“The Department of Veterans Affairs has experienced five months of tumult. Its previous secretary got into a political brawl with his staff and was fired by Twitter message. His first proposed replacement was scuttled by allegations of drunkenness. Then the acting secretary who took charge was accused of making false statements to Congress…”
“Enter Robert L. Wilkie, who was sworn in Monday as the new secretary of Veterans Affairs. In addition to the dizzying task of managing more than 350,000 employees and 1,700 facilities — the second-largest federal bureaucracy after the Defense Department — Mr. Wilkie must now try to quell the infighting and scandal roiling the department’s headquarters.”
“As a show of force in his first week on the job, Mr. Wilkie, a lawyer and Air Force Reserve officer who has spent his career on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon, intends to reassign a number of…” Read the full article here.
Source: New V.A. Secretary Faces a Department in Turmoil – By Dave Philipps, July 30, 2018. New York Times.
