He also said that Biden has asked him to ensure that veterans are receiving the best care and support through the COVID-19 pandemic; have opportunities for education and job training commensurate to their skills and talents; ensure that VA continues to broaden services for all veterans, including women and minorities; and strive to reduce homelessness and suicide among vets. Maybe a woman veteran," he continued. 1999-2004: Foreign policy advisor for Sen. 1996: Earned master's degree from Georgetown University, 1992: Graduated from St. John's University. The program replaced local decision-makers with a web-based system at the regional level, meaning local health facilities have to wait, often months, for simple hiring decisions to be made. workforce into which they will graduate. The stakeholders coming from a dozen directions. Copyright 2023 Military Officers Association of America font-weight: bold; But Jeremy Butler,chief executive of the advocacy group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,applauded McDonoughs official nomination Wednesday -- though henoted the challenges the secretary would face if confirmed --not least of which is ensuring veterans get access to the coronavirus vaccine. Tester said he expects the committee to vote on McDonough's nomination Tuesday, followed by the full Senate. McDonough was sworn into office in 2021. Q. This model allows the consultants to avoid disclosing clients, unless they later go on to become public officials. be allowed to use their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to experience study abroad in the same manner as their . But rural health facilities of all kinds are struggling right now to meet the needs of their local populations, and McDonough sees VA as part of a solution to address that need. A. Meredith McGehee, the executive director at the bipartisan government ethics advocacy group Issue One, said that given what she called the Trump administration's lax ethics practices, it is "critically important" for the Biden administration to "go above and beyond" existing legal requirements to do more "robust disclosure.". Im saying Im here to be held accountable to what I said last month and last year. According to her LinkedIn profile, Psaki was a senior advisor at WestExec, and she served as the vice president for communications and strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during that time. Every year, Air Force SERE specialists teach New York Air National Guardsmen how to survive if their skiplanes go down in the Arctic. MOAAs ongoing efforts to improve the VA were included in a recent letter to President Joe Biden, and were outlined further in a recap of veteran health care priorities. border: 1px solid #a2a9b1 !important; Edward Derwinski added some benefits for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. display: inline-block; He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. The president said, I want an answer early in the new year on rare respiratory cancers, McDonough says. } He expects a decision about rare respiratory disorders connected to burn pit exposure in the early part of the year, he told reporters Jan. 18. Improve oversight and implementation of the joint VA-DoD electronic health record. VIETNAM UNCHRONICLED: MOAA presents stories of service and sacrifice. The vote in favor of Denis McDonough was 87 to 7. Click on the following table to view the full roll call. You shouldnt, he tells The War Horse. .widget-row.heading { Its website makes oblique references to work it does for "an industry-leading multinational consumer goods company" with a footprint in China, and "a global financial services company" doing business in Middle Eastern markets. And so if had we done a better job of recognizing? vertical-align: top; So thats a very concrete way that were talking to veterans and using their feedback to design products that are designed to serve our veterans. McDonoughs veteran health care priorities include: The new secretary also outlined his priority list for other VA benefits programs: The challenges are extensive for the coming year, but it is comforting to know the priorities for the new secretary, Congress, and MOAA are in alignment; this has not always been the case. She has pushed the issue of monthly press conferences and press access, and, as a veteran herself, has long been a proponent of VA facilities that reflect all of their clienteleand not just the traditional square-jawed, straight, white male image that appeared in old movies. Theres a lot of work we can do to make the decisions more round, more inclusive. display: inline-block; I tell them all this all the time, which is that theyre the front door for so many of our vets to the VA, and so they say, Well, then you should treat us like that. So we should have more clarity.. One is on things like long COVID, which is a series of conditions that many survivors of COVID end up wrestling. Read our privacy policy for more information. So we then not only are accountable to the president for the decision-making, we also have a wider range of information to inform the decision-making. As troops stand ready to go to defend Ukraine, those lessons must be on decision-makers minds as they talk about VAs ever-expanding budget. TRICARE Supplement? To do this, he added, he would continue to increase access to mental health services, which include using grants and connections signed into law last year by Trump to access community organizations and programs that address veterans' mental health and wellness. Address longstanding concerns of access to care for veterans living in rural areas. 6 Things You Need to Know About Denis McDonough As McDonough spoke with The War Horse, he had just come from one of his quarterly breakfast meetings with the veterans service organizations. [1] The Senate confirmed his nomination on February 8, 2021, by a vote of 87-7. He then served as the Chief of Staff of the National Security Council before becoming the Deputy National Security Adviser for Obama serving in the role during the 2011 Navy Seal raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In 2018, Wilkie announced Spokane would be the testing ground for the 20-year battle to integrate Defense Department and VA health records. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Overall, Secretary McDonough has established laudable goals and principles to guide him, Joy Ilem, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, told The War Horse by email. Ely Ratner, another adviser at the firm, also recently joined the Biden administration as the Pentagon chief's principal adviser on China matters. WASHINGTON The Senate has overwhelmingly voted to confirm President Joe Bidens pick to oversee the Department of Veterans Affairs. Im not asking anybody to believe me on anything, McDonough says. .widget-row.Democratic { Bidens son Beau died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq, and Biden has said he believes there may be a correlation. MOAA INSURANCE: Life? But in the background, scandals arose. D enis McDonough, who served as Barack Obama's chief of staff from 2013 to 2017, is now Joe Biden's secretary of veterans affairs. VA secretary vows to boost health care workers pay, benefits as SURVIVING SPOUSE CORNER: Get regular updates on key issues, financial tips, and more. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. A. DAV, as well as many of the other VSOs, have made toxic injuriesfrom burn pits, from polluted water, from Agent Orange, from anti-nerve agent pills and sarin gasa top, if not the top, priority. Sherman, who's been tapped as deputy secretary of state, has served as a senior counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Fox News Flash top headlines are here. A. } Veterans killed themselves at high ratesand a VA official issued the infamous shhh! memo wondering if VA officials should issue a statement before someone stumbled on the problem. In his first interview since being confirmed as President Joe Biden's secretary of veterans affairs, Denis McDonough tells CNN's Jake Tapper why he accepted the challenging position. Kerry Baker, veterans advocate and former Veterans Benefits Administration employee, also has concerns about the behind-the-news issues: He worries that toxic exposure at Fort McClellan will never be properly addressed, and he worries about what a new process to determine which health conditions can be automatically associated with service might look like. Who is McDonough? MOAA - MOAA Interview: VA Secretary Denis McDonough on Toxic Exposure And we dont take appropriate risk. text-align: center; VA Secretary Nominee: 'I Will Fight Like Hell' For Veterans } Check out these savings today! [1], Below is an abbreviated outline of McDonough's academic, professional, and political career:[5], On December 10, 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden (D) announced he would nominate McDonough to serve as secretary of veterans affairs in his administration. [3] He held this role from February 2013 to January 2017. TowneBank is part of the Banking industry, and located in Virginia, United States. SURVIVING SPOUSE CORNER: Get regular updates on key issues, financial tips, and more. Your donation to The MOAA Foundation and/or MOAA Scholarship Fund delivers on MOAAs promise of caring for those who serve or have served our country, along with their families and survivors. McDonoughs path to becoming the secretary of VA is a result of his lifetime passion for public service. Robert Wilkie, a President Donald Trump appointee, chose to discredit a House Veterans Affairs staffer and Navy reservist after she reported being groped and verbally assaulted at a VA facility in Washingtonrather than look into the case and work to prevent it from happening again. McDonough told lawmakers that if approved, he would 'fight like hell' to take care of veterans. Both leaders stressed the important work and daunting challenges facing the secretary leading the VA through the pandemic, saving as many lives as possible, and overseeing the massive reforms across the VA enterprise. Because of the Covid pandemic, VA created a two-year training program to grow the health care workforce in rural communities. Rather than allow the MISSION Act to show VA health care isnt necessary, the administration turned the story on its head by using VA to try to improve community access for everybody. And so I think thats an absolutely important service. And 13,000 old benefits cases were found in a filing cabinet. width: 57%; The district court found that Bryant . Mr. McDonough's nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 8th, 2021, and he was sworn in the following day as the 11th Secretary of Veterans Affairs. We are getting additional information to inform the decision-making. Denis McDonough s confirmation Feb. 8 as the new VA secretary received overwhelming bipartisan support an 87-7 vote reflecting the collaborative and consultative relationship the administration and Congress want to foster between the executive and legislative branches. The Mystery Of Denis McDonough - BuzzFeed News He earned his master's degree from Georgetown University before beginning his career in politics. Owner - Dennis P. McDonough,PC - LinkedIn Everything is broken, and the weather is crap. If this is a problem, a new undersecretary could potentially fix it. Senate confirms McDonough as next Veterans Affairs secretary I am confident that Mr. McDonoughs decades of experience at the highest levels of government make him well-qualified to take on the job.. I think its also not a mistake that several of our senior communicators are women veterans, McDonough says. People (in and out of VA) like to lean on the complexity of exposure cases as an excuse, Baker says, referring to the difficulty in directly linking exposure to disease after a veteran has been exposed to particulate matter or carcinogens. The company, with a roster that includes at least ten Obama-era officials, does not disclose its clients. According to data he had from October, VA had spent just over $2 billion in the community, he says, and they know they need to get a handle on it. But a big part of the problem, McDonough says, is that the three internal agencies dont talk to each otherthey dont even necessarily know what their colleagues do, let alone the decisions that have already been made on a particular case. Neither Thomas-Greenfield or representatives from Albright Stonebridge Group responded to ABC News' request for comment. (This article originally appeared in the February 2022 issue ofMilitary Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. By using our site you agree to our use of cookies. Kayla Williams, who had been appointed during the Obama administration as director of the Center for Women Veterans, is back as the assistant secretary of the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. McDonough also listed his top priorities as reducing veterans suicides and homelessness, improving services for transitioning service members and veteran caregivers, and ensuring that the VA welcomes all our veterans, including women veterans, veterans of color and LGBTQ veterans.. In this Nov. 1, 2013, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden and Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken listen as President Barack Obama address reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee Denis McDonough speaks during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on Capitol Hill, Jan. 27, 2021, in Washington, D.C. And therefore, when we dont meet that, theres, I think, very understandable public frustration.. Theres more than that: Theres addressing mental health before it becomes deadly with mind-body work. } But the vast majority of mistakes in exposure cases are the simple versionmistakes in the fundamentals of rating. WINGS OF WORLD WAR II: Take a unique look at the iconic aircraft that shaped modern warfare. Instead, ethics experts say many have navigated the murky alleyways of corporate consulting and geopolitical risk management -- work that can occur in secret, often protected by confidentiality agreements. The Army saw a drop in suicides last year, but the issue remains a devas ting problem for the force. He has not yet submitted his disclosure forms nor disclosed any former clients from his time at the firm. I watched their training firsthand. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) additionally announced return-to-office plans earlier this month, which will go into effect this fall. } In his ethics agreement filed with his disclosure report, Blinken wrote that he will not participate in matters that could involve WestExec's work unless specifically approved to do so, until he is fully paid out for his divestment in two years. And, he says, he can make good on the promises that we made those men and women whose life I had a part in impacting so profoundly.. The list includes a host of banks and financial firms like Blackstone, Lazard, Pine Island Capital Partners and Royal Bank of Canada, as well as other big corporate names like FedEx, Microsoft, AT&T, Boeing and Facebook. Market data provided by Factset.