Senate confirms Robert Wilkie as VA secretary
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.
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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.
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