Exclusive: VA Secretary Shulkin To Resign, Trump To Nominate Ronny Jackson To Succeed Him - White Ho

[edpc]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin will resign soon and President Donald Trump will nominate his personal physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, to succeed him, White House officials said on Wednesday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shulkin had become a distraction due to a constant wave of speculation about his future. They said VA undersecretary, Robert Wilkie, will be the acting secretary.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-va-secretary-shulkin-resign-trump-nominate-ronny-213516463.html

[edpc]

I hope he's better at solving the VA problems than he is at reading a scale.

[Concerned]

Jackson seems like an odd choice to me.  The VA has 377K employees providing healthcare and benefits to 20M veterans with annual costs of $273B.  This is a huge administrative challenge for anyone.  Dr. Jackson may be a fine doctor, but I haven't seen anything in his background that would make me believe he's got the administrative, planning, managerial, and leadership skills to oversee a bureaucracy anywhere near this size and scope.  I hope he succeeds, but it certainly seems like the odds are against him IMO.

[mystery-ak]

Jackson is active duty...do you have to be a civilian to run this agency?

[edpc]

Jackson is active duty...do you have to be a civilian to run this agency?

Colin Powell was an active duty national security advisor in the 80s.  I’m sure there are ways around it.

[Applewood]

Jackson seems like an odd choice to me.  The VA has 377K employees providing healthcare and benefits to 20M veterans with annual costs of $273B.  This is a huge administrative challenge for anyone.  Dr. Jackson may be a fine doctor, but I haven't seen anything in his background that would make me believe he's got the administrative, planning, managerial, and leadership skills to oversee a bureaucracy anywhere near this size and scope.  I hope he succeeds, but it certainly seems like the odds are against him IMO.

Presidents appoint or nominate friends, relatives, golfing buddies, fraternity brothers, campaign donors and so on regardless of whether they can do the job.  It's an awful practice and I wish there was a way to prohibit it. 

[Concerned]

Jackson is active duty...do you have to be a civilian to run this agency?

FYI:

A senior White House official told CNN after Trump announced his selection of Jackson for the VA post that Jackson would resign his commission and retire from active duty before being confirmed.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/politics/ronny-jackson-medical-exam-trump/index.html

[Concerned]

Presidents appoint or nominate friends, relatives, golfing buddies, fraternity brothers, campaign donors and so on regardless of whether they can do the job.  It's an awful practice and I wish there was a way to prohibit it.

Certain positions, like the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, requires advise and consent of the Senate.   Hopefully, the Senate will do their job to ensure that Jackson is actually qualified to run the second largest department in the federal government, which provides such critical services to 20M veterans.  Certainly on the surface, it doesn't seem as though Jackson has the managerial/administrative background to be able to oversee an organization with 377K employees.  I'll be very curious to see the confirmation hearings to both see the GOP questions and Jackson's answers about this crucial department.