page_title: Robert Wilkie
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Wilkie / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: President Donald J. Trump, joined by U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, signs H.R. 2147, The Veterans Treatment Court Improvement Act of 2018 Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
context_page_description: Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. is an American lawyer and government official serving as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was confirmed on July 23, 2018 by the United States Senate. The confirmation vote in the Senate was 86–9. He was sworn in on July 30, 2018.
  Prior to becoming the VA Secretary, Wilkie served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness from November 30, 2017 to July 30, 2018. An intelligence officer in the United States Naval Reserve, he was previously nominated for a Department of Defense position by President George W. Bush on June 20, 2006, and his appointment was approved by the Senate on September 30, 2006.
context_section_description: Wilkie began his professional career on Capitol Hill as Counsel to Senator Jesse Helms, and later served as legislative director for Representative David Funderburk. He was assigned to the Committee on International Relations and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1997, he began service as counsel and advisor on international security affairs to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, remaining in that office until 2003.
  From 2003 to 2005, in the Bush administration, Wilkie was special assistant to the President for national security affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council, where he was a senior policy advisor to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as well as her successor, Stephen Hadley. Wilkie developed strategic planning for the implementation of the Moscow Treaty, the Millennium Challenge Account, Iraqi Reconstruction and NATO Expansion. In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates awarded him the Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Department.
  In 2007, while serving as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, Wilkie authored a memo outlining guidelines that restricted congressional testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by the president. Critics of the guidelines argued that they could impede investigations of the Iraq War, and that the Pentagon had no authority to set the rules.
  From 2010 to 2015, Wilkie was Vice President for Strategic Programs for CH2M Hill, one of the largest program management and engineering firms in the world. He worked on advising assignments and program management. This involved working with the summer Olympics in London in 2012, as he helped reform the United Kingdom's Defense Supply and Logistics System.
  From 2015 to 2017, Wilkie was a senior advisor to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis.
  Wilkie was nominated to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness by President Donald Trump in July 2017. This nomination was confirmed by the Senate on November 16, 2017.
  On March 28, 2018, President Trump announced via Twitter that Wilkie would serve as interim Secretary of Veterans Affairs until the Senate confirmed a successor. On May 18, 2018, following the withdrawn nomination of Ronny Jackson, Trump announced that he was nominating Wilkie to hold the Veterans Affairs position full-time. On July 23, 2018, Wilkie was confirmed by the Senate as the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, by an 86–9 vote. He was sworn in on July 30, 2018.
  In 2019, he was named fifty-second among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare.
  On March 2, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Wilkie's addition to White House Coronavirus Task Force.
caption: Wilkie watches as President Trump signs The Veterans Treatment Court Improvement Act of 2018.
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