since 2023, an 11.7% decrease since 2020, and a 55.6% reduction since 2010. In 2024 alone, VA has permanently housed nearly 48,000 veterans and awarded over $800 million in grants to help veterans experiencing homelessness. VA also expanded access to legal assistance for homeless veterans and helped more than 158,000 veterans and their families retain their homes or otherwise avoid foreclosure. Additionally, so far in 2024, nearly 90,000 veterans were under lease with vouchers through the HUD-VA Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) – the most veterans served at any point in the program’s history. President Biden has also called on Congress to triple the number of veterans who receive housing vouchers – a critical tool to help prevent veteran homelessness in the first place.
Supporting student veterans. It has been 80 years since the enactment of the Montgomery GI Bill. This law and the post-9/11 GI bill, allow veterans and eligible family members to receive educational benefits to help them obtain higher education and job training. Today, to support students returning to college, the Department of Education announced $9 million in awards to 13 grantees across 10 states under the Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success (CEVSS) program which funds model programs to support veteran student success in postsecondary education by coordinating comprehensive and targeted services to address the academic, financial, physical and mental health, and social needs of veteran students. Funds are being used for a variety of activities, including to enhance data systems to identify and track services and impact, including program completion, hire dedicated veteran success coaches, mentors, and coordinators, increase outreach, communication, and continuity of services, and provide professional development to faculty and staff on supporting veteran students.
These new announcements build on Administration-wide actions to support veterans and their families, including:
Lowering health care costs and expanding health care eligibility for veterans. President Biden believes access to health care is a right not a privilege. Today, millions of veterans are eligible for VA health care, thanks to the efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration. Since passage of the PACT Act, over 796,000 veterans have newly enrolled in VA health care. And, beginning last March, VA made all veterans who were exposed to toxins and other hazards while serving our country—at home or abroad—eligible for VA health care without any need to first apply for VA benefits. This includes all veterans who served in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other combat zone after 9/11. In addition to expanding care, veterans trust in VA reached 80.4% this year, an all-time record and an increase of 25% since 2016. Survey data also found that veteran trust in VA outpatient care increased to 91.8%, an all-time high. And, today, VA announced it plans to eliminate copayments for all telehealth care visits, building upon its September announcement which made tele-emergency care available nationwide, making it easier for veteran to receive timely access to virtual care when needed. These actions make it faster and easier for millions of veterans to access quality health care that they’ve earned and deserve.
Providing benefits to address toxic exposures. The bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act represents the most significant expansion in benefits and services for veterans in over thirty years. At President Biden’s direction, VA expedited health care and benefits eligibility under the PACT Act by several years, ensuring that they did not need to wait any longer for the care and benefits they deserved. VA has also conducted the largest outreach campaign in the history of the department, driving all-time record benefits applications and a sharp increase in health care enrollments. Since enactment, VA has received over 2 million PACT Act related claims and has granted toxic exposure benefits to more than 1.1 million veterans and over 11,000 survivors. Additionally, nearly 360,000 veterans eligible under the PACT Act have newly enrolled in VA health care and more than 5.82 million veterans have been screened for toxic exposure. More than 60,000 Veterans have enrolled in VA health care thanks to the expediting of the PACT Act, and more than 350,000 Veterans have granted PACT claims due to the elimination of the phase in approach.
Understanding the harms of toxic exposures. VA has ongoing efforts to research and understand the health conditions that veterans experience so that VA can provide them with all of the benefits and care they deserve. Last month, VA announced a new scientific assessment to determine if there is a relationship between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure during military service and kidney cancer among veterans. This review helps advance the President’s Unity Agenda and Biden Cancer Moonshot goals to understand and address environmental and toxic exposures and end cancer as we know it.
Reducing veteran suicide. Since releasing a comprehensive public health strategy for reducing military and veteran suicide, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to improve suicide prevention efforts. As of October 2024, VA has provided no-cost life-saving care to more than 82,000 veterans at risk of suicide since the program began. VA awarded over $150 million in grants for community-based organizations to deliver or coordinate suicide prevention programs and services for veterans and their family members. In September, VA announced more than $4.3 million in cooperative agreements to states and territories to help fund and provide technical assistance to better inform veteran suicide prevention suicide. Because economic and financial uncertainty can increase the risk of suicide, VA launched the National Veterans Financial Resource Center earlier this year to provide veterans and their families with a one-stop website to locate tools and resources to improve financial wellbeing.
Improving access to child and long-term care options. Last year, President Biden signed an historic Executive Order calling for more than 50 administrative actions that would improve access to and quality of child care and long-term care for Americans, including for our nation’s heroes. Thanks to these actions, each VA medical center offers veterans and their families with self-directed care options through the Veteran Directed Care (VDC) program. More than 700 Veterans are now receiving VDC services through the new programs.
Protecting veterans and their families from predatory actors and scams. In 2023, veterans, military personnel, and their families reported $477 million in losses to fraud. Last November, the President announced the new Veteran Scam and Fraud Evasion (VSAFE) Task Force to better protect veterans and their families against these scams. In 2024, VSAFE released several resources to cut down on any confusion, and get veterans, Service members, and their family members routed to the best support as effectively and efficiently as possible. A centralized website, VSAFE.gov, is a fraud prevention, response, and reporting information hub. Information from across federal agencies can be accessed in one place, making it easy for veterans, Service members, and their families to find out more about different kinds of fraud, to get assistance, and to report. A single shared call line, 833-38V-SAFE, will connect veterans, Service members, and their families with the best agency to handle their report and get help.
Improving Equity. Women are the fastest growing group of veterans who use VA services and the Administration is committed to addressing and providing resources for their specialized health care needs. In October 2023, to improve health outcomes for mothers and their newborn children, VA expanded access to its maternity care coordination from 8 weeks to 12 months post-partum. In total, VA is now serving more women than ever before, with nearly 750,000 receiving disability compensation benefits from VA in 2024. To ensure that all LGBTQ+ veterans can access the benefits they have earned, the Department of Defense announced it would proactively review and consider discharge upgrades for veterans who were discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and VA expanded access to care and benefits for those with other than honorable discharges. Additionally, VA released its 2024 Agency Equity Action Plan to help ensure that VA delivers on its promise to provide world-class care and benefits to all veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors ― regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or geographic location.
Advancing economic security for military and veteran spouses, caregivers, and survivors. Since Day One of the Biden-Harris Administration, First Lady Jill Biden, through her Joining Forces initiative, has worked to eliminate barriers to employment and increase economic opportunity for military-connected families. In June 2023, the President, alongside the First Lady, signed an Executive Order that included nearly 20 new actions to enhance career stability, expand employment resources, and improve transition assistance support for military and veteran spouses, caregivers, and survivors. In February 2024, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a government-wide plan to tackle employment barriers and expand opportunities for military-connected spouses, caregivers, and survivors. And, in April 2024, the Administration announced a permanent memorandum of agreement between the Department of Defense and State Department to strengthen the Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas (DETO) program for military spouses who work for the federal government. These actions represent the Biden-Harris Administration’s holistic commitment to ensuring that the Federal government is a leader among employers, modeling approaches to recruit, hire, and retain military spouse talent.
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