The government shutdown remains ongoing and while most integral veterans’ services remain intact, other aspects have been affected and some concerns are emanating within veteran communities.
At midnight Wednesday the federal government shut down over disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress involving Affordable Care Act subsidies.
While federal government workers often bear the largest brunt of shutdowns, effects trickle down to other individuals and departments—including veterans the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The VA specifically prepares for moments like these, as part of what it calls its Human Capital Contingency Plan which assures “no exception” to providing quality, consistent care and services to veterans and their families during periods of absent government appropriations.
The department, in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also revised its contingency plan for fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2026 to make determinations should Congress fail to pass a budget.
What Will, Won't Change
The contingency plan estimates that 97 percent of VA employees continue to work during a shutdown.
Other aspects involving the VA and veterans that will not be impacted include:
- VA medical centers, outpatient clinics and vet centers.
- The processing and delivery of VA benefits, including compensation, pension, education and housing.
- Burials at VA national cemeteries, along with applications for headstones, markers and burial benefits processing.
These aspects, however, will be impacted:
- The ceasing of providing transition program assistance and career counseling.
- The VA’s GI Bill (1-888-GIBILL-1) and National Cemetery Applicant Assistance (1-800-697-6947) hotlines will be closed.
- VA benefits regional offices will be closed.
- Public Affairs and outreach to veterans will cease, including social media, VetResources emails, and responses to press inquiries.
- No grounds maintenance or placement of permanent headstones at VA cemeteries.
- Applications for pre-need burial at VA cemeteries will not be processed.
- No printing of new Presidential Memorial Certificates.
- No outreach to state, county, tribal, municipal, faith-based and community-based partners by VA Central Office.
Concerns About Future Claims
Veterans who benefit from the not-for-profit educational membership organization National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates (NOVA) have already expressed concerns in the fewer than 24 hours since the shutdown began.
NOVA is a national organization of attorneys and other qualified members who act as advocates for disabled veterans.
John Tucker, a VA disability attorney in St. Peterburg, Florida, told Military.com that for the most part, NOVA’s clients seem to be aware that the VA is pre-funded for veterans benefits that have already been approved.
“Our clients do not seem to be concerned that the benefits for which they have already been approved will be impacted, at least not in the short term,” Tucker said. “However, we have fielded several questions and received comments about how the shutdown will impact claims and appeals that are pending (but not approved yet), medical exams that are required for claims to move forward, and whether the timing of decisions by VA's Regional Offices will be delayed.”
There’s also a concern about previous efforts to reduce the workforce at the VA, Tucker said, including whether that will work in combination with the shutdown “to create a perfect storm that will slow the compensation claims process down and impact medical care.”
This is the first government shutdown since the one that lasted from December 2018 to January 2019. That was the second shutdown during Donald Trump's first presidential term.
In reaction to the shutdown that Trump and his conservative colleagues have blamed on Democrats, OMB Director Russ Vought said Wednesday that the Trump administration is cancelling nearly $8 billion in funding for “the Left’s climate agenda.”
The cuts will impact 16 states, all of which voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, according to Politico.
