Opinion ID: 1400623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Chaplain Service

Text: The Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) is an executive agency, see 38 U.S.C. § 301(a), that traces its history to the Veterans Administration, an agency that President Herbert Hoover created by Executive Order. [1] The VA subsequently was elevated to cabinet-level status. See Department of Veterans Affairs Act, Pub.L. No. 100-527, 102 Stat. 2635 (Oct. 25, 1988). The Department is charged with the responsibility for, among other things, providing healthcare to the veterans of our armed forces as well as to their eligible family members and survivors. See 38 U.S.C. §§ 301(b), 1710, 7301(b). Congress created, within the organizational structure of the VA, the Veteran's Health Administration (the VHA); it mandated that the VHA provide a complete medical and hospital service for the medical care and treatment of veterans, as provided for by other portions of Title 38. 38 U.S.C. § 7301(b). The VA's healthcare system is extensive; it includes: 154 medical centers, with at least one in each state, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.; 875 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics; 136 nursing homes; 43 residential rehabilitation treatment programs; 206 Veterans Centers; and 88 comprehensive home-care programs. In 2005, approximately 5.3 million people received care in a VA healthcare facility. The VA  following the lead of private healthcare providers, it claims  has adopted a holistic approach to healthcare. Accordingly, it offers pastoral care, administered by VA chaplains, to veterans who receive VA healthcare. Chaplains have a venerable history in the armed forces of our Republic. The Continental Army was first authorized to employ chaplains on July 29, 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized payment for a Continental Chaplain; [2] shortly thereafter, General George Washington ordered that regimental chaplains be assigned. [3] After the adoption of the Constitution, the First Congress authorized the appointment of a commissioned Army chaplain, Act of 1791, Ch. 28, § 5, 1 Stat. 222, and subsequent Congresses have increased the number of chaplains in the armed forces. [4] By the Civil War, the Army chaplains assisted in the provision of veterans' healthcare. On March 3, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation establishing the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. [5] The by-laws adopted by the board of managers [6] of the National Home created the position of chaplain, and the by-laws also directed that he perform all the duties incident to his profession and position, administering to the spiritual wants and comforts of the members of the Branch to which he is appointed. [7] Nearly one hundred years later, on November 28, 1945, VA Administrator General Omar N. Bradley authorized the Director of Chaplains to station chaplains in all VA hospitals. R.20, Ex. 6, at 6. Beginning in 1953, the Chaplain Service was organized as a professional care discipline under the Department of Medicine and Surgery within the VA. In 1962, Congress authorized the Secretary to designate a member of the Chaplain Service of the Department as Director, Chaplain Service. See 38 U.S.C. § 7306(e)(1). That is the extent of congressional authorization for the VA's Chaplain Service. Recent relevant congressional appropriations bills neither appropriate funds expressly to be used in connection with the Chaplain Service nor require that the VA provide such services. [8]