What Happened?

About the Company

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established on March 15, 1989, succeeding the Veterans Administration. It is responsible for providing federal benefits to veterans and their families. Headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second-largest of the Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs for health care, financial assistance and burial benefits. Of the 22.2 million veterans currently alive, nearly three-quarters served during a war or an official period of conflict. About a quarter of the nation`s population is potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans. The responsibility to care for veterans, spouses, survivors and dependents can last a long time. Two children of Civil War veterans still draw VA benefits. About 184 children and widows of Spanish-American War veterans still receive VA compensation or pensions. VA`s fiscal year 2013 spending is projected to be approximately $140 billion, including almost $64 billion in discretionary resources and nearly $76.4 billion in mandatory funding. The discretionary budget request represents an increase of $2.7 billion, or nearly 4.5 percent, over the 2012 enacted level.

About the Person

Marina Martin, a Web developer and business efficiency expert, hails from consulting firm The Type-A Way, where she served as CEO. In August 2012, she was selected from an applicant pool of 700 people to become a Presidential Innovation Fellow. Martin worked on Project Open Data, a collection of code, tools, and case studies to help federal agencies adopt the Open Data Policy, released by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy in May. The Open Data Policy was created to make previously unavailable government data accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers and the public. Prior to joining the VA, Martin was also the first entrepreneur-in-residence at the Department of Education and head of the Education Data Initiative to make education data available in machine-readable formats.