That may set up a battle over who succeeds David Shulkin and whether the person favors privatization of the massive agency that assists veterans.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Former veterans affairs secretary David Shulkin said Sunday that he did not voluntarily leave his office, clashing with the White House\u2019s description of his exit and adding to questions about who will run the department until a new secretary is confirmed.
\u201cI would not resign, because I\u2019m committed to making sure this job was seen through to the very end,\u201d Shulkin said in an interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d with Jake Tapper. \u201cI did not resign.\u201d
Shulkin made similar comments on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d saying that he did not submit a letter of resignation, and was not asked to.
Whether Shulkin resigned or was fired would have bearing on who leads the Department of Veterans Affairs until the president\u2019s nominee, Ronny L. Jackson, is confirmed by the Senate. According to federal statutes, the departure of a Senate-confirmed secretary elevates the department\u2019s deputy secretary to that position until a permanent replacement arrives.
But VA\u2019s deputy secretary, Tom Bowman, has already been passed over by a White House that has wanted to overhaul the department\u2019s leadership. Robert Wilkie, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, is now running VA. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 empowers the president to bypass a deputy and install anyone who has been confirmed by the Senate for any position \u201cto perform the functions and duties of the vacant office temporarily in an acting capacity.\u201d
The White House previously used that power to install Mick Mulvaney, the Senate-confirmed OMB director, to lead the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a move that is still being litigated by CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English. But Mulvaney\u2019s predecessor, Richard Cordray, had resigned to run for governor of Ohio. Shulkin told The Washington Post on Friday, as he told CNN on Sunday, that he did not resign and was instead fired after being undermined by political appointees.
\u201cI don\u2019t think that this was the president,\u201d Shulkin told Tapper. \u201cThe president is committed to improving the care for veterans. These appointees had a belief that there was a different way to do that than I did\u2026 these individuals, when they didn\u2019t see that their way was being adopted, used subversive techniques to change the leadership at VA.\u201d
Shulkin\u2019s description of what happened clashes with the Trump administration\u2019s. On Friday, Shulkin told The Post that he was told by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that he was being pushed out. But on Saturday, deputy White House press secretary Lindsay Walters told Politico that \u201cSecretary Shulkin resigned from his position as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.\u201d Asked Sunday about Shulkin\u2019s description of what happened, Walters repeated that statement.
The questions about Shulkin\u2019s removal may well end up in court. Democrats, who, like Shulkin, believe that the Trump administration is attempting to elevate people who favor privatizing VA\u2019s services, could sue over any major decisions made by Wilkie, arguing that the 1998 law on vacancies does not apply when appointees are fired.
\u201cI would strongly suspect that, if you get rid of Shulkin, who opposed privatization, and you put Dr. Jackson in, that is what his mission will be,\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, said Sunday on CNN. \u201cWithout exception, the major veterans organizations say, we have got to strengthen VA, not dismember it, not privatize it. And I will do everything I can as a member of the veterans committee not to approve any nominee who is not going to strengthen VA and who will oppose privatization.\u201d
The prospect of an acting VA secretary making decisions and then facing legal action also worries some advocacy groups. \u201cThat uncertainty creates risk, which is a real problem,\u201d said Max Stier, the president of the Partnership for Public Service. \u201cI don\u2019t believe any court has opined on this as of yet. It is uncertainty piled on top of uncertainty with real harm being caused to the VA and veterans.\u201d
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