WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped the Department of Veterans Affairs’ top health official to lead a beleaguered agency struggling to meet the health needs of millions of veterans.
David Shulkin, a former president of the Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, emerged after an extended search for a secretary to put in place the broad changes pledged by Trump. During the presidential campaign, Trump described the VA as “the most corrupt agency” and “probably the most incompetently run agency.”
Trump announced Shulkin’s selection at a wide-ranging news conference in New York and said he had interviewed at least 100 people for the job. “We’re going to straighten out the VA for our veterans. I’ve been promising that for a long time,” Trump said.
Shulkin, as undersecretary for health, manages a government-run system responsible for 9 million military veterans in more than 1,700 facilities. He took that job in 2015, charged with improving wait times for medical care following the 2014 scandal involving long waits at the Phoenix VA medical center.
“We are both eager to begin reforming the areas in our Veterans Affairs system that need critical attention, and do it in a swift, thoughtful and responsible way,” Shulkin said in a statement released by Trump’s transition team.