A New VA Secretary
The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Robert McDonald, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next secretary of Veterans Affairs. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the veterans’ committee chairman, said McDonald brings to the job a commitment to veterans that comes from his service in the Army after his graduation in 1975 from West Point. McDonald’s career at Procter & Gamble, the consumer products giant, taught him management skills that will help him at the VA, Sanders added. The Senate later this week is expected to approve a $17 billion House and Senate conference committee bill to give McDonald more tools to do his job better at the VA. The bill will strengthen the VA in the long-term by authorizing the hiring of more doctors and nurses and expanding health care facilities to care for the growing number of veterans who served during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the short-term, the measure would let patients who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility or who have been on waiting lists for more than 30 days seek care from private doctors or at community health centers, Defense Department health care facilities or Indian Health Centers.
Watch Sanders’ speech on Robert McDonald
