Dear President-elect Trump,

When you take office, you’ll inherit a Department of Veterans Affairs with serious systemic challenges. There are insurmountable medical appointment wait times, despite receiving more than $10 billion for the Veteran Choice program. The Veterans Crisis Line rolls calls over to a contracted call center that places some veterans contemplating suicide on hold for nearly 20 minutes, which is extremely detrimental because 20 veterans commit suicide each day. Your administration will also need to address a records management nightmare, reconciling nearly 2 million active records of veterans who are believed to be deceased, providing a plan for equitable relief for the family members of thousands of veterans who died waiting for care and rectifying unresolved system errors that continue to deny nearly 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans healthcare benefits.