Senators ready to grill VA nominee

[unhappycamper]

Senators ready to grill VA nominee
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 4, 2007 17:01:02 EST

On the eve of a Senate confirmation hearing for a new secretary of veterans affairs, two key lawmakers warn they want to be convinced that the Bush administration’s pick for the job is going to fight for veterans.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake has “an impressive resume,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., but what she really wants to know is whether Peake will “show us he has the courage and honesty to take on this administration and stand up for veterans.”

Murray sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that will question Peake Wednesday. She’s also a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, and one of the Democrats’ leading voices on veterans’ issues.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., another veterans’ committee member, said he wants Peake to explain, in particular, how VA is preparing for the long-term cost of treating Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

“It is wrong for any veteran in this country to walk into the VA and be put on a waiting list,” Sanders said, noting that the VA had problems serving the veterans’ population even before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The situation has only become “more desperate” since the war in Iraq began, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_peakehearing_preview_071204w/



uhc comment: Here is an Army Times editorial on Peake --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=6651