Women Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs is delivering disability compensation benefits to a record number of women Veterans.

As of Oct. 1, women Veterans will have access to maternity care coordinators from the beginning of their pregnancy to 12 months post-partum. This is an expansion from the previous end-date of 8 weeks after giving birth.

Lourdes, thank you for that kind introduction. More importantly, thank you for your distinguished career of service, which continues with your invaluable leadership of the Center for Women Veterans

West Point was founded on March 16th, 1802, 221 years ago today. Sue Fulton represents West Point’s trailblazing class of 1980, the first to graduate women. Thank you for challenging me every day to do better for all Vets, and for leading the charge for today’s important event.

This is the largest budget proposal in U.S. history for Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. The total FY 2024 request for VA is $325.1 billion, a $16.6 billion (+5.4%) increase above the FY 2023 budget enacted level. This includes a discretionary budget request of $142.8 billion, a $3.0 billion (+2.1%) increase over FY 2023. The 2024 mandatory funding request is $182.3 billion, an increase of $13.6 billion (+8.1%) above 2023.

Chief Wilson, thank you for that kind introduction. More importantly, thank you for your service in uniform and your leadership of the Military Women’s Memorial.

The Biden-Harris administration submitted to Congress the president’s budget for fiscal year 2023. This budget delivers critical resources to help VA serve Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors as well as they have served our country — and it will allow VA to continue providing more care, more services, and more benefits to more Veterans than any time in its history.

In celebration of International Women’s Day this March 8, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Center for Women Veterans is gifting stories of women Veterans to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

Graduates from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Women Veteran-Owned Small Business Initiative recently finished the VetBizLadyStart program, paving a way for their future in the federal marketplace.

Ms. Ruddock was a proud woman. She was proud of her heritage. She was proud to be an American. And she was rightly proud of her service. Once asked about her service, she simply stated—but we all know enormously understated—“I did what I was told, and I did what I had to do.”

You’re about to watch a documentary that traces the amazing story of the first female soldiers who served during World War I. The ‘Hello Girls’ were 223 extraordinary women who served as telephone operators during the great war. In 1917, the telephone was a new technology that could offer commanders an advantage on the frontlines in France.

Today the active force is 17 percent [women]. There are about 250,000 American women deployed in every corner of the world, on the front lines, manning freedom’s cause. They are now the fastest growing single group in the Armed Forces of the United States. And as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, they are the fastest growing group in our world.