Organization and Function
The Department of Veterans Affairs is headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The current Secretary of Veterans Affairs is Retired U.S. Army General Eric Shinseki. The primary function of the Department of Veterans Affairs is to support Veterans in their time after service by providing certain benefits and supports. A current initiative in the Department of Veterans Affairs is to prevent and end Veterans' homelessness, with the VA working with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to address these issues.
Celebrities are making major headway in solving the homeless veteran population which has reached crisis levels in the United States. In May 2011 the Washington Post reported that home prices hit their lowest level since April 2009. United States analysts concluded that prices had fallen by more than they did during the Great Depression. The news report that elevated the crisis was supported by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index.
The Case-Shiller report found that single-family home prices fell 4.2 percent nationally in the first quarter from the previous quarter. Secretary Shinseki sits on the Council, and is committed to the goal of ending Veterans homelessness by 2015 as laid out in Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which was released in 2010.
The Department has three main subdivisions, known as Administrations, each headed by an Undersecretary:
- Veterans Health Administration - (VHA) responsible for providing health care in all its forms, as well as for biomedical research (under the Office of Research and Development, Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs), and Regional Medical Centers
- Veterans Benefits Administration - (VBA) responsible for initial veteran registration, eligibility determination, and five key lines of business (benefits and entitlements): Home Loan Guaranty, Insurance, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, Education (GI Bill), and Compensation & Pension
- National Cemetery Administration - responsible for providing burial and memorial benefits, as well as for maintenance of VA cemeteries
Read more about this topic: United States Department Of Veterans Affairs
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