For his next health secretary, Trump needs a domestic Jim Mattis

Who should President Trump nominate to be secretary of Health and Human Services? He has just been through a rough first year on the health care front and, with some pivotal decisions to make, the right choice could set his administration on a better course.

The job of the HHS secretary is, first of all, a very big one. The department contains some of the federal government's most important agencies, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At more than $1 trillion, HHS oversees about 25% of the federal budget — the biggest budget of any Cabinet department. Decisions on approving drugs, fighting disease, managing public health threats and providing health benefits to over 100 million Americans are up to this department and its leaders.

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As much as anyone in the Cabinet, HHS secretaries have the day-to-day fate of ordinary Americans in their hands, particularly at vulnerable times in people's lives. What millions of Americans deal with on a daily basis — the high cost of prescription drugs, the safety of their food and medicine, finding a high quality nursing home for their parents, stemming the spread of outbreaks such as Zika or Ebola — this is the real day job of the HHS secretary. 

Trump would do well to appoint someone who has empathy for what it's like to be vulnerable and at the mercy of a health care system because of a chronic illness, disability, or the inability to afford care. Despite the headlines, much of the important work is not political but deeply personal. Someone who understands and can speak for and to the concerns of the public would make a good candidate.

At any given time, the HHS secretary must manage a number of screaming crises — the drug addiction epidemic, the public health implications of guns, the well-being of unaccompanied minors, a public health outbreak of unknown origin and whatever lies just around the corner. The president needs an experienced hand, someone comfortable managing a crisis of national importance with moral leadership and skillful decision-making. 

Trump needs a trusted bridge builder, not an ideologue. He has just lived through a nine-month crash course in how divisive health care can be and how unforgiving it is when you go it alone. Repealing the Affordable Care Act on a partisan basis would mean overseeing the unwinding of policies that newly covered millions of people and coping with an angry public. As it is, the new secretary will inherit full ownership of Trumpcare and a new executive order that many experts say will damage health insurance markets.

Trump needs someone who can help him with "Chuck and Nancy" if he wants multiple paths to legislation. Helping pass the bill sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., to stabilize the insurance exchanges is the right first step. Bipartisanship might not be easy in this climate, but it's the best way to ensure support when inevitable challenges arise. 

What kind of candidate should Trump avoid? Trump doesn't need a White House lackey. He needs a leader that both he and Congress will respect, in the model of someone such as Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Health care is, indeed, "complicated." Insurance markets, the drug approval process and genetic research are fragile areas, and they are fraught with special interests. Trump priorities such as tackling drug costs need to be pushed skillfully, given the forces lined up against them. 

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Trump also doesn't need an HHS secretary who, like some in his Cabinet, has a  disparaging view of the department's career staff. The HHS staff operates largely outside the realm of politics and focuses on some of our most important and difficult challenges. As I've seen up close, this team of cancer researchers, scientists, safety experts, actuaries, case workers, clinicians and public health workers needs a secretary who will energize and build them up, not demean them.  

Are there candidates who would be acceptable to Republicans, who have shown the right combination of empathy, experience and ability to build bridges, and who have also shown they would not bow to the politics of the moment? Here are seven who'd serve Trump and the country well and could be approved by large margins in the Senate:

Republican Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Brian Sandoval of Nevada have reputations for pragmatic, apolitical approaches to health care and could be calming forces with practical vision after such a divisive debate.

Two Trump officials who are doctors, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, have delivered big wins and operate largely above politics in very tough jobs.

Olympia Snowe, former GOP senator of Maine, comes from a state with many health challenges and has been a reasoned moderate voice. Mark McClellan, a doctor, ran both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the FDA and oversaw big changes with aplomb. New Mexico's Susana Martinez, the country's first female Republican Hispanic governor, would bring many of these traits and a needed new perspective.

While the base will push for a pro-life candidate or one who has other partisan attributes, the job of HHS secretary has become too important to be defined by any political litmus test. At this point, given the importance of health care to our lives and our economy, Trump should find his domestic Mattis.

Andy Slavitt, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is a former health care industry executive who ran the Affordable Care Act and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from 2015 to 2017. Follow him on Twitter: @ASlavitt.