The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has made numerous headlines as of late.
Following Thursday’s announcement that it (finally) inked a $10 billion contract with Cerner to update its electronic medical record system, President Donald Trump unexpectedly said on Friday that he plans to nominate VA Acting Secretary Robert Wilkie to lead the department permanently.
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While introducing his cabinet members during a prison reform summit at the White House on May 18, Trump commented that Wilkie “has done an incredible job at the VA.”
Then he said this: “I’ll be informing him in a little while — he doesn’t know this yet — that we’re going to be putting his name up for nomination to be Secretary of the Veterans Administration.”
“I’m sorry that I ruined the surprise,” Trump added.
But before Wilkie can officially take on the full position, he has to step down from his current role as the VA’s acting secretary, according to The Fayetteville Observer. He told the newspaper that federal law prohibits him from keeping the position while there’s a pending nomination. In the meantime, Wilkie will leave the VA and return to his role as Department of Defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
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Trump’s surprise nomination of Wilkie comes after former VA Secretary David Shulkin was fired in March. At the time, Trump announced his intention to nominate White House physician Ronny Jackson for the role. But about a month later, Jackson withdrew as a nominee after allegations emerged that he drank on the job and improperly handed out prescription medication, according to CNBC.
As for Wilkie, it’s not altogether shocking that he nabbed the nomination. Although he doesn’t have a medical degree like Shulkin and Jackson, he seems to have played a role in inking the Cerner deal.
“This is one of the largest IT contracts in the federal government, with a ceiling of $10 billion over 10 years,” he said in a statement. “And with a contract of that size, you can understand why former Secretary Shulkin and I took some extra time to do our due diligence and make sure the contract does what the President wanted.”
Photo: FotografiaBasica, Getty Images
