What Happened to United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)?

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has navigated a period of intense activity and reform from 2024 through early 2026, marked by the continued rollout of the Honoring Our PACT Act, a critical push to modernize its digital infrastructure, and a notable shift in leadership. The PACT Act, signed into law in 2022, remained a central focus, expanding healthcare and benefits for millions of veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. By August 2024, over 1 million veterans and survivors had received disability compensation under the Act, with more than $6.8 billion in benefits delivered. The VA processed a record 2.5 million claims in fiscal year 2024, and by January 2025, approved over 1.4 million PACT Act claims, awarding more than $8.9 billion in backdated benefits. This surge in claims necessitated significant operational adjustments and IT modernization efforts within the VA's benefits systems.

One of the VA's most challenging undertakings, the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program, saw a critical turning point. After deploying the new Oracle Health system to a few medical centers between 2020 and 2022, the VA paused further deployments in April 2023 due to significant user concerns, safety issues, and functionality problems, including incidents of harm to at least 149 patients. This pause allowed the VA to address over 1,800 requested configuration changes and improve system performance. In December 2024, the VA announced it would resume planned deployments in mid-2026, starting with four Michigan facilities in April 2026. The department aims to accelerate adoption, with plans to add nine more sites in 2026 and roughly 170 more nationwide by 2031, despite ongoing concerns about user satisfaction and the lack of an updated total life cycle cost estimate.

Leadership at the VA transitioned in early 2025. Denis McDonough, who served as Secretary from 2021, concluded his tenure in 2025. Douglas A. Collins was appointed as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, taking office in February 2025. Under Secretary Collins' leadership, the VA reported dramatic improvements in benefits processing. By April 2026, the average time to complete a disability claim had fallen by 43% from early 2025, from 141.5 days to just 80.7 days. The VA processed a record 3 million claims in fiscal year 2025 and completed its first million claims of 2026 by early February. The backlog of claims older than 125 days dropped below 100,000 for the first time since 2020. Claims-processing accuracy also reached 94.02%, the highest 12-month rate in two years.

Beyond these major initiatives, the VA continued to focus on critical areas such as mental health and veteran homelessness. In fiscal year 2025, the VA permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans, the highest total in seven years, and set a goal to house at least 48,000 individual veterans in FY2026. Mental health services remained a priority, with efforts to expand access and address workforce shortages, though a proposed cut of 30,000 jobs across the organization in 2026 raised concerns about understaffing in mental health. The VA also faced scrutiny in July 2025 over the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of contracts, some supporting critical veteran services, based in part on recommendations from a controversial AI tool. Despite these challenges, overall veteran trust in the VA reached an all-time high of 82% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.