Cabinet department
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
$193.0 Billion committed in FY2018
- Mission
- To fulfill President Lincoln's promise "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's veterans.
- Sub-agencies
- 5 bureaus and offices
- Website
- https://www.va.gov/ ↗
- Agency code
- 036
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how the money leaves VA.
Direct payments
$103.5B
54%
Grants
$1.8B
<1%
Contracts
$27.1B
14%
By sub-agency
The bureaus and offices inside VA, by dollars committed.
Where the money goes
Top destinations of VA's committed dollars. Direct payments to individuals (Medicare, Social Security, …) are aggregated by the government, so they show as the federal program rather than a named recipient.
Veterans Compensation for Service-Connected DisabilityProgram
$71.5B
Vha Outpatient Specialty CareProgram
$11.0B
What they buy
Top products and services VA buys under contract, by dollars committed.
Drugs and Biologicals
$6.0B
Medical- Other
$3.6B
Medical and Surgical Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies
$3.0B
It and Telecom- Other It and Telecommunications
$1.5B
Medical- Evaluation/Screening
$821.7M
It and Telecom- Integrated Hardware/Software/Services Solutions, Predominantly Services
$779.2M
Imaging Equipment and Supplies: Medical, Dental, Veterinary
$595.7M
Medical- Nursing Home Care Contracts
$593.1M
Support- Professional: Other
$533.3M
It and Telecom- Annual Software Maintenance Service Plans
$521.6M
Awards
The largest individual awards issued by VA.
Competition
How competitively VA's contract dollars were awarded. 'Not available' is legitimate sole-source (a single source — utilities, proprietary parts); 'not competed' is the flag worth a second look.
Competed
$23.5B
87%
Not competed
$3.1B
11%
Not available for competition
$517.8M
Contract set-asides
Contract dollars VA reserved before bidding for a specific kind of firm — small business, 8(a), service-disabled-veteran, women-owned, HUBZone — versus full and open competition.
Small business
$461.8M
2%
8(a)
$15.2M
<1%
Service-disabled veteran
$3.3B
12%
Where it lands
Top states by place of performance — where VA's work is done or its money lands, by dollars committed.
California
$22.3B
Texas
$16.8B
By fiscal year
Committed dollars grew 49% across FY2018–FY2025. VA's committed dollars per fiscal year, FY2018–FY2026.
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How to read these numbers
- Committed, not paid
Every figure is money this agency committed — legally promised by signing a contract or awarding a grant — counted in the year each action happened, not cash out the door.
- From FY2018 on
Agency pages start at fiscal year 2018, the first year of complete federal-assistance reporting. Earlier years aren't shown rather than shown wrong.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- Benefits show as programs
Medicare, Social Security, and other direct payments to individuals are aggregated by the government, so under Where the money goes they appear as the program, not a named recipient.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments
