Editor: Mark Schone
Updated: Today
Topic:

Barack Obama

Thursday, Apr 12, 2007 11:38 PDT

Why'd you nominate this guy?

Responding to a Salon report, Sen. Barack Obama sends a letter to President Bush questioning his choice for a key VA job, saying the nominee knew of problems at Walter Reed.
One day after Salon's Mark Benjamin revealed the existence of a VA report documenting the complaints of wounded soldiers and their families about conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2004, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wrote to the president about Salon's article. In his letter, Obama discusses his concern about the pending appointment of Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman as undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, because Kussman was chairman of the task force that oversaw the final report. Obama's letter is reproduced in full here.

The Honorable George W. Bush
President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to express my serious concerns over your nomination of Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman to the position of Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to a recent story in the online newsmagazine Salon, Dr. Kussman knew of serious problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as early as 2004.

At the time, Dr. Kussman was co-chair of VA's Seamless Transition Task Force and oversaw a focus group study with wounded servicemembers and their family members. The report that was produced led to the following conclusion: "All of their comments reflect a lack of a clear documented process at Walter Reed for helping OIF/OEF servicemembers transition to VA." The report also stated that servicemembers were "frustrated, confused, sometimes angry" over their experiences at Walter Reed and that soldiers without family support were "depressed and sad and by themselves." And in some cases, according to the report, family members and soldiers felt that they had to apologize for needing help from the Army at Walter Reed.

If the servicemembers' comments in the focus group report were conveyed to top VA leaders as reported by Salon, then the question is why Dr. Kussman did not act more aggressively with the Defense Department to address these serious concerns.

Before the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee considers Dr. Kussman's nomination, I ask that you direct VA Secretary James Nicholson to release all other reports, recommendations, briefings, and actions performed by the Seamless Transition Task Force. Members of the Committee should be able to assess:

    * When VA first obtained this troubling information about bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed;

    * What actions VA leaders took in 2004 to work with the DOD to streamline portions of the bureaucracy and assist servicemembers; and

    * Whether Dr. Kussman and other top leaders at VA could have -- and should have -- intervened earlier and more aggressively to share this information within VA as well as with Defense Department officials in a joint effort to improve care for our returning servicemembers and their families.

Before the Senate proceeds to confirm Dr. Kussman in this new role, we owe due diligence to our recovering servicemembers and veterans to get to the bottom of these serious allegations.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

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