In 1930 President Hoover signed an executive order which united three separate bureaus and established the independent Veterans Administration.  By the 1980s, the VA had grown to become "the largest independent federal agency in terms of budget and was second only to the Department of Defense in number of employees."


It was President Ronald Reagan who in 1988 signed legislation to create the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

—Source: VA History in Brief, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs