Denis McDonough
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Denis Richard McDonough was born in December 1969 in Stillwater, Minnesota. He earned an undergraduate degree in history and Spanish from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and later earned an M.S.F.S. degree at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
He worked as an aide for the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, focusing on Latin America which he had traveled through extensively. He then served as a senior policy advisor to a member of the Senate, later becoming legislative director for another senator.
He served as a senior foreign policy advisor to President Barack Obama and later joined the National Security Council as head of strategic communication. He also served as National Security Council chief of staff.
Returning to private life he joined a nonprofit foundation and was later a professor at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and a visiting senior fellow in Georgetown’s Technology and International Affairs Program.
He was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in in February 2021.
McDonough is married to Karin Hillstrom and they have three children.
In the News…
Secretary Denis McDonough pushed back against the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act that would expand community services for aging and disabled veterans. The measure would cost $1.7 billion.
Secretary McDonough stated, “I have concerns about new programs that don’t come with new money.”
The VA secretary continued, “There are a lot of provisions in the bill and none of them come with new funding. And I’ve discussed a lot about making sure that we’re meeting all the demands for VA in the context of the budget agreement – and it’s a very generous budget agreement.”
“Either [the VA] purchases the care for the veteran in the community, or we ensure that the VA has all the capacity in-house to provide that care,” he said. “That gets more difficult as more veterans are referred.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Secretary McDonough? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Denis McDonough, Secretary
Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Ave NW
Washington, DC 20006
