President Bush plans to appoint former Sen. Bob Dole, a World War II veteran, and former Clinton Administration Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to co-chair the new President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors—the commission spawned by recent revelations of substandard support at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The commission’s charter extends beyond Walter Reed to the entire spectrum of services and care provided to wounded troops as they are returned to military service or to civilian life. Bush also announced Monday that he directed VA head James Nicholson to for a separate task force to examine existing federal services for returning war on terror servicemembers and make recommendations to fill any “gaps.”
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
