McDonald Confirmed As VA Secretary
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The Senate has voted unanimously to confirm Bob McDonald as the next Secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
In a unanimous vote, the Senate has confirmed Bob McDonald, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as the next Secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
McDonald steps into a difficult role, facing many serious challenges of the systemic problems at the VA including delayed healthcare for veterans. Senate leaders have said they have high expectations for the incoming secretary.
"But if Mr. McDonald is willing to work in a collaborative and open manner with Congress, he will find a constructive partner on this side of the aisle," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, said according to CBS News. "We know that there is much we can, and should, do to address this crisis together ... because when veterans are denied care, it's a priority deserving of bipartisan attention."
He takes over from Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson, who was appointed to the job in May following the resignation of Eric Shinseki amid a scandal involving dozens of vets placed on secret lists who died while awaiting treatment.
Veteran service groups hailed the appointment. "The VFW looks forward to working with him and his team as they fix what's broken, hold employees appropriately accountable to the maximum extent of the law, and restore the faith of veterans in their VA," VFW National Commander John Stroud is quoted as saying by Miliarty.com.
McDonald has promised to take "immediate actions" in his first 90 days to reform the troubled agency.
President Obama's decision to nominate a longtime businessman to lead the VA – rather than a decorated general, doctor, or politician like other recent VA secretaries – came as a surprise to some. Veteran’s advocates are cautiously optimistic about the move but warn that McDonald has his work cut out for him. Perhaps most critically, as the U.S. winds down its presence in Afghanistan, McDonald will have to regain the trust of young veterans, Paul Rieckhoff, the CEO and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), told CBS News earlier this month.
McDonald brings some important skills to the post. A West Point graduate, he comes from a military family, but also has significant industry experience as a manager and leader with his 33-year career at Proctor and Gamble. ABC News reports McDonald has also promised to provide his personal cell phone number to all the senators on the committee to make sure he is held accountable for his work at the VA, even if that means after-hours phone calls.
“Every member of the committee will have my cell phone number. And I would expect if we’re not meeting your needs you will call me,” McDonald said. “When you run a large corporation globally, you have a cellphone that’s on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it gets called. And so if you have concerns I want to know about them and I want to react to them.”
And finally, McDonald composed a list – What I Believe In – which includes 10 principles he lives by that he believes are applicable in his new role as head of the VA. His principles are:
- Living a life driven by purpose is more meaningful and rewarding than meandering through life without direction.
- Companies must do well to do good and must do good to well.
- Everyone wants to succeed, and success is contagious.
- Putting people in the right jobs is one of the most important jobs of the leader.
- Character is the most important trait of a leader.
- Diverse groups of people are more innovative than homogeneous groups.
- Ineffective systems and cultures are bigger barriers to achievement than the talents of people.
- There will be some people in the organization who will not make it on the journey.
- Organizations must renew themselves.
- The true test of the leader is the performance of the organization when they are absent or after they depart.