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http://www.newsmax.com/us/bush_wounded_veterans/2007/10/16/41451.html
Bush Asks Congress to Help Fix VA System
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush pushed Congress on Tuesday to help modernize
the government's inefficient system that cares for wounded veterans of war.
The president said his administration had implemented most recommendations
made in July by the bipartisan Commission on Care for America's Returning
Wounded Warriors, and now it was Congress' turn to finish the job.
Bush sent legislation to Capitol Hill for implementing those recommendations
that require legislative action.
"Medical advances have enabled battlefield medics and hospitals to provide
our wounded warriors with care that would have been unimaginable just a
decade ago," Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden with wounded troops,
including two that rode in on Segways.
"Yet our system for managing this care has fallen behind. It's an old
system. It's an antiquated system. It's an outdated system that needs to be
changed."
Bush set up the commission after shoddy outpatient treatment was uncovered
in February at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington that
prompted public outcry for improvements.
Bush said the legislation will streamline the way disabilities are evaluated
and compensation is awarded to injured service members.
"Right now the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both have their
own systems for making these determinations," Bush said. "The commission
found that this process is difficult to navigate and confusing for service
members and their families."
He said the legislation also proposes to emphasize rehabilitation and
retraining; improve treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder; provide
new support and financial incentives for therapy and education; and
strengthen support for families during the recovery process.
Former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and
Human Services during the Clinton administration, jointly led the
nine-member presidential commission. In an op-ed published Tuesday in The
Washington Post, they expressed concern that their commission's
recommendations were being swept up "into a decades-long battle" to reform
the entire disability system for all service members.
At the White House, Dole acknowledged that some people claim the commission
should have worked to reform the whole system. But he said the commission's
charge from the president was to limit its review to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It is time to decide _ do we reform the current military and veterans'
disability evaluation and compensation systems or limp along, playing
Band-Aids over existing flaws?" the op-ed asked.
Shalala placed the issue squarely in lawmakers' hands.
"The message has to get out," Shalala said. "Everyone that's frustrated,
tell your member of Congress to get this legislation passed."
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America, said he was pleased that the recommendations were being
implemented, but said two urgent issues still need to be addressed. He said
the VA appropriations budget has not yet been approved by Congress and the
president needs to pick a successor for former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson,
who stepped down Oct. 1.
Bush Asks Congress to Help Fix VA System
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush pushed Congress on Tuesday to help modernize
the government's inefficient system that cares for wounded veterans of war.
The president said his administration had implemented most recommendations
made in July by the bipartisan Commission on Care for America's Returning
Wounded Warriors, and now it was Congress' turn to finish the job.
Bush sent legislation to Capitol Hill for implementing those recommendations
that require legislative action.
"Medical advances have enabled battlefield medics and hospitals to provide
our wounded warriors with care that would have been unimaginable just a
decade ago," Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden with wounded troops,
including two that rode in on Segways.
"Yet our system for managing this care has fallen behind. It's an old
system. It's an antiquated system. It's an outdated system that needs to be
changed."
Bush set up the commission after shoddy outpatient treatment was uncovered
in February at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington that
prompted public outcry for improvements.
Bush said the legislation will streamline the way disabilities are evaluated
and compensation is awarded to injured service members.
"Right now the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both have their
own systems for making these determinations," Bush said. "The commission
found that this process is difficult to navigate and confusing for service
members and their families."
He said the legislation also proposes to emphasize rehabilitation and
retraining; improve treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder; provide
new support and financial incentives for therapy and education; and
strengthen support for families during the recovery process.
Former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and
Human Services during the Clinton administration, jointly led the
nine-member presidential commission. In an op-ed published Tuesday in The
Washington Post, they expressed concern that their commission's
recommendations were being swept up "into a decades-long battle" to reform
the entire disability system for all service members.
At the White House, Dole acknowledged that some people claim the commission
should have worked to reform the whole system. But he said the commission's
charge from the president was to limit its review to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It is time to decide _ do we reform the current military and veterans'
disability evaluation and compensation systems or limp along, playing
Band-Aids over existing flaws?" the op-ed asked.
Shalala placed the issue squarely in lawmakers' hands.
"The message has to get out," Shalala said. "Everyone that's frustrated,
tell your member of Congress to get this legislation passed."
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America, said he was pleased that the recommendations were being
implemented, but said two urgent issues still need to be addressed. He said
the VA appropriations budget has not yet been approved by Congress and the
president needs to pick a successor for former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson,
who stepped down Oct. 1.
