Reagan Seeks Cabinet-Level Veterans Agency

President Reagan, who criticized his predecessor’s creation of the Departments of Education and Energy, said Tuesday that he wants to make the Veterans Administration a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs.

While Reagan was endorsing the creation of a new department on the day before Veterans Day, the House Government Operations Committee unanimously approved legislation that would give the Cabinet-level status to the VA, now the largest independent agency in the federal government.

Reagan made his announcement in the Cabinet Room at the start of a meeting with leaders of veterans groups and members of Congress, triggering cheers and applause.

“There is no better time or better way to salute those valiant men and women . . . . Veterans have always had a strong voice in our government. It’s time to give them the recognition they so rightly deserve,” Reagan said.

Opposed Departments

Reagan came into office in 1981 complaining that government was too large and opposing the Education and Energy departments established under the Jimmy Carter Administration. He tried unsuccessfully to abolish them.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, asked how Reagan’s endorsement fit his previous complaints about government, said making the VA a Cabinet department “would not necessarily increase its size or budget but would give it a greater say in the councils of government and would make it an active and working part of the President’s Cabinet.”

Veterans groups and their advocates in Congress have been pushing for elevating the VA to a department and making the administrator a Cabinet secretary.

Supporters said the move would heighten visibility of the VA and veterans issues and increase the administrator’s access to the President at a time when the White House has proposed cuts in VA medical program spending and other areas.

Under the Reagan Administration, some veterans have been required for the first time to pay a portion of the costs of their treatment at VA hospitals.

In the House, where chances for passage were regarded as good, a vote was on the legislation was possible as early as next week.