On March 6th, 2007, in response to a series of articles in The Washington Post that documented the poor conditions, neglect, and bureaucratic hurdles faced by outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, President Bush authorized the creation of "The President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors," headed by former decorated World War II veteran and Senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

Today, the Dole-Shalala Commission released their draft report, proving to the American public that the Walter Reed fiasco is just the tip of the iceberg. This draft report illustrates the enormous scope of hurdles facing our nation's wounded veterans. Many troops and veterans are forced to wait months and even years for medical appointments and disability pensions. Some veterans forced to wait have committed suicide, while other have fallen deep into debt.

Last week, the Secretary of the VA Jim Nicholson ended an embarrassingly bad tenure by resigning from his post. This week, a group of disabled Iraq veterans are suing the VA for failing to provide them with care and resources. The situation is extremely urgent. Our veterans' healthcare system is facing tremendous challenges at every level and the Department of Defense and the VA are not ready to respond. This report should be a wake-up call for all Americans, reminding them that supporting the troops requires more than empty rhetoric and magnetic bumper stickers.

While the Commission will release its final report next week, a draft is available now and includes the following six major recommendations which should all be implemented as rapidly as possible:

1. Implement Comprehensive Recovery Plans.

2. Restructure Disability and Compensation Systems.

3. Improve Care for People with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

4. Strengthen Support for Families.

5. Transfer Patient Information Across Systems.

6. Support Walter Reed Until Closure in 2011.

The Commission deserves to be commended for their hard work and dedication. But most of these recommendations should have been made in 2003. And too often we see reports like this get brief attention in the media, only to be pushed aside to collect dust on the shelf. Hopefully, the American public will respond with the same urgency that they did after the Walter Reed news first broke earlier this year, and demand that the President respond immediately and implement these recommendations quickly.

I also hope that media will not bury the Commission's critical findings in the back pages of our nation's newspapers, beneath the latest news of Lindsay Lohan's DUI or Beyonce's tumbling down some stairs at a concert, like they did last week with the news of Secretary Nicholson's resignation.

Now, more than ever, there needs to be a clear focus on veterans' care in America. The public outrage following the Walter Reed scandal shined light on the many problems facing wounded troops and veterans. Wednesday, the Dole-Shalala Commission offered their recommendations to resolve these issues. Whether President Bush, the DoD, and the VA can effectively implement these recommendations, however, remains to be seen. IAVA calls on the President and Congress to build on this progress and ensure that these recommendations are enacted quickly. It is the least we can do for our nation's heroes.