VA Pick Has Long History Of Fighting On Front Lines Of His Bosses’ Culture Wars
President Donald Trump's pick for VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, will have his hearing in front of the Senate today. He brings with him three decades of experience with military policies and a history of working with some polarizing politicians.
The Washington Post:
Robert Wilkie, Trump’s VA Nominee, Built A Career Working With Polarizing Figures In American Politics
Robert Wilkie, President Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is a conservative Washington insider who would bring three decades of military policymaking and a deep list of Capitol Hill connections to a Cabinet post responsible for serving one of the administration’s most crucial constituencies. But when he appears Wednesday for his Senate confirmation hearing, Wilkie will also draw on a career spent working shoulder to shoulder with polarizing figures in American politics and often defending their most divisive views. (Sonne and Rein, 6/26)
The Associated Press:
Low-Key Washington Insider Makes A Bid To Fix Struggling VA
Wilkie wasn't Trump's first choice to replace Shulkin; his nomination of White House doctor Ronny Jackson withered in the face of late-surfacing allegations of workplace misconduct. All the while, Wilkie was quietly working at the VA, signing a major $10 billion deal to overhaul veterans' electronic medical records. He was taken aback when Trump made an impromptu offer of the permanent job at a public event in mid-May. (6/26)
Meanwhile —
CQ:
VA Official Absent At First House Oversight Hearing On Records
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee convened its first oversight hearing on a 10-year, $10 billion electronic health records overhaul without the Department of Veterans Affairs official in charge of the project. The department’s acting chief information officer, Camilo Sandoval, was absent from the hearing Tuesday after the committee declined to invite him to testify. Sandoval is being sued for sexual harassment over his treatment of a colleague during their time on the Trump campaign, and was reportedly involved in the ouster of former VA Secretary David Shulkin. (Clason, 6/26)
The New York Times:
Veteran Sets Himself On Fire Outside State Capitol In Atlanta
A man who said he was an Air Force veteran upset with the Department of Veterans Affairs set himself on fire outside the state Capitol in Atlanta on Tuesday morning. Capt. Mark Perry of the Georgia State Patrol said that the man parked a passenger vehicle around 10:45 a.m. and began walking toward the Capitol. (Zraick, 6/26)
In other news from the administration —
The New York Times:
‘Brain Performance’ Firm DeVos Invested In Is Hit For Misleading Claims
A “brain-performance” business backed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has agreed to stop advertising success rates for children and adults suffering from maladies such as attention deficit disorder, depression and autism after a review found the company could not support the outcomes it was promoting. The company, Neurocore, which has received more than $5 million from Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., to run “brain performance centers” in Michigan and Florida, lost an appeal before an advertising-industry review board, which found that the company’s claims of curbing and curing a range of afflictions without medication were based on mixed research and unscientific internal studies. (Green, 6/26)
