If the Senate confirms Kurt DelBene to be the new assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs in the next few months, he will inherit an IT budget of more than $9 billion, parts of the struggling electronic health records modernization program and a brand new cybersecurity strategy.
President Joe Biden announced Nov. 3 that he plans to nominate DelBene to the role.
DelBene, who would come to VA after spending most of his career in the private sector with Microsoft and McKinsey & Company, isn’t a stranger to major transformations. He spent time on the Obama administration’s healthcare.gov SWAT team in 2013 and 2014.
Being the VA CIO, however, isn’t swooping in to fix some problems and then leaving. He would join a growing list of politically-appointed CIOs who are trying to make progress against long-standing challenges.
Since 2009, VA has had more acting CIOs than permanent ones. After the Senate confirmed Roger Baker in 2009, VA has had only two other permanent CIOs: LaVerne Council and James Grfrerer. The average tenure of…
