The VA sought to reassure veterans and their families this week that core services and benefits for veterans would be protected in a government shutdown.
Congress must act by Sept. 30 — the last day of fiscal 2025 — to fund the government. Government closing would curtail all but essential services and put most federal employees out of work for the duration.
A short-term spending bill the House adopted to extend funding federal agencies through most of November failed to pass in the Senate on Friday before both chambers left Capitol Hill on break.
“Even in the event of a shutdown, veterans will still be able to access their health care, benefits and memorial services from VA,” the agency said on a webpage titled VA Contingency Planning.
More than 9 million veterans use at least one VA benefit or service.
Some less-critical services would end temporarily, according to the agency.
- Maintenance of cemetery grounds would stop, and the VA would not place permanent headstones at grave sites.
- Veterans career counseling and transition assistance services for individuals leaving military service would be canceled.
- VA’s network of regional benefits offices would close. The offices have representatives who meet with veterans, their families and survivors about their disability claims, pensions, home loans, life insurance and tuition assistance.
- The GI bill hotline that fields questions about higher-education tuition assistance would stop taking calls.
- VA also would stop processing applications for “pre-need” burials or print new presidential memorial certificates.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sent a letter Saturday to President Donald Trump demanding a meeting over the partisan differences holding up funding.
The Republican-led Congress wants to keep federal spending at fiscal 2025 levels, but Democrats are demanding the restoration of Medicaid cuts and an extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.
Trump said Friday there could be “a closed country for a period of time,” ABC News reported.
But the president also said the government will “take care” of military and Social Security payments in a shutdown.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is largely funded through advance appropriations, which ensures these critical programs continue with minimal disruption,” VA said.
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