By NIKKI WENTLING | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 20, 2021 WASHINGTON President Joe Biden s administration on Wednesday announced new leaders of the Department of Veterans Affairs the country’s second-largest federal agency. Of the nine new leaders named, four are rejoining the VA after leaving in recent years for other positions. The announcement, which was made minutes after Biden was sworn into office, follows his nomination of Denis McDonough as VA secretary. McDonough’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27. It was still uncertain Wednesday afternoon who Biden would appoint to lead the department in the time before McDonough’s confirmation. A VA news release Wednesday the first authored by the new administration said there would be more leadership announcements “in the near future.”
That bill, a resolution of the U.S. House of Representatives, has seen no action since being assigned to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and the House Committee on Armed Services on Feb. 25 of last year.
The resolution calls for the defense secretary to conduct a study on toxic exposures and any subsequent adverse health effects experienced by U.S. troops assigned to the Uzbek base during the time it was leased, at no charge, by the U.S. government from the government of Uzbekistan.
The United States began leasing the base, colloquially known as K2, from the Uzbek government in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. K2 provided an attractive option for the U.S. to project military power into Afghanistan in the fight against Islamic extremist al-Qaida and Taliban forces.
By NIKKI WENTLING | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 8, 2021 WASHINGTON – Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie won’t resign in the aftermath of the takeover of the U.S. Capitol building, the agency said Friday. Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Elaine Chao – stepped down Thursday. In their resignation letters, they condemned the attack at the Capitol, which happened as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. A mob of Trump supporters smashed through security and breached the Capitol. The secretaries blamed Trump for using rhetoric that fueled the mob to storm the Capitol. Trump urged his supporters to travel to Washington for a “Save America” rally. In a speech Wednesday, he told them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process.
Posted December 23, 2020 5:00 a.m. EST
EDITOR S NOTE: The following editorial appeared in The New York Times on Dec. 19, 2020. Wilkie grew up in Fayetteville and worked a senior adviser to Sen. Thom Tillis. He also worked for former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott from 1997 to 2003. He was executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party before going to work for Lott. Wilkie also served as an aide to Sen. Jesse Helms and former U.S. Rep. David Funderburk.
All major American veterans’ organizations have called for the ouster of Robert Wilkie as secretary of veterans affairs over the shameless treatment by him and his senior staff of a veteran who says she was sexually assaulted. When men and women who served in uniform speak almost with one voice, it is not politics, as Wilkie would have it, but the will of the people he is meant to serve.