WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, David Shulkin, promises to meet the health care needs of millions of veterans and is rejecting a dismantling of the beleaguered agency or wide-scale firings as a way to do it.
Trump tapped Shulkin, the VA’s current top health official, to be VA secretary after a presidential campaign in which the Republican billionaire described the agency as “the most corrupt” and “probably the most incompetently run.”
But as Shulkin prepares to face a Senate panel Wednesday, the 57-year-old physician is suggesting more modest changes.
“VA is a unique national resource that is worth saving, and I am committed to doing just that,” Shulkin said in prepared remarks for the hearing, obtained by The Associated Press. “There will be far greater accountability, dramatically improved access, responsiveness and expanded care options, but the Department of Veterans Affairs will not be privatized under my watch.”
Praising the VA workforce, Shulkin called it unfortunate that “a few employees” who didn’t follow policies may have tarnished the department’s overall reputation. Trump’s 10-point plan to fix the VA focuses in part on the firing and disciplining of VA employees, including a commission to investigate wrongdoing and a special 24-hour White House hotline staffed by a live person to register complaints about the VA.
“VA has many dedicated employees across the country, and our veterans tell us that every day,” Shulkin said.
Shulkin is in line to be the lone ex-Obama administration official serving in Trump’s Cabinet amid a conservative push to privatize several government services and fierce partisan battles over Trump’s other Cabinet nominees.
Expected to be approved in the Senate, Shulkin would be the first non-veteran ever to lead the government’s second-largest agency.
He is nevertheless expected to be met with tough questioning on the scope of any VA plans to work more closely with the private sector and a persistent backlog in processing disability claims.
