WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) today applauded the nomination of former Procter & Gamble CEO and Army veteran Robert A. McDonald to serve as U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

“I applaud the President’s choice of Robert McDonald to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs,” Sen. Warner said. “His military service and private sector management experience will help spur a much-needed and dramatic overhaul at the V-A health system. However, we need to continue pushing shorter-term solutions to some of the most immediate issues, such as the inexcusable scheduling and appointments mess. That’s why I’ve proposed enlisting private sector technology expertise to help fix the V-A’s IT challenges at no cost to taxpayers. I look forward to meeting and working with Mr. McDonald through the confirmation process so that we can tackle these issues and begin restoring the trust of veterans.” 

Sen. Warner will urge the nominee to expand two pro-bono, public-private partnerships that can help reduce the backlog of veterans’ claims and provide solutions for the V-A’s scheduling system, which has hampered veterans’ ability to access health care:  

• The Puller Clinic model provides free legal counsel to veterans with complex cases by helping them to file fully-developed claims. The model started with the William & Mary law school in Virginia and has successfully expanded to 15 legal clinics nationwide.  

• The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), through Senator Warner’s V-A private-sector proposal, has assembled a  team of private sector IT experts to recommend solutions to the V-A’s scheduling system, and is currently working with administration officials to develop this process for these experts to review the V-A scheduling system and recommend solutions