Editorial: Questions for VA nominee

Editorial: Questions for VA nominee

The White House’s nomination of retired Lt. Gen. James Peake as the next secretary of Veterans Affairs is an interesting choice.

Peake began his career as an infantryman, was wounded in Vietnam, became a doctor and spent 40 years in uniform before retiring in 2004 after four years as Army surgeon general. If confirmed, he’d be the first retired flag officer, and the first doctor, to serve as VA secretary.


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Next, the committee must press Peake on VA’s health care budget, which the Bush administration has shortchanged over the past seven years. Senators should demand assurances that Peake will be open and forthright about VA’s full budget needs — even if doing so irks his White House bosses.

They also need to know Peake’s views on recent proposals for overhauling the disability evaluation and ratings system. Which have the most merit?

Finally, how would he tackle VA’s growing backlog of 600,000 claims?

The issues facing VA, amid a long war with no end in sight, are too vast and serious for the Senate to treat this nomination with kid-glove formality.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_editorial_peake_071112/