Washington – The co-chairmen of a new bipartisan presidential commission charged with looking into the care of wounded service members vowed Wednesday to conduct a comprehensive and vigorous investigation, possibly leading to recommendations that could change the system for decades.
Former Sen. Bob Dole, a Republican from Kansas who was seriously wounded in World War II, and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a Democrat who served eight years in the Clinton administration, told reporters after a meeting at the White House that President Bush wants them to look at the entire military care system following revelations of shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Bush on Wednesday named Dole and Shalala to head the commission, which he formed in response to a growing outcry over the care of wounded outpatient soldiers.
Demands for corrective action arose among the public and in Congress after The Washington Post last month exposed squalid living conditions in a decrepit Army-owned building just outside Walter Reed and highlighted bureaucratic obstacles and delays in the outpatient treatment of soldiers who suffered serious injuries, including brain trauma, in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This is going to be comprehensive; it’s going to be vigorous,” Shalala said as she and Dole stood outside the White House after their meeting with Bush. “And neither one of us are afraid of talking to the brass, whether it’s the president of the United States or a general.”
Bush said after the Oval Office meeting, “I am concerned that our soldiers and their families are not getting the treatment that they deserve, having volunteered to defend our country.”
The rest of the commission members are to be named this week, the White House said Tuesday.
Dole said Bush made it clear that “he was going to be personally involved in this commission … and he thought if we came up with good recommendations it could change the system for the next 30 years.”
Dole, 83, and Shalala, 66, said they would start by talking to military patients and their families.
