Beyond naming Deputy Secretary Paul R. Lawrence as chair, VA has not yet publicly listed the other individual members of this new commission. However, federal law (38 U.S.C. §306) requires that any Under Secretary for Benefits search commission include: • Three members representing education/training, real estate, mortgage finance, and related industries and survivor‑benefit activities affected by VBA. • Two members representing Veterans served by VBA. • Two members with experience managing Veterans’ benefits or similarly large benefit programs. • The VA Deputy Secretary. • The chair of VA’s Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Education. • Optionally, one former Under Secretary for Benefits (or former Chief Benefits Director), if the Secretary chooses. All of these members are appointed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under the statute.
The January 15, 2026 VA news release announcing the new commission does not provide a specific timetable for when it will finish its work or when the President will nominate a candidate. In a past, similar search, VA said the commission was “expected to complete its work” about five weeks after it was named (for a 2017 Under Secretary for Benefits search), but that historical example does not guarantee the same schedule now. As of the information available in the release and related VA materials, no expected nomination date has been announced.
By law, the Under Secretary for Benefits must be appointed “without regard to political affiliation” and solely on the basis of demonstrated ability in: • Fiscal management, and • Administration of programs within VBA or programs of similar content and scope. Past VA commission announcements also emphasize leadership, management, and subject‑matter expertise in Veterans’ benefits. The new press release repeats the statutory framework and describes the role as directing accurate and timely delivery of disability, pension, education, housing, vocational rehabilitation, life insurance, and transition benefits, implying that experience running large, complex benefit systems that affect Veterans’ economic security will be a priority.
Under 38 U.S.C. §306: • The VA Secretary must create a commission when an Under Secretary for Benefits vacancy occurs or is expected. • The commission recommends at least three candidates and submits these names to the Secretary. • The Secretary forwards the recommendations (with any comments) to the President. • The President then chooses a nominee from the recommended pool (or can ask the commission for more names) and formally sends that nomination to the U.S. Senate. • The Senate must provide “advice and consent” (confirmation) before the nominee can serve. So the commission screens and recommends; the President nominates; and the Senate decides whether to confirm.
Several of VA’s cited accomplishments are backed by specific VA data or news releases: • Benefits backlog down 60% since Jan. 20, 2025: The January 15, 2026 press release asserts this reduction and links to a statement by the VA Secretary; VA’s public “2025 accomplishments” overview similarly highlights aggressive backlog reduction but does not publish the full time‑series in that summary. • 25 new health care clinics opened: The same release points to an official Secretary statement that 25 new clinics have opened to expand access; this is also reflected in VA’s 2025 accomplishments page. • Elimination of the Veteran family health care (CHAMPVA) backlog: A November 24, 2025 VA press release states that VA has “completely eliminated” the backlog of CHAMPVA applications, serving over 900,000 eligible family members. • 51,936 homeless Veterans permanently housed in FY 2025: VA and its medical centers issued releases reporting that 51,936 homeless Veterans were permanently housed nationwide in FY 2025, the highest total in seven years. • $800 million in infrastructure spending: The January 15, 2026 release states that VA is spending an additional $800 million on infrastructure to ensure safe, effective patient care; detailed project‑level breakdowns are not provided in that release. Most of these metrics come directly from VA’s own reporting rather than independent audits in the documents cited.
The press release does not predict specific changes in processing times, but the Under Secretary for Benefits is the executive in charge of the Veterans Benefits Administration, which runs disability, pension, education, housing, vocational rehabilitation, and other benefits. A new Under Secretary with strong operational and fiscal‑management skills could: • Set performance goals for reducing claims and appeals backlogs. • Reallocate staff, modernize IT systems, or change workflows to speed claim reviews. • Adjust policies on evidence development or quality review, which can trade off speed vs. accuracy. Historically, changes in VBA leadership and modernization efforts (for example, the shift to more electronic claims processing under earlier Under Secretaries) have been associated with periods of both improvement and disruption in timeliness, depending on how reforms were implemented. The 2026 release explicitly links the search to a period of “vastly improving VA services,” implying that continued backlog reduction and faster, more accurate claims decisions will be central expectations for the new Under Secretary, but it does not quote a numeric target for future processing times.
According to VA’s August 6, 2025 press release, the department terminated collective bargaining agreements for most bargaining‑unit employees in response to a Trump Administration executive order that excluded certain agencies from federal labor‑management programs on national‑security grounds. VA leaders framed the move as a way to: • Make it “easier…to promote high‑performing employees, hold poor performers accountable, and improve benefits and services” to Veterans. • Redirect what they called “millions in wasteful union spending back to Veterans.” Expected and likely effects: • Workforce relations: Federal employee unions and independent analysts warned that ending contracts would reduce workers’ protections and grievance mechanisms, likely harming morale and increasing turnover or disputes. • Service delivery risk: Because roughly 80% of VA’s workforce is unionized (nurses, technicians, food‑service and custodial staff, etc.), large‑scale labor conflict or attrition could disrupt clinical operations, slow benefits processing, and reduce continuity of care. • Short‑term control vs. long‑term stability: In the near term, VA gains more unilateral control over scheduling, discipline, and work rules; over time, loss of collaborative labor‑management structures can undermine institutional knowledge and staff buy‑in that complex healthcare and benefits systems depend on. The 2026 Under Secretary search release repeats VA’s claim that terminating contracts “redirected millions in wasteful union spending back to Veterans,” but it does not supply independent fiscal analysis or measurable service‑quality outcomes linked to that decision.
The “integrated electronic health record system” is VA’s multi‑year Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program, which is replacing VA’s legacy VistA system with a single, interoperable Oracle‑Cerner platform meant to integrate Veterans’ medical records across VA facilities and with the Department of Defense.
VA’s January 15, 2026 release says the department is “accelerating the deployment” of this integrated EHR after the program was “nearly dormant for almost two years” under the prior administration. Other VA and congressional oversight materials describe what this acceleration is intended to do: • Create one longitudinal health record that follows a Veteran from active duty through all VA care. • Improve information sharing between VA and DoD, reducing lost records and duplicate tests. • Standardize clinical workflows and data, which can support safer prescribing, better coordination among specialists, and easier use of decision‑support tools. • Eventually allow faster access to lab results, imaging, and prior treatment history at any VA site. In principle, a successful, faster rollout should make it easier for clinicians to see complete, up‑to‑date information and for Veterans to have more seamless care, including when they move or use multiple VA facilities. In practice, earlier deployments of the Oracle‑Cerner EHR have also faced usability and reliability problems that affected care at pilot sites, so the quality of implementation and remediation of known defects will determine whether the accelerated deployment actually improves day‑to‑day Veteran care.