Kaine, Warner on confirmation of Shulkin as VA Secretary

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner comment on the confirmation of David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Statement from Sen. Kaine:
“I voted to confirm Dr. David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. It’s critical that the VA continues to implement the reforms initiated by Congress and Secretary McDonald so that thousands of veterans can receive the timely health care they deserve. From his previous role as President Obama’s chief executive of the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Shulkin has the institutional knowledge and support of Veterans Service Organizations to continue making strides in improving timely access to care and making the VA more focused on specific veterans’ needs. In Virginia alone, we’ve already seen improvement in wait times at the Hampton VA Medical Center—which had one of the longest wait times in the country two years ago—but we must keep working to improve timely access to quality care to those veterans in need. Virginia is home to nearly 800,000 veterans and has one of the fastest-growing veterans populations in the country, so any change disproportionately affects our population. I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Shulkin on improving the VA, simplifying the complex disability and benefits claims process, and improving the compatibility of VA, Defense Department, and private sector records systems.”

Kaine recently sent a letter to President Trump urging him to exempt the VA and all veterans seeking federal jobs from the recent federal hiring freeze, noting that the freeze would exacerbate chronic VA labor shortages and reduce veteran employment. Kaine also reintroduced the bipartisan Providing Veterans Overdue Care Act to authorize pending leases for 24 VA medical facilities, including a 155,000 square foot outpatient facility in Hampton Roads.

Statement from Sen. Warner:
“I want to congratulate Dr. David Shulkin on his confirmation as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. While the V-A has made significant progress in recent years to improve access, there are still too many veterans in Virginia and across the country that are waiting too long and traveling too far to obtain medical care. That’s why I’ve introduced legislation that would expand access to care for veterans by authorizing long-awaited leases for 24 V-A medical facilities in 15 states, including a 155,000 square foot outpatient facility in Hampton Roads, Va. Authorizing these leases is a necessary and vital step in improving access to the care and services veterans have earned through their service to this country. I am encouraged that Dr. Shulkin acknowledges the urgency of authorizing these medical facilities, and I look forward to working with him on this and other efforts to improve services for our nation’s veterans.”

Last month, Sen. Warner introduced the bipartisan Providing Veterans Overdue Care Act to authorize 24 leases for medical facilities in 15 states, including Virginia.