The Department of Veterans Affairs has relaunched efforts to find a new head of veterans benefits following the withdrawal of nominee Karen Brazell last October.
The VA has formally convened a commission led by Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence to vet candidates for the position. Unlike most political appointments across the federal government, the undersecretaries of benefits and health must be recommended by a panel that includes advocates, industry representatives and previous members of VA leadership before they are nominated by the president.
Karen Brazell, a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins, was selected last June for the position, which is responsible for overseeing nearly $200 billion in benefits and aid to veterans and their dependents.
During her confirmation hearing in September, Brazell — an Army veteran and military spouse who worked in the VA’s office of enterprise integration during the first Trump administration — received support from Republicans on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
But from the start of her nomination process, Senate Democrats had voiced concern over her role as Collins’ senior adviser during a period that saw the VA planning to shed roughly 70,000 jobs.
At Brazell’s confirmation, Democrats also pressed her for assurances that veterans benefits would not be reduced under her watch through methods previously advocated by conservatives such as eliminating payments to veterans rated 20% or less or providing disability compensation based on income calculations.
In response to questions from ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Brazell said she would review operations across the Veterans Benefits Administration and would “follow the law.”
Brazell then withdrew her nomination in October “for personal reasons.”
Margarita Devlin, VBA’s principal deputy undersecretary for benefits, is currently acting in the undersecretary’s role. The VA last had a permanent undersecretary in January 2025, when Josh Jacobs, who held the post for nearly two years, resigned at the start of the new administration.
Jacobs’ nomination also was not without controversy. While he sailed through his confirmation hearing in February 2023, a key Republican senator, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, later threatened to block his nomination because he felt that Jacobs, who previously served as acting undersecretary of benefits, was evasive in answering Grassley’s concerns over whistleblower complaints.
He was confirmed in a 74-25 vote.
According to the VA, the department has reduced the backlog of disability claims decisions — defined as filings 125 days and older — by 60% in the past year. VBA also housed nearly 52,000 homeless veterans in 2025, the highest number in seven years.
The Senate confirmed Air Force Reserve Maj. Gen. John Bartrum, the VA’s nominee for undersecretary for health, in December in a 53-43 vote.
Bartrum served much of his Air Force career in medical administration. He served as a mobilization assistant to the Air and Space Force surgeon general and was assigned as deputy incident manager in emergency support functions for the COVID-19 epidemic.
In his civilian capacity, he was a professional staff member of the House Appropriations Committee for more than eight years, working on labor, education and health issues, including infectious diseases such as Ebola.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
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