It will take a "couple of years" and some "sleepless nights" to right the wrongs going on with the Department of Veterans Affairs, but it is "doable," former Sen. Scott Brown said Friday.
"I've been honored to be considered," the Massachusetts Republican, and one of several people under consideration to head the troubled agency, said of the cabinet post on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "There are some great people being considered, [but] regardless of who it is, the work is just overwhelming. Veterans are dying [and] there is a lot of mismanagement."
The VA secretary seat is one of just a few spots left in President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet, but veterans' issues often came under fire during his campaign.
"You have some great people working in the VA," Brown said. "You have also people collecting a paycheck and checking a box and treating our veterans, I think, really with a lack of respect. That needs to change. And you need to put somebody in there who will get the congressional authority and presidential authority to fire these people."
Fox News' Pete Hegseth and former Georgia Rep. Allen West's names are also under consideration, and Brown said he'd thought the nomination would have been one of the first to be announced after that of secretary of State.
"I know for a fact, however he is giving it his total attention in terms of bringing in somebody who he feels is absolutely 100 percent right for the job, because there has been a lot of transition in that position over the years," Brown said. "He needs somebody in there who will have the support of Congress, the support of the president and veterans themselves."
Brown said it is important to have military and political experience, as well as media experience to be the face of the VA and to be able to convey what's going on to veterans and to the American public.
"Obviously we have to deal with suicides," Brown said. "We have to deal with the long lines. We have to deal with not getting good value for our dollars, and [with] going after the problem hospitals and vet centers and clinics, which are the biggest problems in our country right now. "
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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