Senate confirms Robert Wilkie as VA secretary

Catherine Garcia, The Week US's avatar
By
published
Robert Wilkie.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

On Monday, the Senate confirmed Robert Wilkie, previously an undersecretary at the Pentagon, as the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He was confirmed with an 86-9 vote, and has been the acting secretary since President Trump's last nominee, Adm. Ronny Jackson, withdrew from consideration. The VA is the second largest federal agency, behind the Department of Defense, and has a staffing shortage, with the VA inspector general announcing in June the agency has more than 2,300 vacancies.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.