Nominee Cheryl Mason Faces Questions Over Independence, Oversight Role as VA Inspector General

Cheryl Mason, the White House nominee for inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs, faced sustained questioning on her independence on May 21 before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, where she pledged to ‘‘follow the law’’ if confirmed and promised to pursue open Office of Inspector General recommendations and investigations.

Mason told the committee she would use IG authority provided by law to conduct oversight and to follow up on more than 500 open, unimplemented OIG recommendations. She said her first priorities would be assessing the OIG office’s operations and its current investigations, and ‘‘find[ing] out what their current investigations are, see where they are in those investigations,’’ if confirmed.

Senators of both parties pressed Mason on whether her recent role as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Collins would impair the IG’s required nonpartisan, independent posture. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D) said an IG must be ‘‘completely nonpartisan and independent’’ and noted that confirming a political appointee who had advised the secretary raised ‘‘tremendous pause.’’…