EDITORIAL: Sam Brown is a fine selection to serve in the VA

President Donald Trump is feuding with Senate Democrats as they obstruct confirmation votes on dozens of White House nominees for various administration positions. A deal to speed up the process has been elusive.

Republicans have used similar tactics to slow-walk nominees from Democratic presidents, as the process — like most political discourse — has become more contentious in recent years. In general, presidents of either party should be given leeway to select those who will serve and advise them.

The president demands that Senate Republicans ram through a rule change to speed up confirmation votes. But both sides must realize the long-term consequences. Many Democrats still regret the late Sen. Harry Reid’s decision to invoke the “nuclear option” to speed the confirmation of Barack Obama’s federal judicial nominees, which later made it possible for Mr. Trump to add scores of constitutionalist jurists to the judiciary.

Despite the controversy, one nominee did make it through the Senate last week. Sam Brown, a Nevada Republican who lost a tight race against Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in her 2024 re-election bid, was confirmed as undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Memorial Affairs by a 54-44 vote. Notably, Nevada’s two U.S. senators — Sen. Rosen and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto — broke ranks with their Democratic colleagues to support Mr. Brown. Good for them.

Mr. Brown, who has lived in Reno since 2018, ran an honorable campaign last fall in his attempt to unseat Sen. Rosen. He is a West Point graduate and a decorated combat veteran who wears the scars of war suffered during an IED explosion in 2008. After his retirement in 2012, Mr. Brown founded Palisade Strategies to help veterans obtain medications that they couldn’t acquire through the VA. He also founded the Nevada Faith and Freedom Coalition in 2022.

Mr. Brown takes over one of the “five most senior leadership posts at the VA,” the Military Times reports. His duties include “overseeing maintenance and operations at 155 national cemeteries in 42 states as well as commemorative sites in other locations.”

During a committee hearing on his confirmation, Mr. Brown described his harrowing ordeal and vowed a deep commitment to those who serve. “That message of hope that I received on the battlefield is one that the National Cemetery Administration delivers every day to the family and loved ones who are left wondering if they can go on with their lives after losing a cherished person who served this country. When that day arrives, the National Cemetery Administration is there to tell these family members and loved ones, ‘We’ve got you.’ ”

Mr. Brown has the humility and background to succeed in his new role. He is an excellent addition to the Trump administration.