Trump withdraws VA CIO nominee amid plans to shrink IT workforce

President Donald Trump is withdrawing his pick to lead IT operations at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This comes as the VA is shrinking its tech workforce and redirecting a portion of its technology budget to cover its other costs.

Trump picked Ryan Cote to serve as VA’s assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer. He submitted Cote’s nomination to the Senate VA Committee on June 30, but withdrew his name from consideration on July 17.

Cote previously served as CIO of the Transportation Department under the first Trump administration.

A congressional staffer told Federal News Network that Cote’s nomination ran into problems after it came to light during the vetting process that he contributed to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) most recent reelection campaign.

Federal Election Commission data shows Cote donated $1,000 to McConnell’s Senate reelection campaign in December 2019. Cote also donated $1,000 to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.

McConnell has raised concerns about some of the Trump administration’s policy goals. He cast a procedural vote against recently passed legislation that will rescind about $9 billion in fund previously approved by Congress.

McConnell ultimately voted in favor of the rescissions package on the Senate floor last week.

“I want to make it clear: I don’t have any problem with reducing spending. We’re talking about not knowing,” McConnell told reporters on July 16, according to NBC News. “They would like a blank check. And I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think they ought to make the case.”

Federal News Network has reached out to Cote for comment. The VA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The White House withdrew Cote’s nomination the same week that House lawmakers held a subcommittee hearing on VA’s IT priorities.

Technology Modernization Subcommittee Chairman Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) said in a hearing last week that, “I am looking forward to working with the president’s nominee for VA CIO, Mr. Ryan Cote, after he is confirmed by my Senate colleagues.”

“OIT has an important mission and the work that OIT is doing today, as well as the work that Mr. Cote will do, has a direct and meaningful impact on veterans’ lives,” Barrett said at the July 14 subcommittee hearing.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) called on the Senate to confirm a permanent VA CIO “soon.”

“I hope that whoever the administration chooses, they are competent and qualified to lead one of the largest information and technology programs in the country, if not the world. VA employees and veterans deserve nothing less,” Budzinski said.

Eddie Pool, the VA’s acting assistant secretary for information and technology and CIO, said VA OIT has repurposed more than $89 million of its budget to pay for other department priorities and is planning to shift another $100 million as part of this “strategic reinvestment.”

“We are executing a bold mission-first approach, so every dollar delivers maximum value to our nation’s veterans,” Pool said at the July 14 subcommittee hearing.

The VA, as part of its fiscal 2026 budget plan, is asking Congress for more flexibility in how it spends appropriated funds. Pool said VA OIT is requesting changes in appropriation language to eliminate “rigid statutory subaccounts” and authorize a three-year availability for IT funds.

“This will empower VA to plan and execute with greater agility, align investments with outcomes and minimize procurement risk and operational delays,” he told lawmakers.

The VA’s fiscal 2026 budget request would spend $7.3 billion on IT systems, a nearly $300 million decrease from current spending levels. The budget request would also pause the procurement of new IT systems until VA can conduct a full review of them.

Nearly 1,200 employees within the VA’s Office of Information and Technology have accepted voluntary separation incentives and will leave the department at the end of this year. Those departures will result in a nearly 12% cut to the VA’s IT workforce.

The VA is shrinking its IT workforce through attrition. Devon Beard, the acting deputy CIO for people science and VA OIT’s chief people officer, said 1,172 VA OIT employees took the deferred resignation offer or were approved for voluntary early retirement.

VA OIT currently has 8,205 employees. Pool said it’s “highly unlikely” that VA OIT would need to rehire any of the employees who left through DRP or VERA.

“I don’t anticipate that being a contingency we’d have to exercise,” he said.

VA exit interview data shows that 66% of departing IT specialists would recommend working for the VA again. About 200 IT employees responded to the latest exit survey.

Pool said VA OIT, as part of its reorganization, will reallocate positions to “critical IT functions” and will roll out more automation tools to make its workforce more productive.

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