{"id":7235,"date":"2026-01-30T17:35:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7235"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:35:43","slug":"va-announces-new-chief-of-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7235","title":{"rendered":"VA announces new chief of staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-01-30T17:35:43+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs today announced the planned departure of Chief of Staff Chris Syrek, who will soon leave VA for a private-sector opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Syrek\u2019s last day with VA will be Feb.13, and he will be succeeded by VA Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Curt Cashour.<\/p>\n<p>Syrek has served as VA chief of staff since Jan. 20, 2025, and he was the lead sherpa throughout VA Secretary Doug Collins\u2019 Senate confirmation process while also leading VA\u2019s presidential transition. He previously was VA\u2019s deputy chief of staff during the first Trump Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Under the leadership of President Trump and Sec. Collins, Syrek helped VA achieve a host of important improvements. Since Jan. 20, 2025, VA has:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cut the backlog of Veterans waiting for VA benefits <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecVetAffairs\/status\/2008911384726102483?s=20\">by 60%<\/a>, after it increased 24% during the Biden Administration.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-eliminates-veteran-family-health-care-backlog\/\">Eliminated the backlog of Veteran families waiting for VA health care<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-processes-more-claims-in-a-single-year-than-ever-before\/\">Processed record numbers of disability claims<\/a>, reaching an all-time fiscal-year high of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecVetAffairs\/status\/1973156491705172423\">three million claims processed Sept. 30<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Opened\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecVetAffairs\/status\/2003159325175337076\">25 new health care clinics<\/a>, expanding access for Veterans around the country.<\/li>\n<li>Offered Veterans more than 1.9 million appointments outside of normal operating hours. These early-morning, evening, and weekend appointments are giving Veterans more timely and convenient options for care.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-houses-largest-number-of-homeless-veterans-in-seven-years\/\">Permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans<\/a>\u00a0across the country in FY25, the highest total in seven years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cChris has been a key part of our leadership team and my most trusted advisor since day one. He\u2019s done an amazing job helping us make the department work better and delivering on President Trump\u2019s promises to those who have worn the uniform,\u201d <strong>said VA Secretary Doug Collins.<\/strong> \u201cWe thank Chris for his dedicated service and wish him the best in his future endeavors. We welcome Curt into his new role and look forward to many more VA improvements under the leadership of President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cashour is in his second tenure at VA, having served as the department\u2019s press secretary and deputy assistant secretary for public affairs during the first Trump Administration. He worked as a media sherpa throughout Collins\u2019 Senate confirmation process and previously led congressional communication efforts in support of landmark VA reform legislation, the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act. He is an Iraq War Veteran and Bronze Star Medal recipient.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-announces-new-chief-of-staff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VA announces planned departure of Chief of Staff Chris Syrek, who will soon leave VA for a private-sector opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-news","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>VA announces new chief of staff - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VA announces planned departure of Chief of Staff Chris Syrek, who will soon leave VA for a private-sector opportunity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7235\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VA announces new chief of staff - 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