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[Music] so [Music] welcome this is brad hennings and courtney ross with chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick we are here for cck on air and we're here to talk a little bit about the transition of power now that we've hit 2021 and we have a new administration that has been inaugurated and that administration is the biden harris administration and so we wanted to talk a little bit about how this affects the department of veterans affairs and veterans benefits in general so president biden's inauguration yesterday january 20th 2021 it ushers in a number of changes across every major governmental department including va so let's talk a little bit about who is the current va secretary courtney who's in charge right this moment yeah thanks brad so as of yesterday inauguration day the current acting secretary for va is dat tran um he is going to work as acting second secretary excuse me until president biden's pick is confirmed by the senate um tran has worked at va for uh more than 10 years um and prior to that he actually worked as a staff member on the senate va committee the confirmation hearing for president biden's pick and he's nominated dennis mcdonough as secretary of va is set for january 27th and so dot tran will act as secretary until that date assuming uh he's confirmed okay so let's talk a little bit about president biden's pick for the department of veterans affairs so if he's confirmed by the senate and we have every indication that mr mcdonough will be confirmed by the senate he would only be the second non-veteran to hold the office now can you tell us a little bit about mr mcdonough's profile yeah so he actually worked formerly worked as the white house chief of staff in the obama administration he also worked formerly as a deputy national security advisor and so he has a lot of experience but as you mentioned he is not a veteran himself and is the only second non-veteran secretary now what so what was the reaction of the veterans community in particular the veterans service organizations who who are very involved in veterans issues what did they think about this nomination yes i think it was a bit of a mixed reaction um i think a lot of the organizations were hoping to see a nominee um who was a veteran and a post 9 11 veteran who served in in the post 9 11 conflicts and wars um and obviously president biden's nominee doesn't fit into that category so while he has a lot of experience i think it was a mixed reaction because he's not a veteran himself and he's not a post 9 11 veteran and i think that's a really important thing uh to mention that there were a lot of folks who were hoping that it would be a post-9 11 veteran and would be sort of new a new generation of veterans serving their fellow veterans uh that being said and i think those are all very valid concerns and criticisms i think the positive spin that a number of people put out is that dennis mcdonough was a chief of staff which is incredibly powerful position in washington that he knows how to get things done but his relationships with many of the other members of the body administration and the hope is that va will have a voice um maybe in ways that it hasn't always had because of the political skills of mr mcdonough so we'll we'll have to wait and see so how about other top va officials do we expect to see any changes in in other top positions throughout the va that have to do more with operational day-to-day activities yes so there are some changes and then there are others who uh we expect to remain in their current position so for example um cheryl mason who is the current chairman of the board of veterans appeals is expected to stay on in that role uh richard stone who is the executive in charge of the veterans health administration is expected to stay on um and then you we're going to see some change in other positions like the acting deputy secretary is expected to be filled by carolyn clancy um and then the acting under secretary of benefits is expected to be um thomas murphy and so um those people have experience with va in the past and they worked in different va positions but they are going to be new to those specific positions and so from the benefit side of the most significant uh appointees there are the fact that the acting under secretary for benefits is going to be thomas murphy that is within the veterans benefits administration and they're the ones who control the adjudication of benefits at the regional office level and the fact that uh chairman mason sheryl mason is staying on at the board of veterans appeals as part of her six-year term they are the ones that handle the cases on peel at the board of veterans appeals i just want to also mention that richard hippellet is going to be acting general counsel and that's that's an important position because the general counsel provides legal advice across the department including regarding veterans benefits and it is the general counsel's role to defend the department at the u.s court of appeals for veterans claims so getting into that are we going to see any changes at the court of appeals for veterans claims which is an independent federal court outside of the va so the president is responsible for nominating judges at the court of appeals for veterans claims when one of them leaves their post and they have 15-year terms that they serve so while the president does have that power no immediate changes are expected with the new administration in terms of changes with the current judges okay so let's get into before we get into some of the other uh new political appointees at va what do these changes mean for veterans what's the practical impact of these changes uh for all the veterans that va is serving practically speaking there is no immediate impact on any va benefit so claims are going to continue to be processed as they have been veterans will continue to receive their disability compensation and other va benefits appeals will continue to be processed as they have been um so the the day-to-day practical operations of you know the claims process and the appeals process will remain unchanged by the personnel changes um and one thing i think to keep in mind too moving forward um is that there are changes coming under the uh 2021 uh ndaa which is the national defense authorization act which was passed at the end of december um and we can highlight some of the changes to veterans benefits that were included in that but the new administration will be responsible for implementing those new laws that were just passed so those are some changes veterans can expect to see but again practically speaking day-to-day operations of how their claims uh and their appeals are processed in their payment of the of their monthly benefits will remain unchanged so this this should be pretty much business as usual at va for the for a veteran who's applying for benefits receiving benefits going in for health care any of it any of those things it should seem to the the casual va user that's pretty seamless right okay so what about are there any aside from the ndaa implementation and the issues associated with that what are some of the other big issues that this new administration and these new political appointees are going to have to handle um yeah and before i answer that i want to mention too that cck live is going to be doing a separate video on the specific benefits that have been included in the ndaa so more specifics on those benefits are coming as well we're going to provide additional resources but to answer your question brad some other issues or challenges the administration will have to deal with includes filling thousands of staff vacancies at va offices across the country dealing with veteran homelessness issues among veterans that have been worsened by the current pandemic we're living through you know continuing to focus on issues surrounding suicide rates among veterans and how to how to combat that and assist veterans um and there's the continuing backlog of claims and appeals that are pending um you know especially among among the pandemic some of which have been slowed down by by different issues resulting from the pandemic so how to how to tackle those backlogs that continue to grow how to implement electronic health records and information how to move forward with that and i think expanding caregiver assistance um is another issue that the administration will need to focus on and and figure out how to navigate and move forward with um implementing some of that so it sounds like there's there's gonna be a lot on the plate of the new administration as there is in any new administration and and extra challenges that have been uh frankly caused by the covid 19 pandemic and how it's particularly impacted veterans and va beneficiaries i just wanted to talk about a few other additional announcements in terms of the binding administration appointees i'm not going to go through through all of them now these are folks that have been put in uh particularly as political appointees by the new administration they are often acting appointees so it's unclear if they will stay in these roles long term but they are certainly in the roles as of yesterday or today with the inauguration and one of the things worth mentioning is chris diaz is the acting chief of staff and so he will be assisting gatran in the um running of the department before dennis mcdonough is confirmed as the new secretary he's also the white house liaison and is located in the office of the secretary so i think he will be playing an important role uh meg cabot or kabat i'm not sure how to pronounce her name she is a senior advisor for families caregivers and survivors in the office of the secretary many of these folks have extensive experience both at the va and supporting service members many of them are veterans themselves raymond c kelly is the liaison to the veterans service organizations that's an incredibly important role yahweh jenny wang is going as the director of mission operations in the office of the secretary um and uh tamika ruth jackson is a special counsel in the office of general counsel and again many of these folks have served in the national security or um agency they have served for the various branches of the military they've served in va and they all appear quite qualified to take on their new roles obviously time will tell as to what happens well with that do you have any closing thoughts about the transition of power here in 2021 in the new administration courtney i'll just say that um you know the transition of power is something that happens every four years in terms of leadership of obviously the country and in different administrations but just to remember again that the practical consequence uh is that there shouldn't be any interruption in filing for benefits you're pending claims or appeals that will remain um uninterrupted business as usual as you said brad so um you know while this is meant to be informative and uh provide a resource for who is now going to be filling leaderships in va um you know not to be worried about what the day-to-day practical consequences are the good news is in in terms of any transition with different administrations is that the department of veterans affairs has has historically and we like to think continues to remain a very bipartisan department it is neither democratic nor republican in particular and that is typically the mission of the va is the same regardless of party regardless of administration and that's to take care of those who are born the battle their their families their dependents and that work will continue on regardless of who is the president who's in the administration who is the secretary and the hope is that the new administration will be successful in taking care of veterans just as the hope is for every administration that they get the funding that va needs that they take action to to help our nation's veterans and their dependents and survivors with that uh thank you for joining us again this is brad hennings and courtney ross with chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick or cck we have been on talking about cck on air and we hope that you visit our website at ccka-law.com or visit us on our various social media [Music] platforms you