Posted on 20 Jan, 2017
On the 11th of January 2017, President-elect, Donald Trump, made the decision to appoint David Shulkin to the position of Secretary of Veterans affairs pending the Senate’s confirmation. Shulkin, who is from the private sector, is expected to earn an annual salary of $1.3 million (approximately $170 thousand per month) as a result of his new role.
Shulkin – who is 56-years-old and serves as the Chief Executive of the Veterans Health Administration – is set to be the first VA secretary who is not a veteran. From the time the office was founded under former President George H.W. Bush, every secretary has come from a military background.
Shulkin will be stepping into a controversial post. Since the resignation of Erick Shinseki in May 2014, the agency has been struggling to recover from a 2014 scandal that revealed falsified wait times. According to a report by the VA Inspector General released on 2nd September 2015, roughly 800 thousand records for veterans enrolling in healthcare had been stalled. In addition, 370 thousand belonged to veterans who had already passed away.