July 21, 2005
Contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) Seventy-five years ago today, July 21, 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed an executive order which created a single federal agency to deal with veterans, combining various veterans programs into one organization. Seventy-five years later, that action has earned the praise of the U.S. Senate.

"Today, in the U.S. Senate, I have introduced a resolution (S. Res. 203) honoring those who have served in, and those who have been served by, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its predecessor agency," said U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho). "As Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, I am honored to offer public recognition of this auspicious anniversary and, more importantly, the fine work being done every day by over 237,000 VA employees."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the second largest federal employer, behind the U.S. Department of Defense. The VA provides health care to more than 5 million veterans and operates 157 hospitals and more than 850 community-based clinics, as well as 120 national cemeteries. There are more than 24 million veterans living today in the United States.

"The VA has a unique place in history having administered one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever enacted in the Nation's history, the ?Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944,' better known as the GI Bill of Rights. This legislation," Craig said, "revolutionized American society after World War II by providing educational opportunity to an entire generation of Americans."

Earlier in the day, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson kicked off what they termed a year-long celebration of the VA Department's 75th anniversary. Meeting at the historic Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, the Vice President honored all veterans, and paid special tribute to 103-year-old World War I veteran Lloyd Brown who attended the event, and 107-year-old Howard Ramsey, who lives in Oregon.

"At the time this American soldier [Ramsey] was born, the flag of the United States had 45 stars, and William McKinley was President," Cheney said.

The Vice President was serving in Congress in 1988 when Veterans Affairs was elevated to a cabinet level status. "On the day he signed the bill, President Ronald Reagan reminded the country that ?America's debt to those who would fight for her defense doesn't end the day the uniform comes off.'"

Secretary Nicholson, himself a Vietnam veteran, said that the nation is living up to the mandate President Reagan laid down, telling the crowd that no other country in the world approaches the United States in supporting its military veterans. "Not one."

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