Bush orders single disability rating system - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Bush orders single disability rating system

President Bush has ordered the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to carry out key recommendations from an interagency task force, including developing a common disability rating system that would make it easier for injured combat veterans to receive benefits.

In a statement Tuesday, Bush said he has given Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson 45 days to report back on how the task force recommendations can be implemented.

The report also recommends the screening of all Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans for possible traumatic brain injuries, better coordination between the VA and Defense Department for patients being transferred between the agencies and better treatment options for veterans in remote areas far from government facilities. The task force also recommended improvements in separation counseling, especially for National Guard and reserve members, and expanded programs to help veterans find post-service employment.

Formed in the wake of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal over the treatment of outpatient combat veterans, the interagency group was charged with finding low- or no-cost ways to improve federal programs that would not require congressional action. Two other government commissions are looking at the same problems — without the cost and jurisdictional restrictions — and Congress is working on its own ideas, including putting more money into the 2007 emergency supplemental appropriations bill to improve health care and disability claims processing for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the former chairman and now senior Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he hopes the Defense Department moves on some of the task force’s recommendations involving the transition from active-duty to veteran status.

“For a decade, VA has worked to ensure seamless transition, usually without commensurate efforts by the Pentagon,” Buyer said. “We need look no further than stonewalling from DoD’s personnel and readiness bureaucracy for the failures of seamless transition: incomplete electronic health records, lack of an electronic DD-214 and duplicative DoD and VA medical exams.”

Buyer said he hopes that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “exerts a sense of accountability for the total welfare of troops transitioning into the VA system; DoD must no longer foist its responsibilities onto VA.”

“I applaud the task force’s work and the earnest faith VA Secretary Jim Nicholson places in their report,” Buyer said, but added that a report isn’t the same as progress.

“When we see federal agencies — principally the Pentagon and VA — working hand-in-glove for the benefit of veterans, then we can talk about real progress,” he said.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the current House veterans’ committee chairman, had no immediate reaction to the task force report, but aides said the committee would hold a hearing soon to look at the recommendations in detail.

The House of Representatives on March 29 passed a comprehensive bill to improve care and benefits and try to smooth bumps in the transition to veterans’ status, but the bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate. Aides said instead of passing a separate bill, Senate leaders are planning to include their ideas for improving the treatment of combat veterans in the 2008 defense authorization bill, which the Senate Armed Services Committee will start writing later this month.

A House Republican aide, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to appear critical of the Bush plan, said he was unimpressed with the interagency task force report, calling the recommendations “uninspiring” and “nothing we haven’t heard before.”

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the former chairman and now senior Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said tackling the disability ratings system is a daunting but important issue.

“This one action to unify the disability rating process will help cut the red tape for injured service members, and that should lead to an improved benefits delivery system,” Craig said. “I believe this will be a major step forward for future generations of military personnel.”