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The Senate easily confirmed Robert Wilkie on Monday as the 10th Secretary of Veterans Affairs, elevating the senior official of the Pentagon. Washington has been insider running an agency that serves a key constituency for President Trump, but has failed in political struggles.
The bipartite vote of 86 to 9, with Democrats rejecting almost all the negative votes, was without the drama of the other ministers. confirmations in the Trump administration. Wilkie has managed to convince many Democrats that he would not privatize the agency. But Wilkie became the first secretary of the VA not to receive unanimous confirmation from the Senate, a reflection of political tensions in what has long been a bipartisan corner of government.
Several of the opposing votes, including Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (DN.J.), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) And Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.) are came from potential presidential candidates in 2020 who opposed other Trump Cabinet candidates. [19659008LeprésidentdansunedéclarationpubliéeparlaMaisonBlancheadéclaréqueWilkie"aconsacrésavieàservirsonpaysavechonneuretfiertéIlafaitpreuved'ungrandpatriotismeets'estengagéàsouteniretàrenforcerlesforcesarméesetlesvétéransaméricainsSoussadirectionjenedoutepasqueleministèredesAnciensCombattantscontinueradefairedesprogrèspourhonoreretprotégerleshommesetlesfemmeshéroïquesquiontservinotrenationavecdistinction"
Confirmation Wilkie was almost assured since May appointment to succeed David Shulkin, director of & # 39;. Hospital and survival of the & # 39; administration Obama who clashed with the White House and the team of appointees at the VA.Trump had originally chosen White House doctor Ronny L. Jackson for the job, but that candidacy imploded into a raging torrent. allegations of misconduct.
Wilkie, 55, now Chief of Military Personnel of the Department of Defense, has was welcomed on Capitol Hill. "Robert Wilkie is the real deal," said Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, in the Senate before the vote. I told him, "You do not have any excuses." We are here to make sure that VA does not have any excuses, only results.
Isakson had told Wilkie during his confirmation this month that a bad morale was the biggest challenge. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Reacted quickly to put Wilkie in place as a result of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
[Senate moves to install VA nominee following postponements of staff targeting by interim leadership team]
From an article in the Washington Post last week on a purge of employees politically motivated by the interim leadership of VA. After revelations that Acting Secretary Peter O. Rourke has taken aggressive steps to marginalize or reassign employees who are perceived as unfair, Isakson called for a confirmation vote "without delay."
"Today, unlike never before, we have Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.), The main Democrat of the committee, said before the vote, describing an agency that he says has lost His mission to serve veterans
is not expelled because of the work they do, but because of their opinions, "said Tester. a leader who will build bridges, will not demolish the department to meet a political agenda. "
Wilkie, an Air Force Reservist and the son of a major artillery commander Army that was seriously wounded in Vietnam Military Personnel Policy for the Trump Administration He spent three decades working in Washington on military and national security issues, developing deep ties to the Capitol and at the White House he worked for some of Washington's most polarizing political figures, including the late Senator Jesse Helms (NC), but his past embrace of some divisive cultural viewpoints did not stop his way to confirmation.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Who is in a tough fight of reelection, said in a statement that she could not support Wilkie's nomination because her long career defended "many controversial policies and elected officials "- including his defense of the Confederate flag – Wilkie spent eight weeks as Acting Secretary of the VA, then returned to the Pentagon to await confirmation.
The White House advocated an expansion of private sector options for veterans, a policy that whites have adopted. House ends up believing that Shulkin was not pushing hard enough. Wilkie said he would enforce a similar mandate from newly enacted legislation – but said that private care would not replace VA, a long-time fear among Democrats and some veterans service organizations.
VA was without a permanent leader for four months just as he began to implement several new laws and projects. A contract for a multi-billion dollar electronic health record system to replace an internal health management system decades ago has been signed. The huge "Mission Act" expands veterans 'access to private doctors at taxpayers' expense, a victory for the president who helps to realize one of his biggest election promises
.
The agenda follows a series of senior leadership departures over the last six months while an interim leadership team comprised of political appointments has consolidated power and helped Wilkie to make faced with increased tensions between these appointees and officials at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
[Trump loyalists at VA shuffling, purging employees before new secretary takes over]
A Law Congress a year ago allowed the agency to fire employees for poor performance.
According to data compiled by the nonpartisan partnership for the public service, more than 26, 000 full-time employees left last year, the majority of them leaving and retiring.
"The first thing the AV needs right now is the confidence of employees in their leaders," said Joe Davis, director of communications. Trump, whose annual convention in Kansas City, Mass., Is due to vote on Tuesday.
"There is a morale problem," Davis said. "There is no one to command the ship.The VA is often a headline away from a national crisis."
Proponents of the team in place, however, contend that the rate High staff turnover benefits the agency because employees who have not supported Trump's policies for veterans are gone. "I do not think many [those who’ve left] were aligned with the president's vision for VA," said Dan Calwell, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch who is allied to Trump
"The administration has addressed the issue of setting the AV much more differently than the Obama administration," Caldwell said. "Robert Wilkie will have to focus on change management."
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