The 54-44 vote fell mainly along party lines, with only Nevada’s two Democratic senators — Jackie Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto — breaking ranks to side with Republicans on the confirmation.
Brown, 41, is now poised to take over one of five most senior leadership posts at VA, overseeing maintenance and operations at 155 national cemeteries in 42 states as well as commemorative sites in other locations.
He is a West Point alumnus who served in the Army for five years after graduation. During a deployment to Afghanistan in 2008, he was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device.
RELATED
Brown suffered burns on nearly a third of his body, including his face and neck, and lost part of his hand in the attack. After his medical retirement from the military, he founded a firm that provided medications to veterans whose government benefits did not provide all the care they needed.
In a statement on social media late Tuesday night, Brown said he was “humbled and honored to give you all my best, again” in the new role.
Brown was tapped by President Donald Trump for the leadership post in early January, even before the new commander-in-chief was sworn into office. But his nomination has been stalled in the Senate for months by Democratic lawmakers upset over a host of department moves and what they claim is a lack of communication from VA Secretary Doug Collins.
Several senators have put holds on all VA nominees, but the Republican majority has the ability to override those blocks by going through time-consuming parliamentary procedures. Brown’s confirmation vote came amid a flurry of work on stalled nominations this week, ahead of a planned chamber recess for the month of August.
Trump has pushed lawmakers to cancel that recess and continue pushing through the list of stalled nominees. Republican leaders in the chamber so far have not committed to that, but are hoping to clear a significant portion of the backlog in coming days.
As such, Brown may not be the last senior VA leader to get a vote this week. On Tuesday, Republican leaders queued up a potential vote on senior Veterans Affairs advisor Cheryl Mason to serve as the next Inspector General of the department. Democrats have objected to her nomination because of questions about her independence in the watchdog role.
Brown is expected to be formally sworn in to his new role in the next few days.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
Read the full article here
