Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

20. Department of Veterans Affairs · Minor

Prepare a vetted roster of VA appointees with the Presidential Personnel Office

Not started

652 20. Department of Veterans Affairs

“Support the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (PPO) in identifying a fully vetted roster of candidates to assume all key positions at VA well ahead of formal nominations.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    The record shows searches beginning after posts fell vacant, not a roster held ready ahead of nominations. On 2026-01-15 — a year into the term — VA announced it had "established a commission to find candidates to lead the Veterans Benefits Administration", chaired by Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, describing the commission as "a prerequisite to the president's nomination of a candidate" for Under Secretary for Benefits. VA had run the same exercise for both administrations nine months earlier, announcing on 2025-04-14 that it was starting a search for new health and benefits leaders. No allowlisted source records VA supporting the Presidential Personnel Office in assembling a vetted roster for all key VA positions, and the internal process would leave no public instrument even if it existed.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Roster check first, per .scratch/lower-tiers/plan.md mechanic 5: src/data/people.json carries three people with a VA connection and one Current office at VA — Paul Lawrence, Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, confirmed 2025-03-27. A single confirmed appointment is evidence that PAS posts were filled the ordinary way, not that a vetted roster existed ahead of nominations, so the roster does not answer this ask.
  • Pointing the other way, and a lead rather than Evidence because it shows appointments rather than the roster behind them: VA announced its first tranche of Trump Administration political appointees on 2025-01-21, the day after the inauguration — a chief of staff and several senior advisers, most of them returning from the first term (https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-announces-trump-administration-appointees/, fetched 2026-09-01). Read together with the 2026 Under Secretary commission, the picture is speed on non-Senate-confirmed appointments and delay on the PAS posts.
  • The 2025-04-14 predecessor release was read in full (https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-starts-search-for-new-health-and-benefits-leaders/, fetched 2026-09-01): commissions established for both the Under Secretary for Health and the Under Secretary for Benefits, each “a prerequisite to the president’s nomination”. It is the same fact as the 2026 release and is kept here rather than duplicated as Evidence.
  • Overlaps #1798 (career SES in PA/PAS-designated positions) and #1806 (more non-career PA positions); the nomination record for VA is set out in the Chapter 20 log entry for #1798.
Action
appoint
Object
Roster of candidates for key VA political positions
ID
1805