Scott Brown Meets with Donald Trump About Cabinet Post

President-elect Donald Trump met Monday with former Scott Brown, reportedly discussing the possibility putting the former Massachusetts Senator in charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We obviously spoke about my passion and his passion, which [is] veterans and veterans issues,” Brown told reporters after the meeting, according to Politico. “You know, obviously I think the toughest job in the Cabinet is to lead the VA, because while it has so many angels working there, it has so many great problems as well. He is going to obviously take my application, interest under consideration.”

Brown served 35 years in the Army National Guard, rising to the rank of colonel.

Brown, a Republican, won a Senate race in Massachusetts in 2010. He lost his seat in 2012 to Elizabeth Warren. He also ran unsuccessfully in New Hampshire in 2014. Brown served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1998-2004 and in the State Senate from 2004 to 2010.

“He said he’s making his highest recommendation to his committee that they consider me,” Brown told the Boston Globe on Friday.

The VA oversees health care and benefits for veterans and their dependents, as well as memorials and veterans cemeteries, and a $182 billion budget. It operates 144 hospitals, 300 veterans centers, and 1,221 outpatient facilities around the country.

Almost 6 million people, about one-third of the nation's military veterans, used VA services last year, according to the federal government.

In recent years, the VA has come under intense scrutiny for investigative reports that revealed VA hospitals used phony wait lists to hide the fact that war veterans were waiting years to receive mental-health counseling. Subsequently, whistleblowers who exposed this practice claimed VA officials retaliated against them. The wait lists were discovered at several hospitals around the country.

Brown is not the only former Massachusetts politician who's been connected to the future Trump Administration. Former Gov. Mitt Romney is reportedly in talks to succeed former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry as the secretary of state.

Brown is a graduate of Wakefield High School, Tufts, and Boston College Law School. He was also selectman and a state Senator from Wrentham.

Image: Public Domain

Dan Libon contributed to this report.