# Veterans Benefits **OMB budget function 700** — disability compensation, pensions, health care, education (the GI Bill), and housing for military veterans, delivered mainly through the [[Department of Veterans Affairs]]. **~$0.38 trillion in FY2025**, and one of the **fastest-growing** functions (+15.8% year-over-year), driven largely by the 2022 PACT Act's expansion of toxic-exposure (burn-pit) disability claims. ## Why it grows - The PACT Act added millions of newly eligible claims, pushing disability compensation sharply higher. - VA health care costs rise with an aging veteran population and expanded eligibility. - Politically, veterans' spending is **bipartisan and protected** — closer to the [[Social Security]] end of the spectrum than the [[Medicaid]] end — which is why it keeps growing through administrations of both parties. ## The RWKB angle Veterans Benefits is a useful control case: a rapidly growing program that is *not* targeted for cuts, because its constituency is universally sympathetic. It shows that the cut/grow pattern across the budget tracks **political defensibility**, not cost growth or "waste." The [[DOGE]] workforce cuts collided with VA staffing here, creating a politically costly fight the administration largely retreated from. ## Related - [[Department of Veterans Affairs]] · [[Social Security]] · [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]] - [[Budget Functions]] · [[Federal Budget FY2025]] · [[Budget Hub]]