Anthony Principi: VA Committed To Meet Emerging Needs Of Veterans
Anthony Principi: VA Committed To Meet Emerging Needs Of Veterans
About
the Author
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi directs the federal government’s second largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of health care services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for America’s veterans and dependents. With a budget of more than $59 billion, VA employs approximately 224,000 people at hundreds of VA medical centers, clinics, benefits offices, and national cemeteries throughout the country.
Mr. Principi was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 29, 2000, and was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, 2001.
A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Principi is a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy. He later commanded a River Patrol Unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Prior to his nomination as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Principi was president of QTC Medical Services, Inc. During the past decade, he was senior vice president at Lockheed Martin IMS, and a partner in the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.
Mr. Principi earned his law degree from Seton Hall University in 1975 and was assigned to the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps in San Diego, Calif. In 1980, he was transferred to Washington as a legislative counsel for the Department of the Navy.
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As we chart the heading of our programs in 2004, I'm confident the Department of Veterans Affairs is on the right course to meet the needs of veterans with the timely service, comprehensive benefits and a world-class health care system.
We start 2004 - as we started 2003 -- without a budget appropriation. The funding delay came as Congress wrangled with controversial issues unrelated to serving our nation's veterans. While that has delayed our hiring of expanded staff, we're still in a strong position due to President Bush's record-high budget requests for VA programs in the past. When the final appropriations bill is passed in January, I expect we will have seen our budget grow by one-third over the last three years -- from $47 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $64 billion this year in FY 2004 -- enabling us to treat 1 million more veterans than we treated in 2000.
We will continue to provide our patients with high-quality care in 2004 while taking in new veterans with service-connected illnesses and those in other statuatory priority groups for health care. We expect to serve an influx of Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans -- more than 6,300 have already come to VA -- as well as veterans returning from the war on terror in Afghanistan.
I have often visited the wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Hospital in Bethesda. I have talked with many of these soldiers and Marines. Their courage is every bit as great as that of their grandfathers who scaled the cliffs of Omaha Beach or their fathers who stood firm during the Tet Offensive.
Caring for the magnificent young men and women who turn to VA for help after their return from battles is an honor and our core mission. I promise them and I promise America that the Department of Veterans Affairs will not be found wanting.
All of America's veterans will benefit from progress made in reducing waiting lists for health care appointments. The number of veterans waiting six months or more has fallen from 310,000 to 41,000. In addition, we have reduced the backlog of claims for our financial benefit programs such as disability compensation from 442,000 to 330,000. Even in the face of court-imposed roadblocks, I'm confident that we will continue to make progress toward our goal of 250,000 claims in our working inventory.
VA enters the new year with a review of its health care infrastructure reaching fruition. We need to ensure our facilities and programs are located where they need to be in light of changing veteran demographics and medical care progress. This review will also take into account past criticism for wasting a million dollars a day to support empty and underutilized buildings. That money will be recouped and turned back to reach more veterans with more outpatient clinics and modern programs closer to their homes.
Many of our facilities were designed for the hospital-centric health care system of the past. To properly care for 21st Century veterans, VA must be able to respond to the revolutionary advances of modern medicine, including improvements in technology, telemedicine, tele-health, digital radiology, drug therapies and other methods of treatment.
As part of this infrastructure review, a $4.6 billion plan to modernize our facilities is now being evaluated by an independent commission I established, and I expect to make a decision on the plan soon. The final plan will provide better access to more modern facilities.
As we look to 2004 and beyond, no task is more pressing than our efforts to enable ill and injured servicemen to resume their lives at the point where they were interrupted when America answered Saddam Hussein's challenge to peace.
I served in Vietnam. My wife was a Navy nurse during the Vietnam War. And two of my sons served in Iraq. I care very deeply and very personally about every man and woman who returns to our shores from combat. I want to assure them that VA will be there for them when they return to civilian life.
With the help of VA's dedicated employees, our partners in the veterans service organizations, concerned members of Congress and our world-class affiliated medical schools, I'm confident that 2004 will be a year of unprecedented service, compassion and healing for our veterans and their families.
-- Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
(Washington, DC)
