New VA Secretary Faces a Department in Turmoil

The Department of Veterans Affairs has experienced five months of tumult. Its previous secretary got into a political brawl with his staff and was fired by Twitter message. His first proposed replacement was scuttled by allegations of drunkenness. Then the acting secretary who took charge was accused of making false statements to Congress.

In the department’s headquarters a block from the White House, political appointees who worked in the Trump campaign forced career officials out of key positions; inexperienced newcomers published an erroneous report about thousands of military suicides that never happened; and the department’s top technology official fended off calls from Congress to resign over his ties to Cambridge Analytica, the voter-profiling company.

Enter Robert Wilkie, who was sworn in Monday as the new secretary of Veterans Affairs. In addition to the dizzying task of managing more than 350,000 employees and 1,700 facilities — the second-largest federal bureaucracy after the Defense Department — Wilkie must now try to quell the infighting and scandal roiling the department’s headquarters.

As a show of force in his first week on the job, Wilkie, a lawyer and Air Force Reserve officer who has spent his career on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon, intends to reassign a number of divisive political appointees to less influential posts, according to a Defense Department official who is familiar with Wilkie’s plans. Among them will be the chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, press secretary and acting chief information officer, the official said.

“We see this as a positive move,” said Louis Celli, executive director of the American Legion, one of the nation’s largest veterans organizations. “If you have constant infighting, and career staff are constantly afraid of losing their jobs, it’s not going to be smooth for him,” Celli said. “He has to send a clear and strong message that he is in charge and is going to get things done for veterans.”

Veterans groups, including the Legion, have been nearly unanimous in voicing support for Wilkie, an experienced leader who they hope can cut through the department’s turbulence.

The son of a decorated Army officer, Wilkie, 55, grew up on military bases. He has said that through his father, who was wounded three times in Vietnam, he has seen the good that veterans hospitals can do.

“I watched the agonizing recovery, and that experience was on my mind when I was asked to serve at VA,” he told senators at his confirmation hearing in June.

After getting a law degree from Loyola University, Wilkie worked for a number of Republicans in Congress and was an assistant secretary and undersecretary in the Defense Department. He also served in the Navy and Air Force reserves.

A history buff and voracious reader, he considers Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower his role model and often refers to him in conversation, including at his confirmation hearings.

“The fact that he picked Eisenhower as his leadership muse, a guy who isn’t flashy but is supremely competent, I think reveals a lot about his character,” said Bob Carey, who worked with Wilkie on Capitol Hill and is now with the Independence Fund, an advocacy group for veterans.

At the Defense Department, Wilkie oversaw the military’s health and benefits systems, a job comparable with managing the services provided by Veterans Affairs.

Wilkie replaces Dr. David J. Shulkin, the lone holdover from the Obama administration to serve in Trump’s cabinet. At first, Trump lavished praise on Shulkin. But the secretary clashed with the White House’s other political appointees in the department over the issue of veterans’ access to private-sector health care, and a withering report on his travel spending made him a political liability. Trump fired him in March.

Trump then nominated his White House physician, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, to replace Shulkin, but he quickly withdrew the nomination after reports surfaced accusing Jackson of drunkenness and of improperly dispensing prescription drugs.

While the White House sought another nominee, a Trump political appointee at the department, Peter O’Rourke, became acting secretary. According to department staff members, O’Rourke and other political appointees tried to consolidate power by marginalizing career officials whom they saw as disloyal. The political appointees canceled the department’s daily leadership meetings and cut career officials out of decision-making, according to Kayla Williams, who headed the department’s Center for Women Veterans. Many career officials who fell out of favor were reassigned to lesser positions, she said.

“I don’t know how much was actual policy differences and how much was a power play,” Williams said. She resigned earlier this month after clashing with the White House’s political appointees.

O’Rourke also clashed with the department’s independent inspector general, Michael Missal, over access to whistleblower reports, telling Missal in a strongly worded letter: “I am your immediate supervisor. You are directed to act accordingly.”

Questioned by Congress this month about his dealings with Missal, O’Rourke made what Democrats in Congress say were false statements under oath. Three lawmakers have called for an investigation by the Justice Department.

O’Rourke, through a department spokesman, declined to comment on the matter.

Wilkie told senators in June during his confirmation hearing that his first priority would be to “improve the culture” at the department. But his plans to revamp senior leadership might not prove easy to accomplish. Shulkin also attempted to remove political appointees, saying they were trying to undermine his legislative efforts and purge career employees. A few days before he was fired, he said he would have them out by the next afternoon, to no avail.

The department’s press secretary, Curt Cashour, who was on Shulkin’s list for termination, noted after Shulkin was fired: “Only one person talked about a purge. He no longer works at VA.”

Cashour said Monday that reports that he would soon be leaving his post, which were also reported Sunday in an article published by The Washington Post, were incorrect. He added in an email that two other men who are widely reported to be among the most divisive political appointees at the department — John Ullyot, the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and Camilo Sandoval, the acting chief information officer — would remain, though Sandoval would move to a new post.

Cashour declined to comment further.

The work ahead of Wilkie, though, would be daunting, even with a united senior staff.

The department must implement a new law that makes sweeping changes in how and when veterans can receive health care from private providers. It is embarking on a decadelong, $16 billion project to overhaul its 40-year-old medical records software.

And it has an estimated 33,000 staff vacancies, with primary care and mental health posts proving especially hard to fill.

Paul Rieckhoff, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said it is not clear yet whether Wilkie’s answer will be to shore up the public health system or expand access to private care.

“We all think he is a supremely competent guy who can probably do what his boss wants,” Rieckhoff said. “But what does President Donald Trump want? I don’t think any of us know yet.”