More than 100,000 new veterans enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system so far this year, the agency announced in a press release Monday.
The VA provides critical health care services to more than 9 million Americans across the country who have served in the U.S. military. The agency has faced a backlog in recent years impacting services for veterans, something the administration has sought to tackle.
VA Links Growth to Facility Expansion and Access Changes
The department touted the enrollment milestone as evidence that recent operational changes are drawing more eligible veterans into the federal health care system. It reached the 100,000-enrollee mark on March 31, earlier in the calendar year than in six of the past seven years, based on internal VA tracking, according to the press release.
“We have transformed VA from a bureaucratic organization to a service organization, where Veterans come first in everything we do,” VA Secretary Doug Collins wrote.
He said the latest enrollment numbers are “proof that Veterans are responding to the historic improvements we are making under President Trump.”
The VA pointed to several changes including the opening of 34 new facilities across the country and the reduced backlog as helping improve access to services.
The agency also highlighted a pledge to spend $5 billion this year to “modernize, repair and improve health care facilities,” describing that amount as the “largest non-recurring maintenance investment in VA’s history.”
Some changes by the administration, however, have drawn criticism from veterans groups. This includes an effort to implement a rule that would have changed disability ratings and compensation to be based on how veterans function under medication. The department has since rescinded that rule.
Claims Backlog Has Fallen Since 2025, VA Says
In February, the VA gave an update on efforts to reduce the department’s backlog.
The VA said that it had managed to reduce the backlog of disability compensation and pension benefit claims by 63 percent since January 20, 2025, when it stood at 264,717. The number of claims older than 125 days had also fallen to 17 percent from a peak of 70 percent in 2013, the VA said.
The VA defines backlogged compensation and pension claims as those pending more than 125 days and said the sustained reduction reflects more efficient processing, which will help deliver benefits to veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors more quickly.
The agency said it processed 3,001,734 disability compensation and pension claims in 2025—surpassing the previous record of about 2.49 million in 2024—and distributed $195 billion in compensation and pension payments to more than 6.9 million veterans and survivors over the course of the year.
What Trump Budget Proposal Said About VA
The enrollment milestone comes as the Trump administration is seeking to adjust funding for the VA as part of its broader 2027 budget proposal, which would need to pass Congress to become law.
President Donald Trump last week unveiled his 2027 budget request. Trump’s budget proposed boosting defense spending by $1.5 trillion. It also included additional support for the administration’s immigration enforcement and a 13 percent increase in funding for the Justice Department. It would also include cuts to dozens of programs, including environmental initiatives and programs the administration deems are advancing “woke” causes.
With regards to the VA, it called for $10.6 billion in additional spending for medical care, $800 million for health record modernization, several new construction projects, $130 million for AI investments and an additional $389 million for IT systems.
Trump’s budget also called for an end to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs across the department and restructuring in the Veterans Health Administration. It would also establish a “Warrior Independence and Self-Sufficiency Ethos (WISE) Office” that would “evaluate all programs across the VA enterprise.”
