Editor’s Note: This story was updated to correct a miscommunication between Military.com and the VA Press Secretary.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough plans to stay in his post through Jan. 20 and until then continue to “fight like hell” for veterans as he promised when nominated on Dec. 11, 2020 — although what happens next for the nearly four-year Cabinet secretary remains to be seen.
VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes confirmed Tuesday that McDonough discussed his future with employees at a town hall and said he planned to complete “his entire term.”
Bloomberg reported earlier in the day that McDonough said he would leave at the end of the administration, with the headline saying he planned to “step down after the election,” scheduled for Nov. 5.
According to Hayes, McDonough does not plan to leave the post before the end of Biden’s term.
As a courtesy, cabinet secretaries usually provide letters of resignation in a reelection, or at the end of a presidency if the incoming president is the same political party, to allow the president to make his or her own staff decisions.
Otherwise, their appointments expire at noon on Inauguration Day.
While former President Donald Trump appointed Dr. David Shulkin, the VA’s under secretary for health under the Obama administration, as VA secretary during his term in the White House, it is unlikely he would appoint any current cabinet secretaries to his administration should he win reelection.
Presumed Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has not revealed any plans for her Cabinet or administration should she be elected.
McDonough is the second non-veteran to hold the position and the longest-serving VA secretary since retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, who held the post for more than five years from 2009 to 2014. During much of that period, McDonough served as deputy national security adviser and then chief of staff for President Barack Obama.
Since McDonough took office, the VA’s budget has grown by roughly 25% to $328.1 billion, and more than 3 million additional veterans have enrolled in health care. In 2023, the VA distributed $163 billion in benefits to 1.5 million veterans.
The department has added staff and is adapting to higher demand created by the PACT Act, the legislation passed in 2022 that expanded health care and benefits to millions of veterans exposed to environmental pollutants overseas.
But McDonough’s tenure has not been without rough patches. The VA’s $16 billion electronic health records system is stalled, beleaguered by issues concerning patient safety and operability. A program that provides stipends and health care to veterans’ caregivers was expanded to include veterans from wars of all eras but also met opposition from its original caregiver population.
And last month, a congressman who sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., called for McDonough to resign over bonuses erroneously paid to senior VA executives under a law passed to provide incentive pay to retain employees in jobs with critical shortages.
McDonough has joked in the past about the fragility of his job, given that two VA secretaries have been asked to resign in the past decade.
During a press conference in January, a reporter asked a hypothetical question about what he would think about the VA’s current workforce levels, if he’d been asked about it three years ago.
“I’d just be glad to know I hadn’t gotten fired yet,” McDonough quipped.
When he was asked the question again “in all seriousness,” McDonough replied: “That was as serious as a heart attack, brother.”