Tester Calls On Trump to Sit Down with Veteran Service Organizations and Choose a VA Secretary

(Libby, Mont.)-With only two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, Senator Jon Tester, Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today released the following statement:

“I am very concerned that the President-elect has yet to nominate a VA Secretary. If he needs more counsel before making this important decision, he should start by personally sitting down with our nation’s Veterans Service Organizations. Every day he continues to delay his decision, he jeopardizes the seamless transition that is needed to ensure this nation fulfills its commitment to the brave men and women who served.”

Trump has yet to personally meet with the nation’s largest Veterans Service Organizations, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Tester took to the Senate floor last month after reports surfaced that Trump was being advised by the Koch-Brothers backed “Concerned Veterans of America” before nominating a VA Secretary.

Tester sat down with Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) last month to discuss the committee’s priorities for the 115th Congress.