The United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs heads the Department of Veterans Affairs, the largest Federal agency in the United States after the Department of Defense. If you’re curious about the missing apostrophe in “veterans,” you might want to know that the spelling of this agency started out inconsistently, with some people including the apostrophe and others leaving it out. Ultimately, a decision was made to remove the apostrophe for convenience, even though this is technically grammatically incorrect.
President George Bush Senior established the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1989, designating it a Cabinet level agency. As a result, the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs is a member of the Presidential Cabinet, appointed by the President and subject to confirmation hearings in the United States Senate. The US Secretary of Veterans Affairs is also in the Presidential line of succession, in the second to last position, with non-natural citizens and Acting Secretaries being excluded from the succession.
As a member of the Presidential Cabinet, the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs discusses issues which relate to veterans with the President, and proposes policy decisions which could benefit veterans. Although the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs does not need to be a member of the military, he or she usually is, and by convention, the Secretary resigns when a new Presidential administration takes office, allowing the President to select a new Secretary. The US Secretary of Veterans Affairs also meets with representatives of other agencies such as Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to discuss situations of mutual interest, such as advances in medical technology which could benefit injured veterans.
The secretary is assisted by Undersecretaries who head up the various sections within the Department of Veterans Affairs, also known as the Veterans Administration or VA. These departments deal with things like health care for veterans, housing assistance, education grants, death benefits, and job-retraining for veterans. The VA establishes an assortment of mandates and policies which impact the benefits offered to veterans and their families.
As one might imagine, the US Secretary of Veterans Affairs is often extremely busy in wartime. However, even when the country is not at war, large numbers of veterans and their families are entitled to VA benefits, keeping the agency occupied with long-term care and support. The VA’s extensive network of hospitals and other facilities offers some of the most cutting-edge medical care in the world, along with superb medical research opportunities.