Veterans Affairs secretary confirmed 100-0
The Senate Monday unanimously confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Veterans Affairs secretary, David Shulkin.
The vote was 100-0 for Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama administration who has served as VA undersecretary of health since 2015. A physician and former health care executive, Shulkin will be the first VA secretary in the department’s history never to have served in the military.
Shulkin’s confirmation Monday was swift — the Senate set aside just 10 minutes for debate on his nomination after spending several days on a handful of contentious Trump nominees. The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee unanimously approved Shulkin’s nomination last week, and he earned the support of all Senate Democrats Monday despite concerns over whether Trump might move to privatize the VA.
During his Feb. 1 confirmation hearing, Shulkin allayed Senate Democrats’ concerns that the VA system would be privatized, describing himself as “a strong advocate of the VA.”
“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,” Shulkin testified.
Shulkin’s confirmation drew mostly praise from veterans service organizations.
“Veterans are very fortunate to have Dr. Shulkin voluntarily stay in what has evolved into the most scrutinized and criticized position in the country,” Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Brian Duffy said in a statement.
“And it should be,” he added.
The conservative Concerned Veterans for America, which has pushed for veterans to obtain greater health care from the private sector and has criticized the VA for not holding problem employees accountable, said Monday it was “encouraged” Shulkin had “acknowledged systemic failures within the VA and the need for transformational reforms to fix them.”
“We look forward to partnering with Secretary Shulkin to bring real accountability to the department and empower veterans who wish to use their benefits to access care in the private sector,” CVA Policy director Dan Caldwell said in a statement. “We remain optimistic that Dr. Shulkin will embrace the bold reforms President Trump laid out on the campaign trail, so that American veterans will begin to see a more transparent, efficient, and customer-focused VA.”
In assuming the top job at VA, Shulkin pledged to work to regain the trust of the veterans that had been lost in the department’s 2014 wait-times scandal, which exposed problems with access to medical treatment and resulted in the resignation of then-Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Shulkin also will take over as Congress considers whether to extend the Veterans Choice Program, created in the wake of the scandal to reduce VA appointment wait times. He told the Senate the program had added more complexity for veterans trying to access care.
The $10 billion emergency program, which subsidizes non-VA medical care for veterans who face lengthy waits for appointments or live long distances from a VA hospital or clinic, is set to expire in August or when it runs out of money, whichever comes first. Lawmakers, however, have floated extending the program.
A hiring freeze ordered by Trump during his first week as president also drew concerns from both Democrats and Republicans that services for veterans would suffer if open positions went unfilled. But Shulkin estimated that of an estimated 45,000 open positions, 37,000 positions were exempted due to public safety.
Shulkin also told senators at his confirmation hearing he was concerned with a growing backlog of disability claims appeals and urged Congress to overhaul the appeals process, a key legislative priority for the VA and veterans groups.