Washington
“Of all the challenges we have at VA, morale may be the biggest problem,” Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., told Wilkie during the 90-minute confirmation hearing, where the senior Pentagon official pledged to “shake up complacency” at the second-largest federal department and implement a health care overhaul that would expand private care for veterans.
“You are getting an agency that has problems, that’s in need of help,” Isakson said. “There are no excuses anymore. Failure is not an option. We want to fix it before things fester.”
Sen. Jon Tester, Mont., the committee’s ranking Democrat, was more blunt, telling Wilkie that under the Trump administration, internal politics have undermined VA’s mission of serving veterans.
“We are seeing VA leadership — none of whom have been confirmed — lash out at anyone seeking true transparency,” Tester said, describing an agency that has become so politicized that career senior leaders are departing in droves.
“Recently we have seen VA political appointees work actively and publicly to undermine a secretary and deputy secretary who were unanimously confirmed by the Senate,” Tester told Wilkie, referring to President Donald Trump’s firing in March of then-Secretary David Shulkin and the ouster last month of the agency’s No. 2 official, Thomas Bowman. Shulkin had accused political operatives at VA of undermining him and plotting to remove him.
“I hope you agree that that type of behavior undermines the VA’s mission.”
Wilkie, 55, tried to reassure the committee that he would stand up to the White House and VA’s political leadership to improve veterans’ care even if it meant disagreeing with Trump on occasion.
“I have been privileged to work for some of the most high-powered people in town,” said Wilkie, who started his career as an aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and served Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Wilkie also promised not to interfere with the work of the agency’s inspector general, who has said that acting VA Secretary Peter O’Rourke has denied him records for an investigation. O’Rourke has come under fire from lawmakers for inaccurately calling the watchdog someone who “works for him,” according to internal correspondence released in recent weeks by Democrats.
Wilkie, an Air Force reserve officer and the son of an Army artillery commander who was severely wounded in Vietnam, is now in charge of military personnel policy for the Trump administration. He has spent three decades working in Washington on military and national security issues, developing deep connections on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
Wilkie grew up visiting American battlefields with his father and developed a lifelong fascination with military history. His ancestors fought for the Confederacy.
He was pressed by some committee Democrats to explain his past embrace of divisive cultural issues during a long career working for polarizing political figures.
Wilkie counts Helms, a five-term Senate firebrand who denounced the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and once called gay people “weak, morally sick wretches,” as a mentor.
Wilkie also was a member and supporter of organizations dedicated to preserving Confederate memorials and honoring the Confederacy.
“I will say, and I say it respectfully, I welcome the scrutiny of my entire record,” he told Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.