Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough will exit his current position in January 2025, when the current presidential term ends.
According to reports, McDonough told staffers earlier this month that he will leave the post at the end of President Joe Biden's term in office on Jan. 20.
“As President Biden charged him to do on day one, Secretary McDonough is fighting like hell to make sure that Veterans get the health care and benefits they’ve earned for their service to our nation — and he will continue to do exactly that,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement.
McDonough, 54, who did not serve in the military, became VA secretary in February of 2021, after being tapped by President Joe Biden for the position. Prior to being named VA chief, McDonough served as chief of staff to former President Barack Obama during his second term.
In his role as VA secretary, McDonough manages the department responsible for providing benefits and health care to the nation’s nearly 9 million veterans and their family members.
He took over an agency that was facing heat for extended waiting times for veterans seeking care and led VA during its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
McDonough is also overseeing the department’s response to the implementation of the PACT Act, which provides VA health care and benefits to veterans of any era who were exposed to toxins as a result of their military service. As a result of the legislation being signed into law in August of 2022, more than 710,000 veterans have enrolled in VA health care, which represents a more than 34 percent increase in veterans enrolling compared to an equivalent period before the legislation was signed.
VA also addressed an increase in veteran suicides during McDonough’s watch by implementing a policy that allows eligible veterans and certain former service members in acute suicidal crises to go to any VA or non-VA healthcare facility for no-cost emergency health care.
Fourteen other cabinet secretaries will join McDonough as they work out their futures due to the upcoming election.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.