Norton to File Bill to Repeal Walter Reed Closure - 3/5/2007

Also Seeks to Halt DestabilizingPrivatization on Bases
March 5, 2007

Washington, DC - After hearing from the full range of witnesses--fromsoldiers and an Army wife to the top brass--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton(D-DC) said that today's hearing at WalterReed Hospital"laid bare an administrative system that is so broken that short and long termremedies must be applied at the same time. Without short term solutions, such as relieving overwhelmed case managersand installing a system of advocates for each veteran, this cohort of injured soldierswill not see the benefits of an improved system." Witnesses testifying todaywere an Army wife; two soldiers in out-patient care at Walter Reed; LieutenantGeneral Kevin C. Kiley, M.D., U.S. Army Surgeon General; Major General GeorgeW. Weightman, the former Commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center; GeneralPeter Schoomaker, Chief of Staff of the Army; General Richard A. Cody, ViceChief of Staff of the Army; and an analyst from the General AccountabilityOffice.

Norton said that she will introducea bill to reverse the closing of the Walter Reed base to help stabilizepersonnel, who scatter once they believe a base will close. She believes that the revelations that arecoming rapidly about both military facilities and veterans' health needs "makeclosing Walter Reed, the premier Army hospital, unthinkable." Norton sharplycriticized Army brass for putting Walter Reed at risk in the middle of a war.Norton cited "the twin pressures of a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)planned for the base at the same time that "the Army chose to conduct anunnecessary, wholesale privatization of every job on the post except medicalpersonnel," including staff charged with the renovation and upkeep of thefacilities, like controversial the Building 18, where rodents and mold werefirst discovered and then reported in aWashington Post series a week ago.

Nortonnever expected that the Administration or Congress would come forward with therequired two or three billion dollars to construct the proposed new Walter Reedin Bethesda in the foreseeable future, given the mounting deficit, and"certainly not in the middle of a war when funds should go to soldiers, theirfamilies, veterans, and the war itself." However, she believes a repeal bill is necessary because, if a BRACclosing remains on the books, it will continue to send a signal to personnelthat the base is to be closed, making retaining and hiring vital personneldifficult, including civilian clinical and medical personnel. "To add insult to injury," Norton said, "theArmy decided to privatize skilled administrative and infrastructure jobs "thatkeep much of the place running." TheCongresswoman asked for a submission of any privatization on-going or plannedat any Army facilities.

Norton said that the testimony"emphatically showed that short term solutions are necessary if soldiers homefrom Iraq and Afghanistanare to obtain any real time benefits from repairs to a system that is so brokenthat it will take years to do the long term fix that the tangled out-patientadministrative system requires. Soldiersand their families have lost confidence in the out-patient care, and immediatesteps must be taken to restore their sense that the system is there forthem." The Oversight and Government ReformCommittee, on which Norton serves, heard testimony of soldiers being leftwithout directions around the Walter Reed campus or even any written guidanceabout the necessary steps they needed to take once they were no longer in thehospital.

Particularly shocking was a graphthat showed "most dramatically the deep harm the bureaucracy inflicts on asoldier," Norton said. He must chooseeither VA or DoD disability benefits, which provide very different levels offinancial benefits and count medical conditions differently. The DoD rates only conditions that show asoldier is unfit for service, while the VA counts all service connectedimpairments. However, "the key to whatis most beneficial to a soldier is buried in a complicated system of manyfactors," Norton said.