decreasing steadily, with the greatest need being mental health providers and nursing corps. Funding The funding the VA receives is split into mandatory, which is an amount of spending dictated by law, and discretionary spending, which is spending that can be adjusted year to year. VHA's budget is part of the discretionary spending and is by far the largest portion of the department, reaching nearly 90% of the Department's annual amount allocated annually by Congress in FY2022. For FY2022, the Department's budget requested a total of $269.9 billion USD, of which $97.5 billion USD was allocated for various VHA programs, including $58.8 billion to support direct care in VA facilities, and $23.4 billion in support of community care claims. This was an increase of 10% over the FY 2021 appropriations, which were under $250 billion USD. Initiatives The VHA has expanded its outreach efforts to include men and women veterans and homeless veterans. The VHA, through its academic affiliations, has helped train thousands of physicians, dentists, and other health professionals. Several newer VA medical centers have been purposely located adjacent to medical schools. The VHA support for research and residency/fellowship training programs has made the VA system a leader in the fields of geriatrics, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease , and palliative care. The VHA has initiatives in place to provide a "seamless transition" to newly discharged veterans transitioning from Department of Defense health care to VA care for conditions incurred in the Iraq War or war in Afghanistan. The Veterans Health Administration Office of Research and Development's research into developing better-functioning prosthetic limbs, and treatment of PTSD are also heralded. The VHA has devoted many years of research into the health effects of the herbicide Agent Orange used by military forces in the Vietnam War. The VHA has also adopted Boston University's Project RED program, designed to improve the discharge process for veterans in hopes that, by educating patients, the VHA will experience a reduced number of readmission among veterans and provide more information on telerehabilitation. Use of electronic records VHA is especially praised for its efforts in developing a low cost open source electronic medical records system VistA which can be accessed remotely (with secure passwords) by health care providers. With this system, patients and nurses are given bar-coded wristbands, and all medications are bar-coded as well. Nurses are given wands, which they use to scan themselves, the