VA shortfalls loom after Jackson miss
White House urged to take time in vetting new nominee
WASHINGTON – The failed nomination of Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs dealt another blow to an agency already reeling from months of chaos and facing critical shortfalls in program funding and medical staffing.
Jackson withdrew from consideration Thursday amid a raft of misconduct allegations, including that as a White House doctor he repeatedly drank on duty, improperly dispensed drugs and fostered a hostile work environment. He called the allegations “baseless” and “fabricated.”
President Trump said Jackson is a “great man” who was “treated very, very unfairly.” He said he already had a replacement in mind but was keeping the identity secret for now.
“I think we’ll have somebody great,” the president said on Fox. “Somebody that is more — look, the admiral is not a politician, which is what I liked.”
The search for a new leader comes just weeks before money is set to run out for the VA Choice program, which allows veterans to get government-funded medical care in the private sector when the VA can’t meet their needs. The agency is short some 33,000 medical workers, and as of last month, 700,000 veterans were waiting longer than a month for VA appointments.
VA Press Secretary Curt Cashour issued a statement this week maintaining that order has been restored in the top ranks of the agency under Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary from the Department of Defense installed by Trump to run the VA after he fired the last secretary, David Shulkin. Shulkin had been openly feuding with a group of top aides he said were trying to undermine him.
“Under Acting Secretary Wilkie’s leadership, senior VA officials are now on the same page, speaking with one voice to veterans, employees and outside stakeholders, such as Congress and veterans service organizations,” Cashour said.
Within hours of Jackson’s withdrawal, stakeholders began weighing in.
“Personally, I’d like the president to consider a woman veteran for the position, and I believe there is great productive potential in the White House teaming with non-partisan veterans groups to discuss the characteristics and qualifications we believe a VA secretary should possess,” said Joe Chenelly, executive director of AMVETS, which rep- resents more than 250,000 veterans. He called for a nationwide search.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the highest ranking Democrat on the VA committee who led the investigation of Jackson, said he plans to be just as aggressive in vetting whomever Trump chooses. But a key test, aside from experience and ethics, will be a pledge not to push too many VA services into the private sector.
“The next secretary must have a commitment to reform a strained health care system and a willingness to stand up to special interests who want to privatize the VA,” he said.
A number of candidate’s names have been circulating, including Wilkie and Fox host Pete Hegseth, whom the president is said to favor but who likely couldn’t be confirmed because of Democratic opposition. Deputy VA Secretary Thomas Bowman is a former aide to Senate VA Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson of Georgia and has some bipartisan support, but he is not favored by the White House.
Dan Caldwell, executive director of conservative advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America, urged the White House to “take its time to carefully select and vet a new nominee.”