The VA provides health care, disability compensation, education benefits, and home loan guarantees to America's roughly 18 million living veterans and, in many cases, their families. It runs the Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the United States, with more than 170 medical centers and over 1,000 outpatient clinics nationwide.

The Veterans Benefits Administration processes disability compensation claims for injuries or illnesses connected to military service, administers the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which pays tuition and provides a housing stipend for veterans pursuing higher education, and guarantees home loans that allow veterans to buy homes with little or no down payment.

The department also operates the National Cemetery Administration, which maintains 155 national cemeteries and provides burial benefits for eligible veterans and their families, an obligation that has grown increasingly significant as the World War II and Korean War veteran generations age.

The VA's budget, about $369 billion, is split roughly in half between mandatory spending (disability compensation and pensions, which every eligible veteran receives automatically) and discretionary spending (most health care, which Congress funds each year, now largely a year in advance so it survives a government shutdown). It has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the federal budget, roughly tripling in real terms since 2000 as the Vietnam generation aged and eligibility expanded.