Five decades of Veterans-affairs budget authority.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' budget authority, FY1976– FY2031, from OMB's Historical Tables. The line predates the 1989 elevation of the Veterans Administration to a Cabinet department, and it climbs steeply after the mid-2010s — driven mostly by mandatory benefit growth and, since 2022, the PACT Act Toxic Exposures Fund.
FY2027 budget authority
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nominal · OMB estimate
All-time peak
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Series span
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0 fiscal years
Years parsed
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contiguous, numeric — self-checked
VA budget authority — the arc since 1976
nominal (current $) · OMB Historical Table 5.2Reading the arc
The steep climb is mostly mandatory, not discretionary. As more Veterans qualify for disability compensation and pensions — and as the PACT Act extended benefits to Veterans exposed to burn pits and other environmental hazards — the mandatory side of VA's budget grew far faster than the appropriated base. That is exactly why a department-level monitor keeps the two dialects separate: the same total can mean very different things depending on which side is moving. This series is shown in nominal dollars: OMB's Historical Table 5.2 does not publish a constant-dollar basis, and we do not synthesize one.