McDonald will have ally at his side when he joins VA

WASHINGTON – The Senate unanimously confirmed Bob McDonald to be the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, even as some lawmakers sounded as if they were sending the former Procter & Gamble chief on an impossible mission.

During Tuesday's debate, lawmakers called the VA a "mess" and said McDonald would need every ounce of his military training and his corporate savvy to tackle the agency's widespread problems and manage its 300,000-plus employees.

But McDonald will have a secret weapon of sorts when he takes the helm of Washington's second-largest bureaucracy: a top deputy who also is a close and trusted friend.

McDonald and Sloan Gibson — who is serving as the acting VA secretary — have been good friends for 40 years, ever since they were classmates together at the U.S. Military Academy in the 1970s. During their senior year, they were nearly inseparable because they served as cadet leaders.

"Our offices and rooms were right next door to each other in the barracks," Gibson said Monday. "And we sat right across the mess hall table from each other, three meals a day every day, for our entire senior year."

Now, they will share a new set of barracks, working as a team to fix a dysfunctional agency that's under fire for mismanagement, a shortage of health care providers and an outdated technology system. A VA spokeswoman said McDonald could be sworn in and on the job before the end of the week.

McDonald, 61, was confirmed Tuesday by a 97-0 vote in the Senate. Gibson, who is also 61, was confirmed as the VA's deputy secretary about six months ago, and on May 30, President Barack Obama tapped him to be acting chief of the agency. That's when Eric Shinseki, the former VA secretary, resigned amid revelations that employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs manipulated appointment logs to hide long wait times for tens of thousands of veterans seeking medical care.

Gibson has been trying to respond to those allegations and to address the VA's failings. On Monday, he sounded thrilled at the prospect of McDonald's imminent confirmation.

"One of the things that augurs very positively for the department is that folks aren't going to see any daylight between Bob and me," he said. "We see things very similarly. We have very similar world views, very similar value sets."

Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, agreed that McDonald and Gibson's history of working together would be helpful as the two leaders try to fix the VA. He said they seem committed to changing the "tone and transparency" at the agency, noting that McDonald called him within a week of being nominated and gave him his cellphone number.

"But the real question for them both is: Can you get rid of the bad apples and can you draw talent?" Rieckhoff said. "If they can't get young bright people to go work at the VA, they're never going to move this mountain."

McDonald was a surprise pick to take over the VA; lawmakers and veterans groups said they had no indication he was under consideration for the appointment when the White House announced the news at the end of June.

Gibson said he did not put McDonald on the White House's radar, but he said the former corporate CEO was a "logical" choice.

"He's a West Point grad, served honorably, and has excelled through a long 30-plus year career in the corporate world," Gibson said. "Why would he not show up on the list?"

And when White House officials mentioned McDonald was in the mix as a possible replacement for Shinseki, Gibson provided a rave review.

"I said he'd be a great secretary," Gibson recalled, saying he told White House officials that McDonald was "an awesome guy ... (with) great values."

Like McDonald, Gibson had a long career in the private sector — working in the banking industry for more than two decades — before he joined the VA. He was vice chairman and chief financial officer at AmSouth Bancorporation, which was headquartered in Alabama until it merged with another institution, when he retired in 2004.

Gibson said the main knock on McDonald — that he lacks government experience — is overblown.

"There's either good management or there's bad management — whether it's in the private sector or the public sector or nonprofit," he said. "What Bob brings and ... what, to some degree, I'm trying to bring, are experiences and skills and capabilities around leadership and good management."

Asked what McDonald's first day on the job would be like, Gibson laughed.

"I've been here for 5 months and 8 days, and every day's been different so far," he said. "It's an extraordinarily complex place with any awful lot going on."

Rieckhoff said that while McDonald glided to confirmation, that smooth ride will be over soon.

"He's not going to have much of a honeymoon," he said.

In fact, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said McDonald "is faced with a truly monumental task," citing high veteran suicide rates, disability claims backlog and chronic homelessness, among other problems.

"He will have to deal with these and other issues all on day one," Murray said.

Contact Deirdre Shesgreen at dshesgreen@gannett.com or @dshesgreen on Twitter.