The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has advanced the nomination of Tanya Bradsher to serve as the deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), sending her nomination to the full Senate for a final vote.
If confirmed, Bradsher would take over for former VA Deputy Secretary Donald Remy, who stepped down from the role in April. As deputy secretary, Bradsher would oversee the agency’s Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program.
Bradsher told senators at her confirmation hearing that her top priority at the agency would be to help fix the troubled rollout of the EHRM program. She noted she would take a “boots on the ground” approach when addressing issues that have already cropped up at the five VA facilities where the Oracle-Cerner EHR system has already been deployed.
“We need to have enterprise-wide changes and ensure that we hold Cerner Oracle accountable so that those changes actually happen,” Bradsher said.
Bradsher currently serves as the chief of staff for the VA, where she acts as the senior advisor to the secretary and deputy secretary.
Previously, she served on the White House’s National Security Council during both the Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris administrations. During the Obama-Biden administration, Bradsher served as the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she oversaw public outreach, media, and incident communications efforts.
Before joining DHS, she served at the White House as the assistant director for the Office of Public Engagement.
