Located on the Fort Snelling military reservation, the St. Paul VA Regional Office (VARO) moved to its present site in the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on May 22, 1969. The St. Paul VARO serves more than 409,000 veterans in geographic Minnesota with $378 million in VA benefits annually from compensation, pension, and vocational rehabilitation programs.

SELECT PROGRAMS

REGIONAL LOAN CENTER - Since 1962, all Loan Guaranty programs for Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota were under the jurisdiction of the St. Paul VA Regional Office. In 1997, St. Paul was selected to be one of nine Regional Loan Centers, expanding our Loan Guaranty jurisdiction to nine states throughout the Midwest. The Regional Loan Center services: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Wisconsin. Active VA home loans for this region are valued at $21.3 billion.

PILOT PROGRAMS

INFORMATION CENTER - The Telephone Information Center (IC) located at the St. Paul VA Regional Office was established in response to a Central Area Strategic Plan to improve telephone service to its customers. The IC improved customer access by reducing the blocked calls for stations in the Central Area. In January 1998, the IC conducted a test to determine the effectiveness of answering all general information calls at a centralized location.

The Information Center (IC) underwent a change in mission, effective October 1, 2000. It is now a national resource for assisting designated Regional Offices by answering all, or a portion, of their telephone inquiries over the C&P national toll-free telephone system between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. In addition, the IC is currently providing extended hours telephone service until 8:00 p.m. for the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Kansas.
 

CO-LOCATED PROGRAMS

DEBT MANAGEMENT CENTER - In January 1975, the Centralized Accounts Receivable Division, a nationwide debt collection operation for VA, was established at this station. This centralized debt collection operation was reorganized as the Debt Management Center (DMC) in August 1991. The St. Paul VARO continues to provide support services for the DMC.

NETWORK SUPPORT CENTER - This station hosts a Network Support Center which provides Information Technology (IT) support to 25 VA client stations. Responsibilities include providing ideas on current practices, potential improvements, reengineering initiatives, and assessment of IT/telecommunications initiatives and applications. The Network Support Center also provides recommendations on allocation of resources, equipment upgrades and replacement planning, emergency contingency planning, etc.

VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
CO-LOCATED AT THE ST. PAUL VARO