WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed Pentagon official Robert Wilkie to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, tasked with delivering on President Donald Trump's campaign promises to fire bad VA employees and steer more patients to the private sector.
Wilkie won approval on a bipartisan vote of 86-9, securing the backing of many Democrats after insisting at his confirmation hearing that he will not privatize the government's second-largest department.
Wilkie will be the 10th secretary of Veterans Affairs in the agency's 29-year history, but he is also Trump's third pick for the job in 18 months. The longtime public official says he will "shake up complacency" at the agency, which has struggled with long waits in providing medical treatment to millions of veterans.
In a statement released by the White House, Trump applauded the confirmation vote and said he looked forward to Wilkie's leadership.
"I have no doubt that the Department of Veterans Affairs will continue to make strides in honoring and protecting the heroic men and women who have served our nation with distinction," he said.
As VA secretary, Wilkie will also have more power under a new accountability law to fire VA employees. Lawmakers from both parties have recently raised questions about the law's implementation, including how whistleblower complaints are handled and whether the law is being disproportionately used against rank-and-file employees rather than senior managers who set policy.
Wilkie's main task in the coming months will be carrying out a newly signed law to ease access to private health providers. That law gives the VA secretary wide authority to decide when veterans can bypass the VA, based on whether they receive "quality" care, but the program could face escalating costs.
Some Democrats have warned the VA won't be able to handle a growing price tag, putting it at risk of budget shortfalls next year. Major veterans' groups want full funding for core VA medical centers, which they see as best suited to veterans' specialized needs such as treatment for post-traumatic stress.
Trump selected Wilkie for the post in May after firing his first VA secretary, David Shulkin, amid ethics charges and internal rebellion at the department over the role of private care for veterans. Trump's initial replacement choice, White House doctor Ronny Jackson, withdrew after allegations of workplace misconduct surfaced.
Wilkie, a former assistant secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, has received mostly positive reviews from veterans' groups for his management experience, but the extent of his willingness to expand private care as an alternative to government-run VA care remains largely unknown.
Trump last year pledged he would triple the number of veterans "seeing the doctor of their choice." Currently more than 30 percent of VA appointments are made in the private sector.
"Robert Wilkie is the real deal," Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said on the Senate floor before the vote. "I told him, 'You have no excuses.' We're here to make sure VA has no excuses, only results."
Under repeated questioning at the hearing, the Air Force and Navy veteran said he opposed privatizing the agency and would make sure VA health care is "fully funded." When pressed by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the top Democrat on the panel, if he would be willing to disagree with Trump, Wilkie responded "yes."
"I have been privileged to work for some of the most high-powered people in this town," said Wilkie, currently a Pentagon undersecretary for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. "They pay me for their opinions, and I give those to them."
Several of the nine votes opposing Wilkie came from potential 2020 presidential candidates who have opposed other Trump Cabinet nominees. They include Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., moved quickly to get Wilkie in place after a report in The Washington Post last week on a politically motivated purge of employees by VA's interim leadership. After revelations that acting secretary Peter O'Rourke has taken aggressive steps to sideline or reassign employees who are perceived to be disloyal, Isakson called for a confirmation vote "without delay."
O'Rourke also clashed with the VA inspector general after refusing to release documents relating to VA whistleblower complaints and casting the independent inspector general as an underling who must "act accordingly." Under pressure from Congress, the VA agreed last week to provide documents to the inspector general.
"Today, [like] never before, we've got political forces at work inside VA," Tester said before the vote, describing an agency he said has lost sight of its mission of serving veterans.
"Good employees are being forced out not because of the job they're doing but because of their views," Tester said. "Veterans need a leader who will build bridges, not tear down the department to meet a political agenda."
Isakson had told Wilkie at his confirmation hearing this month that poor morale was the biggest challenge he would face leading the government's second-largest agency, with 360,000 employees.
According to data compiled by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, more than 26,000 full-time employees left VA last year, with the majority quitting and retiring.
"The first thing VA needs right now is employee confidence in their senior leadership," said Joe Davis, communications director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Trump is scheduled to address the group today at Kansas City, Mo., during its annual convention.
"There's a morale problem," Davis said. "There's nobody captaining the ship. VA is often a headline away from a nationwide crisis."
Others, however, argue that the high staff turnover is beneficial, letting the agency replace employees who did not support Trump's policies.
"I don't think many of [those who've left] were aligned with the president's vision for VA," said Dan Caldwell, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
"The tone has been set by President Trump on the direction of VA reforms," Caldwell added. "There have been a tremendous number of bills passed in the last year and half, and all will require a lot of work to make sure they are properly implemented."
Wilkie served as acting VA secretary after Shulkin's firing in March, before returning to his role as Pentagon undersecretary.
Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen of The Associated Press; and by Lisa Rein of The Washington Post.
A Section on 07/24/2018