INDIA ABROAD October 20, 2017 30 U.S. AFFAIRS
INDIAABROAD.COM
— WASHINGTON, D.C.
he acting undersecretary
for health for the U.S.
Department of Veterans
Affairs has stepped
down from the Trump
administration, claiming
that her formal nomination for
the senior position was taking
too long.
The White House announced
in the spring that Dr. Poonam
Alaigh was being designated for
the post. In an interview with
India Abroad, she denied that the
timing of her resignation was
linked to a Washington Post
report on Sept. 29 that also
named her as part of a delegation
to Europe led by her boss,
Veterans Affairs Secretary David
Shulkin. The trip was described
as partly a vacation on U.S. taxpayer money, with Shulkin and
his wife Merle Bari fitting in a
Wimbledon championship tennis
match, a Thames cruise and
other tours during the 10-day trip
to London and Copenhagen.
Coming in the wake of the firing of Health and Human
Services Secretary Dr. Tom Price
for a scandal over a nearly $1 million trip paid for by taxpayers,
the Shulkin July junket — ostensibly for meetings with British
and Danish officials to discuss
veterans’ health issues — had
also raised eyebrows and heightened scrutiny. Alaigh’s husband
Raman Alaigh also took the trip
but both she and VA press secretary Curt Cashour said he had
paid for all his expenses.
Shulkin, one of the few Obama
administration holdovers, had
not only survived in the Trump
administration but had been pro-
moted from undersecretary of
veterans affairs to secretary by
President Donald Trump in
February. Alaigh was also an
Obama administration holdover.
She had been brought in as a sen-
ior advisor in September 2015 by
Shulkin, then elevated to acting
undersecretary on May 19 in the
absence of a White House nomi-
nee for this post and several
other unfilled senior positions in
the VA. Questioned by the Post,
Alaigh defended the trip as a
“tremendous and valuable
exchange of ideas” with their
British and Danish counterparts,
but acknowledged, “Were there
some breaks we got? Sure.”
But she told the newspaper,
“They were reasonable. They
were not at the expense of what
we had committed to do: repre-
senting our country and showing
our commitment to veterans.”
In the interview with India
Abroad, Alaigh dismissed the
controversy, saying, “There was
nothing — nothing at all. All we
did was go for a Secretary-
Ministerial Summit. We had lots
of meetings with all the minis-
ters. We had worked on a lot of
the veterans issues, looked at
best practices and we shared
everything, and in our downtime
that we went around.”
She said the downtime activi-
ties were “at our own expenses —
it wasn’t the government that
paid for that. It was in evenings
and in our downtime and so, I
don’t know why this controver-
sy. And, my husband paid for his
own travel — the entirety of his
travel. We all traveled in coach
class and we all traveled with the
minimum of staff. We worked
really hard with the other coun-
tries and the other leaders on
veterans issues. So, I am not sure
how this controversy came
about, but for me, I can’t judge
that.”
She and her husband did not
go to Wimbledon, she said. “It
was the secretary and his wife
who went and it was on the
weekend,” she said.
She said she had decided to
resign in August and withdraw
her name for permanent consid-
eration before the travel issue
came to light. “It was just taking
too long – the nomination
process,” she said. “During the
week, I was living in hotels — I
didn’t even have a
permanent place —
and then on week-
ends I would go
back home to New
Jersey for one or
two days, to be with
the family.” She
said she commuted
in this manner for
two years.
“My resignation
had nothing to do
with the controversy –the announcement of my resignation was on
September 19,” she
said.
In a Sept. 25 email to col-
leagues, she wrote: “For the last
two years, I have been splitting
my time, in D.C. during the week
and back home in New Jersey on
weekends. While I have been
incredibly fulfilled, both profes-
sionally and personally, such a
schedule has proved to be
increasingly demanding on my
family. After much thought and
deliberation, I have made the dif-
ficult decision to step down as
Acting Undersecretary of Health
effective October 7th 2017.”
Alaigh said she
had been a VA
physician for 15
years in New Jersey
and worked with
Shulkin in
Morristown, New
Jersey.
“So when he
moved to D.C. in
July of 2015 to be
undersecretary he
asked me to join
him as his senior
advisor. And when
he became secre-
tary, I became act-
ing undersecretary
and it’s just that we’ve been a
team working together for over
six years now.”
Had she gotten the formal
nomination, Alaigh said, she may
not have resigned. “I don’t know
what I would have done then,
because it also means giving up a
lot,” she said.
T
Obama
holdover
denies link
between
European
trip expenses
and her
departure
Dr. Poonam Alaigh, acting
undersecretary for heath for the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs, has
announced to step down from her
position, as her permanent position
was taking too long.
Nomination Delay Prompts Veterans Affairs Official to Quit
Acting Undersecretary Dr. Poonam Alaigh said permanent position was taking too long
Continued on page 33
By Aroonim Bhuyan
— NEW DELHI
ith Kenneth Juster
being named as the
new U.S. Ambassador
to India, U.S. businesses are
expecting that bilateral com-
mercial ties will grow with him
in that position, according to a
senior office-bearer of a U.S.-
India business body.
“We are very optimistic, we
are grateful that he accepted
the job. It’s maybe the position
that business has with his
appointment because he understands business,” Edward
Monser, Vice-President of the
U.S.-India Strategic Partnership
Forum (USISPF), told IANS in
an interview here.
“We have worked with him
before. He has had relationships with all of us in the executive council of the U.S.-India
Strategic Partnership Forum,”
Monser, who is also the
President and COO of Emerson
Electric and is here for an energy forum, said.
“So, we know him well. We
trust him. Most importantly, he
doesn’t wait for things to
become a problem. He is proac-
tive, he reaches out to both
sides. He makes sure people
understand and he communi-
cates very well.”
Juster succeeds Richard
Verma, who left after Donald
Trump was sworn in as US
President in January this year.
Juster has served as the
Deputy Assistant to
the President for
International
Economic Affairs
under Trump and
was also the Under
Secretary of
Commerce for
Industry and
Security under former President
George W. Bush.
He is expected to take up
office towards the end of this
month or in the beginning of
November.
Stating that most proactive
ambassadors know, understand
and promote business development as well as good diplomatic dialogue, Monser said that
“India and the U.S. will get
along better if our commercial
relationships are stronger”.
He is of the view that there is
now an opportunity to balance
trade between India and the
U.S. “The dialogue around how
to balance it and where there
are opportunities to balance the
trade I think are productive,”
he stated. “The new ambassa-
dor will be able to help with
that.”
Monser said that the areas of
advanced agriculture,
defense and energy
“are really good oppor-
tunities to close the
gap.”
“By closing the trade
gap I think you will see
benefit more clearly on
both sides.”
Combined India-U.S.
trade stands at $124
billion but Monser is of
the view that “we can realize
the potential and go to $500
billion.”
“We see a path there that
could be shared and benefit
India and benefit the U.S.,” he
said.
“I think that’s why our lead-
ers get along so well because
they can see it too. They can
see the real opportunities. So,
we want to stay focused on
growing the trade between the
two countries, growing the
investments between the two
countries and encouraging the
investment both ways.”
On the role of the newly-
formed USISPF, he said that the
“old structure” kept businesses
from both sides from going to
the new business models that
are most important.
“So the best thing to do was
to start all over again. Start
anew, again with very experienced people, people that have
solved problems in the U.S. and
India for some time,” Monser
said.
He also appreciated new
Indian initiatives like Digital
India and Skill India.
“I think we will always have
a challenge to make sure that
we have the number of engineers and scientists we need,”
Monser said.
“But that’s not the major
issue. The bulk of the popula-
tion, more than 50 percent of
the jobs are what I would call
technical for which you don’t
need an engineering degree but
you have to have training and
knowledge to work in a digital
economy.”
— IANS
U.S. Businesses Betting Big on New Envoy to India
Areas of advanced agriculture, defense and energy “are really good opportunities”
W
Kenneth Juster
