A non-veteran, senior-level Obama appointee to Veterans Affairs (VA) is President Trump’s appointee to be the next VA secretary. If confirmed by Congress, current VA Under Secretary of Health David Shulkin will be the first non-veteran to lead the department since President Reagan elevated VA to Cabinet-level status. Shulkin is appointed to this post by a man who repeatedly criticized the scandal-plagued agency while on the campaign trail, who also famously pledged to “drain the [government] swamp” of DC insiders.

Shulkin is not much of an insider, of the proverbial D.C. variety or even of the VA, where he has served only since 2015. His prior VA experience consisted of being on the actual hospital floor, as a resident, when rotating through medical centers as part of his physician training. This is unlike many of the senior-level employees at VA on the two most salient points: the majority appear to be VA career administrators who obtained degrees after they had been with VA over several years; the majority of degrees they hold are in public health, public administration, or business. Last year,reporter Luke Rosiak discovered that out of the 300 top VA employees, only six directors and three associate directors were also medical doctors.