Brown Supports Final Confirmation of Trump's VA Secretary Nominee

Press Release

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) -- a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee -- voted to confirm Dr. David Shulkin, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

"I've worked with Dr. Shulkin to make improvements to the VA for Ohioans, and have seen his commitment to acting in the best interest of our nation's veterans," said Brown. "I'm supporting his nomination because I trust Dr. Shulkin will work with the Veterans' Committee and me to do right by our veterans.

"I expressed serious concerns that President Trump's comments about privatizing the VA could put veterans at risk. Dr. Shulkin made a commitment -- both in our private meeting and in front of the American people at his hearing -- to protect veterans from privatization, and he assured the Committee that President Trump shares his position. I intend to hold Dr. Shulkin to his word.

"When we allowed for-profit charter school operators to inject profits into Ohio education, they treated taxpayers like ATMs and shortchanged students -- we cannot allow the same thing to happen to our veterans. Veterans earn the right to top-quality healthcare through service and sacrifice, and I will not allow us to shirk our responsibility to military families by putting corporate profits ahead of their healthcare."

During his confirmation hearing last month, Brown questioned Shulkin on the impact that the Administration's federal hiring freeze and support for privatizing veterans' health care would have on Ohio veterans. During the hearing, Brown secured a commitment from Dr. Shulkin to implement the Memorandum of Agreement placing the Veterans History Center at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Brown has worked for years to ensure the Center would come to Dayton. View Brown's questioning of Dr. Shulkin here.

Brown recently joined 54 of his fellow members of Congress to demand President Trump exempt the entire VA and all veterans seeking federal jobs from the Presidential Memorandum freezing federal hiring. Although acting VA Director Robert Snyder has said VA will continue to hire front-line caregivers despite the President's action, VA cannot hire doctors and nurses without human resources staff, or process the backlog of claims for veterans without having enough workers on the job. Veterans make up 31 percent of the federal workforce and a hiring freeze could prevent veterans from finding employment, including many who are transitioning from the military to civilian service and may be disabled. The hiring freeze will also add to the chronic workforce shortages that are plaguing VA, where more than 40 percent of senior officials are currently eligible for retirement and, according to Shulkin, there are more than 45,000 vacancies.

Ohio veterans' care could also be threatened by efforts to privatize VA's health care system. Privatization would fail to provide veterans with the specialized care and services they need. Veterans groups overwhelmingly oppose privatization of their health care and Brown joins them in this opposition.

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