Higher than anticipated costs for mandated veterans’ benefits, medical care for toxic exposures will drive Department of Veterans Affairs budget for fiscal 2025 to more than $400 billion.
Higher than anticipated costs for mandated veterans’ benefits and medical care for toxic exposures will drive the Department of Veterans Affairs budget for fiscal 2025 to more than $400 billion — a roughly $30 billion increase to the amount that Congress approved, the agency said.
Congress has appropriated a $31.7 billion increase to the $369.1 billion spending plan to cover veterans disability compensation and medical care through the Toxic Exposures Fund that is required under federal law, said Peter Kasperowicz, the VA press secretary.
The increase provides the VA with necessary funds to cover fiscal 2025, which ends Sept. 30, the agency said. For fiscal 2026, which starts Oct. 1, the VA is requesting $441.3 billion — a 10% increase from 2025, according to a budget summary released Friday.
VA Secretary Doug Collins pledged to prioritize critical VA programs in 2026 that address suicide risks, homelessness, substance abuse, chronic pain and access to rural health care, according to the budget documents.
“President [Donald] Trump is committed to balancing the budget, while providing necessary funding for critical non-defense discretionary priorities that include caring for the nation’s veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors,” according to a summary in the documents.
The 2026 budget requests $301.2 billion in mandatory funding, an increase of $34.2 billion from the previous year, for disability compensation, pensions, readjustment funds and other veterans benefits required by law.
But for fiscal 2025, Congress paid $25.7 billion in additional funds to cover higher than anticipated requests for mandatory benefits, and another $6 billion for medical claims from toxic-exposed veterans.
The medical claims were made to the Toxic Exposures Fund, which covers veterans exposed to toxic substances during military service, including pollution from burn pits, radiation and industrial solvents. The fund was created under the PACT Act of 2022, which established service-connected disability payments and health coverage for toxic-exposed veterans.
Costs to provide services and benefits under the fund were $20 billion in 2024, $30.4 billion in 2025 and a projected $52.6 billion in 2026, according to budget documents.
The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act “represents the most significant expansion of VA health care and disability compensation benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other environmental exposures in 30 years,” budget documents state.
The budget summary also projects spending for all other VA health coverage. Budget figures show spending for non-VA medical care by private doctors will grow from $22.5 billion to $34 billion, and funding for VA medical services would decrease from $69 billion to $57 billion.
For VA staffing, the 2026 budget proposes to fund 455,874 full-time positions. The figure is a decrease of 2,964 positions from the “2025 enacted level.”
“Most of the decrease — 2,042 [full-time equivalents] — is in the Veterans Benefits Administration. The 2026 budget assumes there will be no pay increase for civilian employees in calendar year 2026,” budget documents state.
The 2026 staffing request does not reflect plans for a reduction in force that VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek discussed in a memo to VA leaders that was leaked to news reporters in March. That memo stated VA will return staffing to 2019 levels of 399,957 employees, as part of a larger downsizing of federal agencies ordered by Trump.
“The budget numbers for staffing do not fully account for VA’s reform plan, which is still being developed,” Kasperowicz said.
The VA has undertaken a department-wide review of its organization and structure to identify and eliminate waste, the agency said.
“While the VA anticipates increased efficiencies, there are no savings assumptions from personnel reductions resulting from the department-wide review in the FY 2026 budget,” according to budget documents.
The 2026 budget also provides funds to update the VA’s online medical records system. Funding would grow from $1.3 billion in 2025 to nearly $3.5 billion. The update will make the patient medical records system “interoperable” with the Defense Department, other federal agencies and private medical offices registered to accept VA reimbursements and provide care for veterans.
In 2026, funds for the National Cemetery Administration also would increase from $480 million to $497 million, according to budget documents. Funding for major construction projects would grow by more than $900 million to $1.8 billion in 2026.
- Veterans Healthcare