Episode #240 with Mr. Brooks Tucker.

Tonight we are honored to welcome Mr. Brooks Tucker to the show. Brooks was appointed Acting Chief of Staff of the Department of Veterans of Affairs on April 29, 2020. As Acting VA Chief, Mr. Tucker was the senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the federal government’s second-largest Cabinet department, with a budget of more than $218 billion and over 400,000 employees serving in VA medical centers, clinics, benefits offices, and national cemeteries across the country until he left the position on January 21st, 2021.

Mr. Tucker also served as Assistant Secretary for VA’s Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA), overseeing and coordinating the Department’s activities with Members of Congress and committees of jurisdiction

Before arriving at VA, Mr. Tucker served on the Presidential Transition Team working on Veterans’ policy development. From 2010-2015, he served as the Senior Policy Adviser – National Security and Veterans’ Affairs for United States Senator Richard Burr and as Deputy Staff Director for the Republican Staff – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. In 2008, he was selected as one of five U.S. Marine Corps Officers assigned to the United States Senate for duty as a Defense Congressional Fellow in 2009.

Mr. Tucker is a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with over twenty years of Active and Reserve service, including deployments to the Western Pacific, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan and training team missions to Mali and Republic of Georgia. After his initial period of Active service, he was employed by Merrill Lynch in Washington DC before a decade with Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management division in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mr. Tucker is a 1987 graduate of the University of Maryland, a 2006 graduate of Marine Corps Command and Staff College and received a Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University in 2010.

AS you can imagine we have a long list of questions that we hope to get through tonight. We will talk about programs and progress that the VA made over the last four years, along with the new direction they are under-taking and what it looks like the new priorities will be for the VA under the Biden administration. Some of which we are getting a glimpse of thanks to articles like this, federalnewsnetwork.com/veterans-affairs/2021/02/new-va-secretary-digging-in-on-agencys-collective-bargaining-challenges/

Please plan to join us tonight 8:00PM EST on all of our outlets to listen live or come back anytime to watch/listen later.  Find us on Periscope, Twitch, Facebook Live, You Tube or listen on Spreaker ,iTunes, Spotify and iHeartRadio.