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“Hearing to Consider Pending Nominations”

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Hearing

June 3, 2026 (recording here)

HEARING INFORMATION

Witnesses & Written Testimony (linked):

• Gary Shatswell: Nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Information and Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• Michael Tierney: Nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

TOP-LINES TO SHOW YOU ARE IN THE KNOW

1. VA IT modernization dominated the hearing, with senators pressing Gary Shatswell to prove he could finally impose program management, accountability, transparency, and measurable execution on long-troubled technology systems.

2. Electronic health records remained a major concern, but Shatswell clarified that the EHR project would not fall directly under his remit and instead had separate VA leadership.

3. Whistleblower protection was the central test for Michael Tierney, with senators repeatedly asking whether he had the independence to protect VA employees from retaliation and act on misconduct even when politically uncomfortable.

4. Senators from both parties raised fragmented scheduling, referrals, and disconnected VA data systems as practical barriers to veterans getting timely care.

5. The committee sought ongoing oversight commitments, and both nominees agreed to provide quarterly briefings on priorities, trends, staffing or workforce issues, case processing, disciplinary actions, cybersecurity, and modernization projects.

PARTY LINE PERSPECTIVES

OPENING STATEMENTS FROM THE COMMITTEE

• Chairman Jerry Moran said the committee had convened to consider the nominations of Gary Shatswell for Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Information and Technology and Michael Tierney for Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. He emphasized that the VA needed strong leadership on electronic health records, data security, automation, AI, transparency, and accountability. He stated that both nominees would face significant challenges because VA served millions of veterans and beneficiaries, employed hundreds of thousands of workers, and operated with a very large budget.

• Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal said the two positions were critical because whistleblowers helped expose fraud, waste, abuse, and dangers that could affect veterans’ lives. He argued that the VA had not adequately tracked corrective actions or settlement data in whistleblower cases and that the budget request failed to provide enough staffing or resources. He said Michael Tierney, if confirmed, would need to defend whistleblower protections and push for stronger authority and tools. He also said Gary Shatswell would need to address VA’s troubled technology systems, cost overruns, AI oversight, automation, transparency, and independence.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

• Gary Shatswell thanked the committee, President Trump, and Secretary Collins for the opportunity to be considered for the VA technology leadership role. He described his faith, family, patriotic background, and family history of military service as central influences on his commitment to serving veterans. He said his time meeting VA leaders, staff, and veterans had led him to focus on improving technology, reducing repetitive processes, modernizing systems, using data strategically, and accelerating AI with strong privacy and security guardrails. He stated that his executive experience had prepared him to ask hard questions, do hard work, and help VA prioritize, execute, and deliver for veterans.

• Michael Tierney thanked the committee, his family, President Trump, and Secretary Collins for the opportunity to appear as the nominee for the accountability and whistleblower protection role. He described his 30-year legal career in litigation, corporate practice, government service, and leadership of complex legal matters. He said the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection had a statutory duty to oversee accountability, handle whistleblower disclosures, and address senior leader misconduct with integrity and independence. He committed, if confirmed, to improving the office’s efficiency, protecting veterans and VA employees, and pursuing accountability and transparency independently.

• Sen. Blumenthal asked whether Mr. Tierney had VA experience or had represented whistleblowers, and Mr. Tierney said he had no VA experience and had worked on whistleblower issues while representing companies. Sen. Blumenthal also questioned Mr. Tierney about his USAID service during the agency’s dismantling, and Mr. Tierney said he had not been involved in personnel reductions or restructuring.

• Sen. Blumenthal then asked Mr. Shatswell about reports that VA had lost 1,300 IT employees, and Mr. Shatswell said he was not involved in dismissals and did not know the details of the staffing losses. Sen. Blumenthal said he hoped Mr. Shatswell would recognize the need to restore skilled IT staff to improve OIT.

• Sen. Thom Tillis asked Mr. Shatswell what would make his approach to VA technology modernization different from previous efforts. Mr. Shatswell said he would prioritize creating a leadership-level program management office with better tools, dashboards, visibility, and accountability. Sen. Tillis urged him to secure executive sponsorship, involve committee members, and create a real program office that could track priorities, estimates, resources, deadlines, and deliverables.

• Sen. Tillis also asked Mr. Tierney how he would encourage whistleblowing, and Mr. Tierney said employees had to feel secure reporting misconduct and that leadership messaging, training, and education would be important.

• Sen. Hassan asked both nominees whether they would follow the law or a presidential directive if the directive were unlawful, and both said they would follow the law.

• Sen. Hassan then asked Mr. Tierney how VA employees could trust his office to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and Mr. Tierney said he would work to ensure employees felt comfortable and safe reporting misconduct. Sen. Hassan pressed him on countering retaliatory messaging from the White House, and Mr. Tierney said whistleblower protection would be central to his role and that he would report to the Secretary and the committee.

• Sen. Hassan also asked Mr. Shatswell whether he would work with her office to implement a self-service VA scheduling platform if her bill became law, and Mr. Shatswell said yes.

• Sen. Tim Sheehy asked whether VA technology prevented the department from determining quickly when a facility could not provide care within access standards. Mr. Shatswell said VA’s many disconnected databases and one-way data feeds made that difficult and said VA needed an enterprise data platform and a single system of record.

• Sen. Sheehy also asked why referrals could take days, weeks, or months, and Mr. Shatswell said the root issue was that VA had many systems that did not communicate well with each other.

• Sen. Sheehy asked how complaints about community care problems would be prioritized, and Mr. Tierney said he would consult responsible officials, work with the committee, and act independently and non-partisanly.

• Sen. Angus King asked Mr. Shatswell whether the electronic health record project would fall under his responsibilities, and Mr. Shatswell said it would not.

• Sen. King asked whether improving coordination between the Department of Defense and VA was worth pursuing, and Mr. Shatswell said it was “100%” worth pursuing.

• Sen. King asked about NDAs and whistleblower protections, and Mr. Tierney said NDAs should not restrict whistleblower activity and committed to protecting whistleblower rights.

• Sen. King also asked about independence, and Mr. Tierney said he would make recommendations regardless of whether complaints were uncomfortable for the Secretary or the President.

• Sen. Moran asked Mr. Shatswell how he had assessed OIT since becoming a senior advisor and what his first steps would be. Mr. Shatswell said he had reviewed the organization, visited VA facilities, observed technology in use, and would focus on a program or portfolio value office, agile processes, tooling, training, visibility, and accountability.

• Sen. Moran asked Mr. Tierney about OAWP’s role in tracking VA compliance with oversight recommendations, and Mr. Tierney said he would work cooperatively with oversight entities and ensure accurate and timely reporting.

• Sen. Moran also asked both nominees to commit to quarterly briefings, and both agreed, with Mr. Shatswell saying he hoped updates would be more frequent than quarterly.

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