Washington
The decision ends a protracted search for a head of the second-largest federal agency and would make Shulkin the first VA secretary who had not served in the military. Trump said he and his transition team had interviewed “at least 100 people” in their search for an executive to carry out multiple promises he has made to improve the care of veterans. In the end, they looked inside.
Shulkin, 57, who would be the first Obama administration holdover for Trump, was confirmed unanimously for his post in June 2015, a sign he could breeze through the Senate confirmation process.
“I have no doubt Dr. Shulkin will be able to lead the turnaround our Department of Veterans Affairs needs,” Trump said at his first news conference since his election, calling him an “incredibly gifted doctor.”
“His sole mandate will be to serve our veterans and restore the level of care we owe to our brave men and women in the military,” Trump said. “Sadly our great veterans have not gotten the level of care they deserve, but Dr. Shulkin has the experience and the vision to ensure we will meet the health-care needs of every veteran.”
Shulkin is an internist who came to government with 30 years’ experience leading private hospitals. He has led the sprawling veterans health system — the country’s largest, with 1,700 clinics and hospitals — for just 18 months, working to improve patients’ access to care after a nationwide scandal over fudged wait lists for medical appointments.
During his campaign, Trump called VA a “broken” system that treats illegal immigrants “better than our vets.”
Shulkin is in line to run an agency beset by challenges, including a backlog in disability claims that has shifted in recent years from initial applications to appeals; a rising suicide rate; overuse of opiates; and a shortage of doctors and nurses.
“We are both eager to begin reforming the areas in our Veterans Affairs system that need critical attention, and do it in a swift, thoughtful and responsible way,” Shulkin said in a statement released by the transition team.
In keeping Shulkin, Trump passed over the current secretary, Robert McDonald, a Republican appointed by Obama in 2014 after the wait-times scandal forced out his first VA chief, retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki. Washington’s large and influential veterans service organizations had pushed Trump unsuccessfully to keep McDonald in the job.
Trump also passed over a favorite of some of his top aides, Fox News Channel contributor and Iraq War veteran Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a former president and chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers.
Hegseth had pledged to make it easier to fire poor performers and significantly expand VA medical care to private doctors outside the system.
But he had not run a large organization comparable to the veterans’ system.
Expanding private care is one of Trump’s biggest priorities for veterans, and it’s unclear how Shulkin would approach such a change.