Trump VA Sec Pick Promises ‘Major Reform’

David Shulkin on Wednesday pledged to implement "major reform" at the Department of Veterans Affairs if he is confirmed to lead the troubled agency.

Shulkin, who President Donald Trump unveiled as his choice to lead the VA in mid-January, said before a Senate panel that he does not favor "privatization" of the VA but would work to establish an integrated and modern system for veterans health care, with better partnerships between public and private facilities.

"I will seek major reform and a transformation of VA," Shulkin told the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs during his confirmation hearing, stressing that the agency "will not be privatized under my watch."

Shulkin is a physician who served as VA undersecretary for health during the Obama administration. If confirmed, he would be the first non-veteran VA secretary.

Shulkin faced tough questions on his plans to reform the agency, which has been under constant scrutiny since the wait list scandal nearly three years ago.

"I think that trust was eroded particularly with the wait time crisis in April 2014, and people lost trust," said Shulkin, who was appointed to the undersecretary post by President Obama in 2015. "I think that we are slowly regaining that [trust] but we have a long way to go."

When asked by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) about concerns that his appointment was "more of the same" given his work in the previous administration, Shulkin said he should be replaced if he does not succeed in making changes at the VA.

More